New AI-driven technology helps brokers overcome inefficiencies
Here's what insurance organizations need to consider when adopting new tech to improve business processes.
Insurance brokers catching wind of the newest technology trends around automation and artificial intelligence (AI) may see new digitalized insurance platforms as a threat. But they should recognize the opportunity of this new technology to power a new generation of tools that will not replace brokers but instead will support them in taking their business to the next level.
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As the intermediary between businesses seeking insurance coverage and insurance carriers— insurance brokers are the keepers of the relationships. Being a trusted advisor, helping businesses navigate the complexities of the insurance market, and making informed decisions is what makes them invaluable. So connecting with clients and carriers is where they should be spending their time — not mired in mundane administrative tasks. But that’s where many of them get stuck, navigating between multiple systems, manually entering data over and over, or tracking information in spreadsheets.
Understandably, change can be nerve-wracking and scary. But change is important, and it holds the opportunity to focus time and attention to what matters most: delivering exceptional client service and coverage.
Insurance brokers face success roadblocks
Insurance brokers who rely on manual processes and paper-based systems are hindering their productivity and limiting their ability to grow their business. They get mired in small details of the business instead of doing what they do best, building relationships with clients and keeping up with new solutions, carrier risk appetites, and underwriting contracts that can move their business forward. Many small, but important, details and years’ worth of information which could greatly benefit the entire team’s success, are never passed on in a productive way.
Some of the challenges holding brokers back (and the challenges they can easily overcome with the help of new technology) includes:
- Manual Data Entry: Brokers often manually enter data from multiple sources into their various communication and tracking vehicles, including emails, excel spreadsheets and stagnant databases that are hard to keep updated. This practice is both time-consuming and error prone.
- Inefficient Communication: Communication between brokers, customers, and carriers can be inefficient, leading to delays, misunderstandings, and missed opportunities. The prevailing communication practices leave brokers cutting and pasting communications multiple times or using the impersonal blind copy emails and expending too much valuable time and energy on something easily automated.
- Lack of Personalization: Brokers may struggle to provide personalized service to their customers in a time-efficient way due to limited data insights and time-consuming manual processes.
- Limited Access to Markets: Brokers may have limited access to markets, which can hinder their ability to offer competitive rates and coverage options to their customers. Brokers struggle to stay up to speed with the dynamic nature of the insurance marketplace, with its rapidly changing solutions, carrier risk appetites and underwriting contacts. They have made do with limited tools and have had to rely on personal knowledge built over time.
- Too Many Point Solutions Create More Work and Complexity: While some brokers have been able to utilize software systems that provide efficiency, they usually only address a single step of the process, so they have to go in and out of multiple systems and still do many manual and repetitive tasks.
How technology can help insurance brokers
New AI-based productivity tools can help insurance brokers overcome their most prevalent pain points by automating manual processes, providing data insights, and enhancing communication. For example, AI now helps fuel a dynamic market directory that maintains and updates this history of appetite and contact points. This can be an essential tool that gives brokers greater access to the right solutions and markets. Having a system that captures carrier appetite, broker input on carriers’ strengths and weaknesses, and AI-informed carrier recommendations makes the difference in helping brokers find the right solutions the first time they look for them, ensures the time they spent at work is productive and allows them to get more done.
The automation of certain repetitive tasks can also enable instant and personalized communication with customers and carriers, improving the overall customer experience and supporting the broker in building stronger relationships. There are new systems that efficiently build program layers, including client proposals and binding documents that are critical to a successful placement process. AI-powered analytics tools can provide data insights that brokers can use to personalize their services and improve their decision-making processes.
In addition, while remote working environments have brought more flexibility, they also make collaboration and tapping into the strength of the greater team more difficult. Having a system that enables brokers to leverage the collective knowledge of the team is critical to identifying the right solutions and markets for the client. That collective shared market intelligence can be created by having the right technology in place that enables efficient file sharing, market appetite guidance, market contacts and real time artificial intelligence enabled feedback on carrier appetite and quote / bind experience.
Must have features to seek in a technology platform
- Automation that eliminates the need for manual data entry, reducing risk of errors
- Dedicated workflows to better build shared and layered programs.
- A universal inbox for all customer communications, so teams can escape endless email chains.
- Customized templates that make it simple to create advanced client reports and proposals.
- AI-driven market intelligence that helps teams find the right markets for every deal.
- Detailed reporting on carrier risk appetite.
- Team-wide collaboration tools that capture and share institutional knowledge.
- A user-friendly interface that requires minimal training.
- A platform that easily integrates with existing agency systems.
- Cloud-based, so teams can get work done from anywhere.
- A platform that spans a breadth of insurance coverage lines and products and can support the entire broker team and book of business.
- Connects to an ecosystem that links together multiple stakeholders.
Technology changes the growth game
To manage and build their business, insurance brokers must stay up to date with emerging trends and technologies, focus on customer experience, and maintain strong relationships with carriers. They must embrace digitalization and leverage technology to automate processes, enhance communication, and provide personalized service to their customers. This helps them optimize their customers’ experience and provide excellent service, personalized solutions, and quick response times.
The right technology offers one system that can automate manual processes, provide greater efficiency and productivity, enable team collaboration, help brokers manage the placement process, and provide key insights, so brokers can overcome some of the greatest barriers to success that they face today and focus on building stronger relationships with carriers and customers and simply broker better.
Sivan Iram is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Capitola, productivity and market intelligence platform transforms how broker teams work.
These opinions are the author’s own.
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