An agency management system is the largest technology expense for virtually any agency regardless of the particular vendor or platform. When these systems are well managed, they help your agency maximize internal productivity and provide a better customer experience.

The following are some of what I've found to be the most commonly underutilized functions in an agency management system.

Proposals and Templates

For those systems that have an integrated proposal and template capability often an agency staff doesn't fully take advantage of the merge functions. For example, the “mail merge” function allows you to automatically insert common boilerplate language into standard correspondence. You also can generate proposals that include policy information merged from the client's record.

When merge templates are not well defined your staff has to take the time to edit and change the merged document. A lot of time is wasted by individuals editing single letters or proposals. This is especially problematic when proposals are created from your agency management system. How many times have you had to completely redo a proposal because the merged document was not correct?

Carrier Marketing

Many agency management systems have a module that tracks the account submissions made to insurance companies. Tracking carrier-specific information about the submissions you've made provides agency management with valuable information that you can use to enhance your relationship with each carrier you represent. The type of information tracked can include: the number of submissions, the number of declines to quote, how many submissions were quoted but not sold by the agency, and the accounts quoted and sold by the agency. Insurance companies track this information about agencies. You should too.

Ensure Accurate Data

Agency management systems provide places (fields) to store a tremendous amount of information about clients and prospects. I audit agency system databases and find that many agencies don't have quality data. Incomplete or inaccurate data impacts agency productivity. If the basic information within the agency database is not accurate and consistent then any reports generated from the bad data will not be useful.

Reports

Many agencies continue to use the standard reports included with their management systems. You should explore additional reports that might be available to help you better manage your agency. One example is monthly production. Agencies often use some other means (like an Excel spreadsheet) to track new business and monthly commissions. You should be able to pull this information directly from your management system and eliminate the redundant data entry. Many reports can now be exported from the management system directly into spreadsheets for specific analysis.

Many systems now provide report-writing functionality that allows you to more easily create custom reports.

Special Reports /

Most Underutilized AMS Functions

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