Today’s agents are dealing with a pace of innovation that would boggle their predecessors’ minds. This data-centric era and uncertain economic landscape places pressure on agents to adapt to and incorporate the latest technology, with an urgent need to understand both how it works and what it can do for their businesses. But for the busy and fiscally cautious insurance agent, proven ROI is crucial. Data and business intelligence (BI) allow agents to run their businesses more efficiently. Still, skeptics ponder just how crucial data and BI will be for the future of our industry.
What’s the Hype About?
Data analytics and BI are benefiting agents and improving their businesses in four crucial areas: operational efficiency, strategic decision-making, expanding books of business, and enterprise value.
Operational efficiency. This is where agents are seeing the most tangible daily benefit from data analytics and BI tools. Normal tasks such as simple policy updates or renewal processes can be automated, freeing agents to focus on more complex and potentially more profitable areas. Finding ways to automate more perfunctory, non-executive tasks also creates opportunities for agents to focus on the client experience and further tailoring both solutions and outreach to those clients. Time focused on business development is increasingly critical, and creating a more streamlined and automated operation helps to elevate this priority.
Strategic decision-making. BI tools can provide actionable insights informed by a business’s data, removing a good deal of guess work from decision-making. While it would be nice to always mentally maintain every detail and business aspect or consideration involved in daily business decision-making, technology can help store and process data parameters faster and more efficiently than a human, incorporating nearly every relevant agency detail.
Expanding books of business. The insights from business intelligence tools can help agents analyze their books of business, identify areas for cross-selling to existing clients, and pinpoint niches that might be natural extensions of the agency’s current offerings or clientele.
Enterprise value. As data analytics tools and BI help improve agency efficiency and decision-making, they also increase the value and competitive edge of a business. For example, imagine there are two similarly sized insurance agencies preparing to sell their agency; one is a data-driven agency, while the other operates more traditionally. The data-driven agency with the stronger handle on its metrics and KPIs will likely be seen as more efficient and scalable.
More efficient operations, informed decision-making, and more valuable books of business are all dream outcomes for agents. Those independent agents who take a more analytical approach to their data and BI will have the advantage–but only if they are maintained effectively.