As an insurance agent, you know that lead management is the crux of your business. Being a commission-based professional means that it’s your job to get leads to convert, which is not an easy thing to do.
The best way to ensure your insurance business grows is to market to your leads effectively, but the problem with this is that it’s time consuming on top of the other expectations that come with being an insurance agent.
Not only are there new clients to win, but there’s current ones to retain, systems to complete, and other day to day tasks. It’s a lot to keep up with.
Enter CRM tools: a digital platform that allows insurance agents to scale their business and build customer retention with better lead management.
If you’re a new agent or established one that’s on the fence about implementing one of these systems in your business, you might be wondering what features you need and what the best systems are.
Keep reading to discover the many benefits CRM tools bring to any insurance business and the leading options on the market today.
Common Challenges Insurance Agents Experience
Whether you’re a new agent or experienced one, there are common challenges all agents face at some point in their business.
The good news is that these challenges are easy to hack with a good CRM system, but it’s important to identify each so you’re aware of whether or not you’re currently battling them.
Overall, here are the top 4 problems all insurance agents face.
1. Competition Is Everywhere
Insurance is an industry where there is an enormous amount of competition.
Not only are you competing against other companies and agents, you’re also competing against your leads’ attention.
And if you don’t know how to grab your customers’ attention and stand out from the other guys, then you’ll lose out most of the time.
2. Workflow Isn’t Streamlined
Renewing policies, processing new ones, capturing leads… There’s so much work that has to be done in the daily life of an insurance agent.
With all of these tasks falling on an everyday to-do list, manually completing the processes can decrease productivity and cause you to spend more time elsewhere than scaling your business.
CRM tools help you to streamline your insurance business by making claims processes and data imports quicker and faster so your time is opened to finding new clients.
3. Lead Data Is All Over the Place
Along the same lines of mismanaged workflow, another drawback to processing your business manually is scattered data.
There’s hardly any client within any business that’s ready to buy immediately (unless they’ve been browsing your business for a while now), which means keeping hold of their contact information is crucial for the pipeline.
Email addresses, names, phone numbers, and addresses are all valuable information to keep closeby, but most insurance agents that are still operating the old school way have this information scattered abroad in hard-to-use spreadsheets.
Not having an automated customer system in place that keeps track of necessary data is costing your business money since you’re not able to continuously communicate with leads and ultimately get them to convert.
4. You Aren’t Finding or Retaining Clients
Ultimately, customers are the crux of any insurance agency. Without customers – new or returning – you’re not making money and scaling.
Beginning insurance agents struggle with finding and keeping clients. Established agents still need to ensure their clients are renewing their policies, which makes customer retention a common problem.
There are a few reasons why you’re not finding or retaining clients:
- Competition & Rates: Other insurance companies are offering better policy rates.
- Marketing: Your campaigns are falling flat and not targeting the right audience.
- Customer Experience: Current customers are not satisfied with your performance.
As an insurance agent, it’s your job to ensure all clients are satisfied and having a positive experience working with you.
This means staying in constant contact with prospective clients, answering questions, communicating swiftly and effectively should all be a priority.
How CRM Tools Benefits Your Insurance Business
Obviously, implementing a CRM system is going to cost something, but part of the investment is earning a high ROI from your new software.
All insurance agents should invest in a high-quality CRM platform or tools to make business better, but if you still need convincing, we have a few benefits to disclose.
Here are 4 ways a CRM system can improve your insurance business to help secure leads and grow your earnings.
1. Easier Lead Tracking
Generating leads for your insurance business is hard work, but it gets harder when you’re trying to boost conversions, and it’s even harder than that when you’re nurturing multiple leads at once.
CRM tools take the nurturing stress off your shoulders by generating leads from online platforms, storing important data, and using automated communication factors to take the nurturing tasks off your hands.
2. Better Workflow Management
As we mentioned earlier, workflow management is a big challenge insurance agents face, but thankfully, this is another area CRM tools help with.
The right insurance platform streamlines your process with automated systems that decrease the work you have to do manually whether it’s import customer data, renew policies, and more.
3. Increase Customer Retention
It would be nice to not wonder when you’ll find your next client, wouldn’t it? With a new insurance platform, you can watch your customer retention statistics increase.
These tools help insurance agents create a better experience for customers such as significantly reducing the amount of time it takes to enroll for policies, sign paperwork, and communicate.
Time-saving and communication are major areas of concern for clients that impact their experience and satisfaction.
When you find processes that make life easy for your clients, the more satisfied they will be and more willing to renew with you in the future.
4. In-depth Reporting & Analytics
Get the rundown on your business’ current standing with the in-depth analytics from a new CRM system.
These systems generate insightful reports that forecast your sales and analytics of marketing campaigns.
With these numbers, you’re able to plan better tactics and strategies based on what’s currently working.
Top 6 CRM Software for Insurance Agents
Now you’re aware of the common issues that setback insurance agents and how CRM tools benefit your business, it’s time to find the right system and tools to bring into your business.
As you start your search for the best CRM software to use, there are a few key features you should look for as you investigate.
- Automated Reporting: Ensure your platform generates reports and analytics from campaigns, renewal rates, and sales.
- Easy Integration: Select a platform that integrates with your current email and website.
- Streamlined Workflow: Choose a service that automates systems and streamlines tasks.
- Customer Data Management: Keep your system customer-focused with easy-to-use services and communication methods.
- Affordable: To get the best ROI, make sure the tool you choose is affordable to help you scale.
With the key features in mind, here are 6 of the best CRM software systems to benefit insurance agents.
1. Cole Information
Cole Information is truly a remarkable tool to have for your insurance business. With its X-Dates System focusing on finding you the best leads, you’ll never run out of prospects that are in your area.
What You Get
- Prospect policy expirations
- Lead generation
- Enhanced communication
2. Insureio
Insureio is almost a one-stop shop for insurance agents and their business. Their all-inclusive system not only helps to streamline workflow, but it provides the analytics and reporting you need from marketing campaigns, customer retention, and sales. The only thing that’s missing is a feature that brings leads to your fingers,
What You Get
- Lead management
- Application fulfillment
- Case management
- Reporting
- Marketing planning
3. Oracle
Oracle’s main focus is customer experience so you provide the best journey for all clients. With this service, you’re able to give your clients an easy-to-use platform when enrolling for your policies and paying for the plans.
What You Get
- Streamlined services
- Data control
- Customer pipeline
- Billing and payment
4. Radiusbob
If your goal is to start small with a service that accelerates your lead management, let Radiusbob be the system you choose. This platform takes customer nurturing to the next level with their customer-centered features like a client dashboard for automated systems.
What You Get
- Lead & client management
- Automated systems
- Integrations
- Email marketing
- Reports & analytics
5. Salesforce
Customer experience and data reporting are Salesforce’s biggest goals for insurance agents. This platform is all about using information and automated systems to provide a positive experience for customers so you earn more glowing reviews.
What You Get
- Analytics & data reporting
- Communication platforms
- Lead management
- Sales reports
6. Insly
Insly is an insurance-specific CRM platform that majorly reduces the work you have to perform on your end. This platform takes over all the main tasks, even underwriting, so your clients experience a complete time-saving process.
What You Get
- Integrations
- Underwriting & policy management
- Customer dashboard
Make Your Business Work For You
If you haven’t integrated a CRM tool into your insurance business, now is the time to do it. These tools make your business flow easier than before and take a load off your plate by managing your leads and policies.
With so many CRM tools on the market, we suggest evaluating your budget and scheduling demos for the services you’re interested in so you can understand each service better and find the one that aligns with your needs.
