Insurance companies rely on agents for most of their revenue, agents are an essential industry asset. But when the insurance companies moved to offer Web services, agents were left out in the cold, and had to fend for themselves online. It’s counterintuitive for sure, but it can be explained when we examine industry-specific concerns. Of central importance is the challenge of distributing corporate governance and compliance standards to remote team members.
If you’re an insurance agent, you already know how challenging it is to manage your own online business. There’s a constant struggle to balance customer prospecting with social media campaigns and website maintenance tasks. The amount of time and effort to manage customer outreach, social media marketing, blogs and networking can be completely overwhelming for the small agency that doesn’t have its own marketing department. Managing this stuff can be a full-time business.
Even if an insurance agent has an existing website, there is no integration with the insurance company software, and no automation. Most likely, the insurance agent will have no alternative but to refer customers directly to the insurance carrier’s website. At this point, the insurance agent essentially cuts the cord with the customer.
It might seem like the insurance companies can cut out the middleman with their web services, but when we take a closer look, that would be bad for business. Customers still need a personal touch with a real human. Chat bots don’t offer the personalized experience customers expect. Insurance products can be confusing to the novice, and an agent holds the customer’s hand for the duration of a policy. It’s not enough to just offer account access.
The good news is that insurrect has the solution. Gefen International has turnkey software that immediately connects insurers with their brokers, giving customers access to insurance company websites directly through the agent’s own web portal. Instantly, an agent has all of the resources of a big insurance company, while the insurance company still manages compliance, and distributes its own materials through the agent’s website.
One of the key features of Gefen software is a cutting-edge CRM module that is continuously expanding its feature set. Secure CRM is a compliance system mandated by many regulators for safeguarding customer private information. If you are unfamiliar with CRM, it’s an important software package that contains your customer base information in accounts, with scheduling, chat and video; document management, communications tracking, reminders, and history.
Gefen’s software lets you configure a customizable range of automations and integrations with product history of what you sell. The system artificial intelligence can increase sales by analyzing user history, preferences and interactions to make personalized upsells and cross-sells.
Moreover, the Gefen CRM seamlessly integrates with your favorite software like Microsoft Outlook and WhatsApp for business. With regard to the latter, the software can consolidate WhatsApp communications history into a single container for immediate access to the big picture. CRM is an essential piece of “everything in one place” software for business today, and customers usually pay tiered subscription costs.
Therefore, it might come as a surprise that there is no cost of ownership or licensing fees for running Gefen’s software. Fees are transactional, and exclusively performance based. Gefen takes a small percentage of agent transactions with customers. In other words, the service pays for itself.
Companies like Gefen are going to completely transform the industry and the way insurance companies maintain relationships with their network of agents. This is very exciting news for insurance agents who want to bring their businesses online.
Amanda Byers is a graduate of Columbia, where she played volleyball and annoyed a lot of professors. Now as Zobuz’s entertainment and Lifestyle Editor, she enjoys writing about delicious BBQ, outrageous style trends and all things Buzz worthy.
