Technology changes. The old ones wither away from lack of use. Michael Jans looks at the challenges technology poses for agencies today.
Then: Records. Cassettes. 8-track tapes. CD’s. iPods.
Now: Streaming music services and rented music.
People readily change their music habits with the changing times. Yet, so many agents ignore or fear the tools that could help their firms thrive.
Cutting-edge technology – everything from mobile-friendly websites to tablet computers to wearable devices to next-generation agency management systems – can help agencies attack two of the biggest problems they face today:
1) Stemming market-share erosion
2) Attracting first-class talent.
Technology tools offer power: They do what people can’t or won’t do. They do it faster, cheaper, better. (As a species, we learned – 2.5 million years ago – that the tribe that picks up the tool wins the territory.)
A generation ago, agents argued about whether they really needed agency management systems to replace typewriters, paper forms and the postal service. Every credible agency now has one. Why? It makes agencies more efficient.
So too can today’s new tools make agencies more effective. How? By allowing agencies to communicate with customers (and prospects) – automatically, frequently and authentically.
As an example, the tool of marketing automation software, integrated with the agency management system, can multiply communications and deepen relationships. It can help agencies attract and convert leads. It can help cross sell clients. It can help keep clients longer. (continued.)
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Every agent I know has said: ‘This is a relationship business.’ But research indicates that a lot of consumers are ‘not feelin’ the love.’ Relationships happen because people communicate – both ways. Technology tools can make that happen in ways that give an agency the proverbial extra eyes, ears, mouth and hands.
The second problem that cutting-edge technology solves is just as important. Young people in America’s colleges study, cram and plea for entry into law/business/medical school or employment at the hot tech firm. Where is the line of young people banging on the doors of the insurance industry?
They’re not there. Insurance agencies hired only six percent of their agent recruits from college from 2009-2013, found the new Producer Recruiting and Development study from Reagan Consulting.
But millennials (those born 1981–1996, according to Pew Research Center) represent the long-term prospect for the perpetuation of the independent agency distribution system. Every independent agency that desires a future needs them.
Millennials – the hope for the future – grew up as today’s technology tools were created. Fax machines, paperwork, filing cabinets and photocopiers are either unknown or passé to this next generation.
If you, as an agency principal born decades before these individuals were, want the energy of young people… if you want to connect to the growing insurance market controlled by young people... if you want to perpetuate your agency to young people... then don’t let your firm live in the 1990s, or even the 2000s.
Bring your agency into the environment of today. Use technology for a double win in solving the biggest problems agencies face.
Michael Jans is founder and CEO of AgencyRevolution.com, a marketing automation firm specializing in serving independent insurance agencies.
