By now we all know that the best way to prevent an errors andomissions claim is to offer clients more insurance. Sellingmultiple policies to a client is a win-win proposition. When theclient buys an additional product, the agent's income and retentionincrease, and the client is better protected against loss. On theother hand, if the client chooses not to buy the product, the agentstill has acted professionally to help the client manage his or herrisk. In either case, the agent reduces the odds that the clientswill experience an uncovered loss-or that the agent will face anE&O claim because of it.

At a recent E&O continuing education seminar, an instructorasked how many of the participants' agencies conduct annualcoverage reviews for their customers. Only one person raised hishand. The instructor repeated the question in case the studentswere still not fully awake despite their midmorning coffee break.The response was the same. Several participants explained that theydidn't have time to conduct coverage reviews because of the hardmarket and all of the daily customer-service activities required ofthem. They also noted that attending the E&O seminar took themaway from their respective offices, causing them to fall behindeven further!

By using technology effectively, agents can make more time forvalue-added functions, such as client coverage reviews, andeliminate less profitable activities, such as processingdirect-bill policy premiums at their offices. (In a future column,I'll tell you how to better deal with direct-bill payments.)

Several simple steps can help your agency eliminate redundantkeyboarding, filing and searching for misplaced documents. First,for commonly used letters, create a template that can be customizedby changing only a sentence or two. An agency we purchased twoyears ago had an agency management system, yet employees continuedto re-key standard letters because nobody had created lettertemplates. Don't fall into the same trap. Also, gather up all theforms your agency regularly completes, scan them and convert themto fillable forms using OmniForm or a similar product.

Second, wherever possible, convert information to digitalformats. Decide which documents to retain, scan them and save themto the most logical location. Those used by everyone in the agencyshould be placed on the file server for easy access. Likewise, makesure that any information regarding client contacts, new business,claims, renewals, etc. is readily available in the agencymanagement system.

Such simple steps may help agency staff find time to completeannual coverage reviews-for every policy, for every client. Doesthat sound like an impossible dream? Let's go back to the E&Oseminar. The person who raised his hand in response to the questionabout coverage reviews works in our agency. We have conductedannual risk-management reviews for every policy for over 15 years.We consider it part of the minimum service a client should expect.It also can become part of an agency's branding strategy because itidentifies quantifiable added value. On several occasions, whenclients experienced losses for which they had no coverage, weaverted potential E&O claims by proving we had recommended theappropriate coverage and the client had declined it.

For years, the Reagan & Associates Best Practices study hasindicated that top-performing agencies effectively use technology.When we're able to recommend improved coverage to clients and theyaccept it, we improve the return on our technology investment,thereby creating more funds to re-invest in technology or otheragency resources. The better we do today, the more we can do in thefuture! With about 35% of the national personal-lines market share,independent agents have a tremendous potential for growth,especially if they create distinctive value. So think about yourtechnology implementation as an important E&O loss-preventiontool, as well as a sales tool. If we use technology to create valuefor our customers, the term “Trusted Choice” will become not only aslogan, but a brand conveying real value to clients of independentagencies.