Table of Contents 

 

Technology

 

 

Maintaining contact, the easy way

Signeos streamlines the process, while agents reap the rewards

 

 

 

 

 

By Nancy Doucette


"We see a very small percentage of personal lines clients in person these days, even if they are near our office," states Dave DeMeter, president of Cook, Disharoon & Greathouse (CDG), a regional Northern California agency. But with personal lines representing some 30% of the agency's book, CDG wanted to stay in regular communication with those clients. The challenge was how to do so efficiently.

Gary Nixon, founder of CIMA Systems, an e-mail marketing service for auto dealerships and one of CDG's commercial accounts, along with CIMA's COO, Garry Carter, were aware of the communication challenges facing agencies—they weren't too different from what auto dealers were confronting. In conversations with DeMeter, they mentioned that the CIMA Systems engine was designed to work with any vertical…might independent agents benefit from an automated digital communications system?

CIMA and DeMeter started to sketch out what the system would look like. A key piece was getting data from the agency's management system. "We figured out how to do it," Nixon recalls proudly, and Signeos was born.

Nixon's long-time friend George Bowen—a consultant and insurance veteran with considerable experience in the direct writer space—came on board as an adviser. "Progressive and GEICO have changed the landscape of personal lines," Bowen declares. "I see a critical need for agencies to expand their ability to meet customers' expectations for 24/7 communication. Customer preferences have evolved."

Indeed they have. DeMeter says of the clients the agency has acquired in the last five years, about 90% of them correspond with the agency via e-mail. "It's been changing," he says. "Of our 10-year clients, only about 50% of them correspond with the agency via e-mail."

According to Nixon's research, 94% of all online adults use e-mail, and 62% of adult U.S. Internet users check or send e-mail on a daily basis. "This means that most of your clients are checking their inboxes every day," he explains. "Targeted, timely e-mails allow agencies to communicate important messages to clients at vital intervals in their lifecycle."

Performance-enhanced communication

Jim Cantwell, personal lines manager for Oakland, California-based Crist, Fritschi & Paterson (CFP), says that while the bulk of the agency's clients are in the immediate Bay Area, the agency does business throughout the state and other states as well. "We don't have a lot of clients walking in the door," Cantwell says with a chuckle.

About half of the agency's business is personal lines, he says, and in an effort to help agents communicate regularly with clients, one of the carriers introduced its agents to Constant Contact—an e-mail marketing tool. Cantwell says that while he could see the potential of what Constant Contact could provide, developing the messages, designing the material, creating the lists of recipients, and sending the e-mails was simply too time-consuming.

So when the agency was invited to be a pilot for Signeos, Cantwell gladly accepted. "Signeos is totally automated," he says, "so the time-consuming part isn't a factor. I call Signeos 'Constant Contact on steroids.'"

While Signeos certainly has the ability to serve as a cross-sell/up-sell tool, Cantwell says CFP is using it as a retention tool—e-mailing risk management advice to clients, with a reminder that the agency sells the appropriate insurance to help manage those risks. "Many of our clients have home businesses so we're going to do an e-mail campaign on insuring the home office and related homeowners coverage issues," he says.

Another campaign reminds home owners to cut back brush prior to the start of fire season. Yet another is scheduled around the anniversary of the Loma Prieta earthquake. That campaign includes links to different retrofitting services as well as information about earthquake insurance. "These e-mails let clients know we're looking out for them and their insurance needs. But we aren't e-mailing every month. We want these communications to be a service, not a nuisance," he notes.

Cantwell explains that CFP provides Signeos some basic ideas about the theme of each campaign and then Signeos takes care of the design elements. Development of these custom campaigns is included in Signeos' monthly fee.

Signeos' Nixon says that his company's Web site includes examples of campaigns that Signeos created for other agents. "If an agency has a theme in mind, we can share some ideas. Take jewelry for instance. Perhaps an agency might want to schedule a campaign around jewelry floaters ahead of Valentine's Day."

DeMeter says he plans on working with Signeos to create an e-mail campaign to commercial clients to keep them up-to-date on the new health care laws. "By letting people know we are a resource, perhaps we can attract some new group health business," he says.

DeMeter recalls another instance where he used Signeos to alert personal lines clients of an after-market warranty program Cook, Disharoon & Greathouse offers its auto insureds. He says he sent the point-of-sale material that the insurer provided for the program to Signeos and they developed the graphics for the e-mail which was sent to all the agency's personal lines clients, even if CDG didn't write their auto insurance. Within hours of Signeos sending out the e-mails, interested clients began to contact the agency.

Signeos' Agency Reporting Tool allows agencies to monitor communications activity—e-mail open rates, click-throughs, and bounce rates. Additionally, Nixon says, a Signeos account exec will contact the agency every six weeks or so to review all the communications Signeos is sending out on behalf of the agency and offer suggestions.

Portal in the cloud

As George Bowen noted earlier, agency customers expect 24/7 communication capabilities. One way to meet that expectation is with a client portal. According to Nixon, "If your agency doesn't offer an insurance portal, your clients are forced to contact you within your normal business hours, even if it's inconvenient for them.

"With a portal, your agency is available around the clock. It's like hiring an overnight and weekend staff for a small fraction of the cost," he states.

As part of its flat fee, Signeos will create a personal URL for every client who wants to set up a portal, making it secure and accessible by that client only. (Signeos accepts full responsibility for the security of the data in their "cloud.") Signeos pulls necessary data from the agency's database in order to populate the client portal—customer names, address, their preferred method of communication (e-mail, phone, surface mail), policy types, numbers, and effective and expiration dates.

With this information in the client portal, insureds can view basic policy information, request quotes or changes, print ID cards, and report claims.

Cantwell says when one of CFP's clients initiates a change request via their personal portal, that request goes immediately to the producer and the account manager who handle that account and Signeos sends an auto reply to the client: "Thank you for your message. We will be back in touch with you shortly." Cantwell appreciates that the client doesn't have to think about who should get the e-mail. Because that information is pulled from the agency management system, the e-mail will get to the right person.

As part of its risk management advice, CFP recommends that homeowners clients take pictures of their home furnishings or make a video of the interior of their house. "The insurance company may have inspected the outside but they haven't seen the detailed woodwork on the inside," Cantwell explains. These pictures and videos can be stored at the client's portal. "We don't have access to the videos or pictures people put in their portal. But the client could provide them to the adjuster in the event of a loss.

"People have adapted to technology," he concludes. "So while not many of our elderly clients signed up for a personal portal, I am pleased by how many of our clients have. And the demographics continue to change. People are growing up with technology and that's all they know. Agencies need to be able to respond to their expectations."

For more information:

Signeos

www.signeos.com/

   

 

CONTACT US | HOME

©The Rough Notes Company. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a database or retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or by other means, except as expressly permitted by the publisher. For permission contact Samuel W. Berman.