A New Guide To Improve Insurance Agency Process

The Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America announced it has issued a new “Best Practices Guide to Agency Business Processes and Information Management” to help agencies free up staff time for sales and customer service.

Alexandria, Va.-based IIABA said the new issue replaces two earlier guides and incorporates the latest in agency workflows, such as Rea-Time.

The organization said that like earlier guides, it is a collaboration between the IIABA Agents Council for Technology (ACT) and Council for Best Practices working with agency workflow consultant Laura Nettles of Nettles Consulting Network in Atlanta.

ACT Chair Angelyn Treutel, vice president of Treutel Insurance Agency in Bay Saint Louis, Miss., said her agency used the guide when it was first developed, “and we recognized tremendous improvement in our agency processes. The guide contains a wealth of practical information and model workflows that agencies can use to continue to improve their operations.”

The 155-page guide is available at www.independentagent.com/act and is designed to be used electronically because it contains numerous links for easy navigation, IIABA said.

It was explained that the guide enables agencies to conduct a self-assessment in technology, management support, workflows, agency/carrier interfaces, Real-Time utilization and client focus, and then provides step-by step guidance on how to move to the next level of agency workflow.

IIABA said it also provides steps to implement a comprehensive information storage plan for all forms of media and documentation, including paper, scanned documents, e-mails, voice mails, notes, faxes and pictures.

Susan Leslie, chair of the Council for Best Practices, who is president of Bragdon Insurance in York Village, Maine, said: “We are thrilled to make this invaluable guide available to independent agents across the country as a member service. We deeply appreciate the opportunity to work with Laura Nettles on this guide given that she has spent her entire career helping agencies improve their business processes.”

Numerous agents and carrier representatives participating in ACT and the Council for Best Practices, including several Best Practices agencies, also contributed expertise to help produce the guide, IIABA said.

Its contents, said IIABA, outline detailed, practical information for agency improvement, including detailed property-casualty and benefits workflows and a quick reference guide for categorizing and retrieving electronic documents.

Ms. Nettles said she was “delighted to contribute my expertise and experience to this industry effort that involved so many talented agents and carrier representatives.”

She added that she is seeing agencies today “that have achieved a true client environment where their focus is strongly external–on the client–because they have been able to free up their staff to take on more value-added roles by automating processing and eliminating paper wherever possible.”

“These agents are more efficient, have stronger client relationships, have more time for sales and have enhanced their profitability,” she added.

Established in 1999 by IIABA, ACT provides a forum for agent and industry associations, user groups, companies and vendors to address critical technology and workflow issues facing the independent agency system and provides agencies with reports and tools to assist them in making improvements in their businesses.