Health Insurers: Stand Out From the Crowd with Sophisticated Customer Follow-up

The competition in the health insurance industry is growing tighter as the market continues to provide ample options of policies for customers to choose from. Competition will only intensify, especially once the new health insurance mandate takes effect.

It is essential for healthcare insurers to embrace sophisticated customer follow-up practices that ensure customer retention and higher conversion rates. Since brokers and agents are on the front line of customer interaction, insurers need to implement cutting edge tools that motivate producers to perform their best, so they can achieve both their individual quotas and company targets. Insurers’ overall business growth heavily depends on the internal processes that support customer service.

When carriers revamp their internal process, providing producers with access to critical data in one place can be a major differentiator. Be it subscriber accounts data, commission break-down on a mix of products, or producer performance details to evaluate goal attainment – data is critical for precise decision-making and customer responsiveness.

Insurers can maximize their returns by investing in a flexible incentive compensation management technology integrated with CRM and producer portals.

With such a system in place, producers can:

• Engage customers in a professional manner
• Track and service subscriber accounts
• Monitor quota attainment
• Learn about new policies and bring them to market quickly

Carriers can:

• Encourage and improve product training and certification for producers
• Support a growing distribution channel
• Improve both producer and customer retention

The integration of the VUE Software suite of products with Microsoft Dynamics CRM delivers a powerful solution that allows health carriers achieve these results and more. You can register here for a free product tour to learn more about how the solution impacts your company’s bottom line.

Tags: health insurance, incentive compensation management, producer portal, customer relationship management
Categories: Health Insurance
Post Information: Permalink | Comments (1) | Post RSS

Life Insurance Industry Changes Highlight the Importance of IT

Change over time is commonplace in any industry. The insurance industry in particular finds itself subject to changes that greatly impact business as usual. Regulations, soft markets, and evolving technologies all take their toll on insurance business processes.

Historically known to have a conservative attitude towards change, life insurance companies have slowly but surely opened their doors to incorporating advanced technology into their business processes. Multiple factors are at play behind the industry’s change in attitude, but underneath the shift is a growing realization of the importance of technology in maximizing the potential of life insurance producers.

Let us take a closer look at the reasons why life insurers are looking for more advanced business technology.

• Changing product demography.  There was a time when life producers were merely focusing on life insurance products. But today, many producers and agencies are diversifying to promote financial products as well. As this trend continues, carriers need flexible systems with service- oriented architecture (SOA) that can accommodate the complexities inherent in compensation planning for diverse financial products.
• The new workforce.  Younger producers are technology-savvy and are not reluctant to switch loyalties if they are not satisfied with their work environment. Carriers need to look for the right tools that not only engage the interest of this segment but are also usable enough for long-standing producers to embrace.
• Access to information.  Producers expect online portals or systems that can provide instant access to information for use during customer follow-ups, in addition to allowing them to monitor quota targets and commission payment cycles. Carriers need to look for a system that combines all this information in one place, and communicates it effectively to agents.
• Real time responsiveness.  The amount of time spent in performing each task is a huge factor in influencing agent’s motivation. The current generation of energetic workers won’t tolerate a slow moving and time consuming process. Carriers need to ensure that the systems in place not only provide instant access to information, but also speed up policy administration for the carrier.

Carriers need to engage the current generation of producers’ interest by providing them with various tools that make their work simpler, easier and more effective. Incentive compensation management technology can play an important role in maximizing the life insurance distribution channel.

VUE Software offers a suite of products that deliver capabilities that can help life insurers address these concerns. VUE Compensation Management, VUE IncentivePoint and VUE Producer Portal in combination with Microsoft Dynamics CRM deliver a powerful solution that allows carriers to boost overall producer loyalty and productivity. Register for a free product tour to learn exactly how the solution can refine your existing processes to bring substantial ROI.

Tags: life insurance, incentive compensation management, producer portal, customer relationship management
Categories: Life Insurance
Post Information: Permalink | Comments (0) | Post RSS

Win agents over with quality products and friendly web portal

As per a recent Report on Agent Insight Tour conducted by AgencyPort, web based solutions are the need of the hour for carriers wishing to maintain a healthy relationship with their agents. The first decisive factor for an agent to choose a carrier is still quality of product. However, it is now also a widely accepted fact that agents prefer working with carriers that are easy to work with, provide technology tools and follow processes that simplify the onerous tasks of inquiry, quoting, issuance, endorsement, renewal transactions and so on.

The top 3 criteria according to the report are

• Quality of product
• Pricing
• Ease of doing business

It follows that a solid product at a good price is not enough to win over agents. For ease of doing business, possession of all the required data from web based agent portals place agents in a strategic position to process proposals in near real time. If this freedom and ease of access is not possible, agents won’t think twice to switch to a different carrier.

Carriers would do well to embrace automated web based solutions that will ensure agent satisfaction and higher agent performance rates. We are already seeing a surge in demand for producer portals in the industry, with much success. When the trends and facts hint at a positive impact on business objectives with technology, the most sensible choice is to tread that path rather than maintain the status quo.

Tags: producer portal, technology for insurers
Categories: Producer Portal
Post Information: Permalink | Comments (0) | Post RSS

Leveraging Producer Portals for Effective Distribution Management

Any discussion about automation and distribution management in the insurance industry  seems incomplete without mentioning  producer portals. With a commission system integrated with a producer portal, carriers can be proactive with sales by organizing prospect information, the producers’ interaction with them, and the details of where the consumer is in the buying cycle.

Producers must have a working knowledge of all available products in order to remain productive. A producer portal serves as a central system where this information can be stored and distributed among the distribution channel. This knowledge dispersion adds a huge value not only to existing agents but also to the newly-recruited. New agents can become productive quickly with unfettered access to information on products, premiums and compensation models. Portal access helps producers to sell products that are right for the customer and also in line with the carrier’s business objectives.

Producer Portals help deliver a rapid return on investment through:

• Increased producer satisfaction – Provide ongoing and accurate communications to the distributions channel
• Reduced turnover in captive agents - Encourage a stable and satisfied sales force with timely and accurate payments
• Improved productivity – More time spent on business critical activities and access to information enables producers to sell the right product to the customer
• Reduced operational costs – Automate common communication to simplify agent care
• Customer Satisfaction – Automation improves turnaround time for quoting and underwriting

Additionally, integrating Producer portals to CRM solutions can further add value to organizations by automating every step in the sales process, improving the selling process for producers and giving management greater insight into the sales pipeline for better forecasting and planning.

Tags: sales performance management, distribution management, producer portal, technology for insurers, vue software, customer relationship management
Categories: Distribution Management | Sales Performance Management
Post Information: Permalink | Comments (0) | Post RSS