Insurance

Insuretech: Virtual Property Claims Management in the P&C Space. Win/Win for Carriers, Agents and Insureds

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Insuretech surely isn’t a new buzz word, but it is ever evolving.  From digital agency management systems to sales platforms and claims management – the P&C industry is slowly embracing the wonders of technology.  Albeit far slower than other industries.

When it comes to claims management, specifically in the property space, many carriers are heavily reliant on the human factor.  As far as I know, we don’t have robotic teams going out inspecting CAT events, chimney fires, building collapses, and the like – but we are using drones, video technology, and more.

For many insureds and claims adjusters, the pain comes from cataloging personal and/or business property before and after a loss.  In many instances, an adjuster will visit the scene of the loss multiple times to take pictures, inspect areas, review data, etc.  The process is slow, painstaking, and, in some instances, can be incomplete.

The use of technology to capture the value of not only the property, but the contents before and immediately after a claim, and then having access to that data throughout the claims process and even during a litigation situation, cannot only can save time, but more importantly, it’s a TRUE representation of the property and contents.

I spent some time chatting with Grant Breck, CEO and Simon Wojcik, COO of BeThere Virtual Tours.  The two hail from Australia and are changing the way insurance claims are handled.

Beck, a former carpenter turned specialized fire investigator & insurance claims adjuster became frustrated with the process of property claims management.  “During the claims process,  I would have to go back to the scene multiple times, inspect, take pictures, and then analyze the data.  Often there were no before images to compare the post claims images to, and to add to the frustration, we were reliant on the insured to remember what they had, what was lost.  The process was slow, it was painful, and surely not cost effective.  It never gave a true indication of the situation,”  said Beck.

Beck knew that using technology was the answer. More importantly, he knew the quicker a snapshot post claim was taken, the more accurate the data would be.  That’s where Simon Wojcik comes in.  Wojcik is an expert in immersive technologies specifically in the 3D Virtual Space.  Beck and Simon collaborated to launch BeThere™ Virtual Tours.  Combining the insurance and property expertise from Beck with Wojcik’s technology magic.

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Their pitch?  “What if you could walk through any claim, at any time, right from your desktop”.  No sifting through hundreds of ill taken pictures, no going back and forth to the scene. Within 48 hours of a claim, the adjuster, the carrier, and even the insured can view the BeThere 3D Inspection including a virtual tour of the whole property, 360 degree images as needed – ceiling, entry points, yard, doll house view (3D view), Floor plan, schematic floor plan (volume/measurements) and tour location specific data (images, photos, inspection site notes).  Here’s a sample of what they can do.  (CLICK HERE)  or scan the QR Code below.

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Why should Carriers Care?

What I love about this Insuretech process is it doesn’t replace the human factor, it just enhances it.  We still need experts to analyze data, but now with BeThere’s technology, it can be done a hell of a lot quicker and more accurately.  During a CAT event, teams of 3D technicians can be deployed quickly and the data qualified and quantified far easier.  Thereby reducing the time to get insureds back on their feet.

Quote from one of our carriers

\”Be There is an incredibly useful tool which has successfully identified fraud by exaggeration for a total loss contents claim valued at $250,000 and as a result, our business has been protected from this significant financial loss.  The software is simple and easy to navigate which makes claims processing much more efficient. Absolutely worth the investment\”  

Stacey, Fraud and Investigations Department, Auto & General Services.

Overall this type of technology offers:

  • Faster Claims Processing Times.
  • Increased Auditing Capacity
  • Decreased Travel time and Expenses For field agents
  • Reduction in False Claims
  • Reduction in Over Quoting
  • Increased Customer Experience for Agents and Insureds

In an era where insurance carriers are struggling to be heroes, adding to the customer experience is a big one.  “Using our technology in the personal homeowners’ insurance space brings so much value back to the insured.  As part of pre-binding field inspection, a 3D snapshot is taken of the property and the contents.  Yearly updates can be done upon renewal.  In the event of a claim or CAT event we have an extremely accurate picture of what the property and contents were,” says Grant.  “One of the biggest frustrations I’ve heard from insureds in my years out in the field was trying to account for all their personal property after a fire and trying to create a picture for the claims adjuster of what their house looked like, where everything was and the condition of the home and the property.  Our technology is the ultimate inventory taker.  We can literally look into every closet, every cabinet, and every corner.  No stone is left unturned.”

Will robots replace humans in the claims process?  Probably not in my lifetime but introducing technology like Grant and Simon’s into our current claims process on the P&C side just makes sense.  The great news for carriers and insureds – the Australian team has perfected their process to make it very affordable to everyone involved.  I don’t know about you, but a carrier who teams up with these two will have a leg up on their competition.  When will they head stateside?  Grant noted it was already in the works.  Stay tuned.

To learn more about BeThere and all the cool stuff they are doing – visit WWW.BETHEREVT.COM.AU

Insuretech: Virtual Property Claims Management in the P&C Space. Win/Win for Carriers, Agents and Insureds Read More »

Marketing – it\’s a TEAM effort!

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As the saying goes – there is no “I” in TEAM. I wish the word Marketing didn’t have an “I” in it so I could carry the saying over – but I think you know where I’m going here.  You can spell team using the letters in Marketing though! Marketing is a TEAM effort – that is, if you want to have the biggest ROI (Return on Investment).

About the TEAM in MARKETING.  I get some pushback on this, especially if I have a client paying me to handle marketing for them, or if they have an in-house marketing person or group.  Why do the rest of the employees need to be involved – what gives?

In fact – a lot gives. Here’s why.

  1. When you build a culture of inclusion making everyone part of the process and therefore the story, magical things happen.  It creates a powerful place of employment, more importantly, the team not only drinks the proverbial Kook-Ade – but they also share it.  WORD of MOUTH Marketing is powerful.  When employees brag about your brand – what does that say about you?  Ps – A Lot.
  2. You get the REAL STORY. Back to #1.  When you have team members posting work selfies on Instagram, Facebook & Twitter – or FB or Insta Live videos they tend to get far more engagement and will tend to become viral over a standard – hey here’s what we do post.  More importantly, you are getting a behind the scenes look at what makes the company tick aka “The Real Scoop”.
  3. Your buyers don’t want to be sold to. When you get that real behind the scenes story, buyers can see what’s real and then make a decision based on that reality.  Far more powerful than an advertisement telling someone why they should buy from you.
  4. The team includes your customers! We all strive to have brand evangelists, so why not encourage your employees to find those evangelists and engage with them on social.  Salespeople are your ideal target for this since they are often client facing – or perhaps even a service team.  Having an employee and a happy customer in an Instagram Story or in a picture on Twitter is PRICELESS!  You can’t beat that kind of advertising.
  5. Consistency, Authenticity, and Transparency. The holy grail of marketing.  When you have your team involved this becomes far easier.  You will have more engagement, you will see the real behind the scenes story from real people – not actors, not stock photos and not a stagnant social feed or website.

So….that’s why I encourage CEO’s to have a flexible yet monitored social media policy.  Yes, you have to have training and controls especially in compliance driven fields such as healthcare, financial services, and insurance – but trust me, it can be done and done well.

That’s my story, I’m sticking to it.  Go Team is the answer to this one. 100% hands down a winner!

Marketing – it\’s a TEAM effort! Read More »

Marketing – it\’s a TEAM effort!

Leave a Comment / Featured, Finance, Fun Stuff, Healthcare, Insurance, Marketing, Must Read Blogs, Sales, Small Business, Uncategorized / By / / , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

As the saying goes – there is no “I” in TEAM. I wish the word Marketing didn’t have an “I” in it so I could carry the saying over – but I think you know where I’m going here.  You can spell team using the letters in Marketing though! Marketing is a TEAM effort – that is, if you want to have the biggest ROI (Return on Investment).

About the TEAM in MARKETING.  I get some pushback on this, especially if I have a client paying me to handle marketing for them, or if they have an in-house marketing person or group.  Why do the rest of the employees need to be involved – what gives?

In fact – a lot gives. Here’s why.

  1. When you build a culture of inclusion making everyone part of the process and therefore the story, magical things happen.  It creates a powerful place of employment, more importantly, the team not only drinks the proverbial Kook-Ade – but they also share it.  WORD of MOUTH Marketing is powerful.  When employees brag about your brand – what does that say about you?  Ps – A Lot.
  2. You get the REAL STORY. Back to #1.  When you have team members posting work selfies on Instagram, Facebook & Twitter – or FB or Insta Live videos they tend to get far more engagement and will tend to become viral over a standard – hey here’s what we do post.  More importantly, you are getting a behind the scenes look at what makes the company tick aka “The Real Scoop”.
  3. Your buyers don’t want to be sold to. When you get that real behind the scenes story, buyers can see what’s real and then make a decision based on that reality.  Far more powerful than an advertisement telling someone why they should buy from you.
  4. The team includes your customers! We all strive to have brand evangelists, so why not encourage your employees to find those evangelists and engage with them on social.  Salespeople are your ideal target for this since they are often client facing – or perhaps even a service team.  Having an employee and a happy customer in an Instagram Story or in a picture on Twitter is PRICELESS!  You can’t beat that kind of advertising.
  5. Consistency, Authenticity, and Transparency. The holy grail of marketing.  When you have your team involved this becomes far easier.  You will have more engagement, you will see the real behind the scenes story from real people – not actors, not stock photos and not a stagnant social feed or website.

So….that’s why I encourage CEO’s to have a flexible yet monitored social media policy.  Yes, you have to have training and controls especially in compliance driven fields such as healthcare, financial services, and insurance – but trust me, it can be done and done well.

That’s my story, I’m sticking to it.  Go Team is the answer to this one. 100% hands down a winner!

Marketing – it\’s a TEAM effort! Read More »

The Digital Insurance Agent – yes, we are still talking about this

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The Independent Insurance Agency world is still behind the 8-Ball when it comes to digital marketing. I’m not here to tell you that you should do it – because hopefully by now you know that. What I do want to share is what I’m seeing out there in the real world, and if you are truly vested in growing your agency, take the time to read the rest of this article!

  1. Not understanding their Customer – Their Target Client Profile. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve sat with an agent and asked them to tell me about their book of business. What’s it made up of? Tell me about your customers. RADIO SILENCE. As in they don’t know. This is SO important. You can’t create any marketing strategy unless you know who you are marketing to. More importantly you need to be able to look at your book of business and find your best clients. The one’s you like, you have the most experience, the best markets and are of course the most profitable.
  2. Not mapping the Customer Journey. You need to understand HOW your clients find you and HOW they like to be communicated with. After #1 this is perhaps the most important part of the Pre-Game. It’s the before they buy, after they buy, during the policy period, during the renewal, after the renewal and GASP after they leave. And yes – drawing an actual map is part of it. Plus – I’m a visual person and I like post it notes.
  3. Not having a Narrative Statement. You have to be able to communicate who the hell you are and what you are delivering to your clients. What is your unique value prop? Why should anyone buy from you?
  4. Not having a Content Strategy. This is different than an overall Marketing Strategy – that’s #5. I call them Content Buckets – what will your content derive from? What are the most important conversations you want to have with your prospects?
  5. Not having an overall Marketing Strategy. This includes your digital channel plan – where you will share your content, get your message out AND your traditional marketing such as print, radio etc. It should also have a month by month breakdown of what you are going to do and an overarching Editorial Calendar showing blog topics, email topics, hashtags etc.

Once you do 1-5 – now you are ready to take action. Please don’t go down the route of hiring someone who gives you canned content for your website, or canned email content. You will be lost in a sea of blue insurance logos looking like everyone else. People are buying from YOU. Share your story, show some personality.

Final tip – get your team involved. Your front-line folks are the ones who are interacting with your clients day after day. If you are looking for content – ask them WHAT your customers are asking about? Maybe it’s auto rates rising, or cyber liability or AirBnB or UBER questions.

I would have to say the majority of agents I work with haven’t done the Pre-Game. They dive right in and have miserable results. No super bowl was won without a lot of planning up front.

Just my $.02

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The Gentle Art of Insurance Referral Marketing

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There’s a powerful force we instinctively use every day when we make decisions. It’s a force that business marketers want to tap into, because it can create powerful, profound results — And it’s a force you can take advantage of when it comes to selling insurance.

What is that force? One simple word — Trust.

More specifically, building trust by having people recommend your insurance products and services to others. The fancy-schmancy marketing term for this is “Customer advocate led referral marketing” but that’s entirely too much of a mouthful. What you need to know is that encouraging and incentivizing your insurance clients to refer their friends, family, and associates can get you plenty of new business, stat.

So, how do you go about doing just that? Glad you asked…

Learn about your existing customers. The first thing you need to do is to find out all about your existing customers — Who they are, what they do, the things they care about, what they need insurance for, and the lines of business they have with you.

Although you’re aiming to build an emotion (trust), ironically, it’s from cold, hard data you’ll be able to find the people who will speak up for you. Once you know who they are, you can start communicating with and incentivizing them.

Look for long-time clients, those who you solved a messy claims issue for – The ones who drank your proverbial Kool-Aid. They’re the ones who love you and wouldn’t dream of going elsewhere unless the zombie apocalypse forced them to (and even then, who doesn’t need insurance against zombie attacks?)

Provide truly exceptional customer experiences. Trust starts by making your insurance clients feel great — That means providing them with fantastic customer service, getting a deep understanding of their needs, speaking to them as individuals, and having a personal touch.

Maybe that’s sending them a card during the festive season or on their birthday, perhaps it’s notifying them about new insurance options that would give them better coverage or save them money. Essentially, anything that adds value is going to give them the warm fuzzies. And warm fuzzies equal glowing referrals.

Incentivizing your customers. We are all busy people! In the cold, hard world of business, that means you often have to provide strong incentives for people to recommend and refer their friends and family. Now, those incentives are often cash rewards or money off, but you can also offer vouchers and coupons, entry into competitions, specialized insurance, or other unique opportunities.

Sadly, people aren’t going to refer just because they really, really like you (although that definitely helps) — You have to give them a little extra. Big tip here – check with your State Insurance Department on the rules and regulations for your state regarding any type of incentive program. Often you can provide referrals but it can’t be contingent on the sale. So regardless, if there is a sale, the incentive must be rewarded.

Make it easy for them to make a referral. In marketing, friction (making something harder for someone) is always a bad thing. That means if you want to get insurance referrals, you have to make it easy-peasy. How you do that depends on how you want people to refer.

If they’re doing it through social media or email, have a unique referral link they can send to friends. If it’s going to be over the phone, have a special number they can call. Doing it via an online form? Have a specific section where they can enter referrer details. The art here is to not make your customer or prospective customer think too much.

Say Thank You. Lastly, always personally follow up with the people who made a referral and thank them. This is important, not just because they made the effort (and people like to know they’re appreciated) but because it creates positive reinforcement. In other words, the more you thank people, the more positive they’ll feel about your insurance business, and the more they’ll recommend you.

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Insurance Providers + LinkedIn = New Customers

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It’s time to learn to love LinkedIn (again). We know it might have been a while — You signed up once because you thought it’d be a good idea. Occasionally you get an email people are looking at your profile. Perhaps you’re subscribed to a few groups. You get notified about new insurance jobs or industry people who want to connect with you.

But you never sign back in — Who has the time? You need to service the insurance customers you\’ve got now, right? Well, yes. But that doesn’t mean you should dismiss LinkedIn out of hand. Here’s the thing — Used well, it’s an incredible way to get new customers, grow your insurance business, and get noticed. And who doesn’t want that? Certainly not you, and certainly not us.

So, deep breath, head over to LinkedIn, and learn how it can help your business thrive.

Connecting with potential customers on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is the largest network of professionals and business people in the world. And you know what all professionals and business people need? Yep. Insurance. Whether it’s business and professional liability, property, product, or personal coverage, they are your marketplace. You can use this to your advantage. It’s really not that hard – Trust us – Here’s how it works:

  • Update your LinkedIn profile — The five-year-old picture of you with the cheesy grin probably isn’t going to cut it. Go professional, and create a compelling profile to match. Tell your story, don’t just list your resume highlights. Why should someone buy their insurance from you? What’s your Secret Sauce?
  • Look at your Prospect List — Are you connected with any of them? Probably not, and that’s ok – We will get there! Now, see if any of your connections are connected with any of your prospects. Ask for introductions.
  • Make new connections within your tribe — Connect with other insurance professionals, people you used to work with, and other LinkedIn members. Stay on top of industry news and see what other folks are doing.
  • Join relevant groups — Where are your prospects hanging out?
  • Once you’re connected, develop relationships — Don’t try to push the sale – Build relationships, offer advice, have conversations. Wait for opportunistic moments to talk about your expertise
  • Move towards a sale — When the time is right, offer your guidance and ask prospects to view their insurance portfolio. The sale will happen if you’ve built up some trust.

Becoming an expert in your field. Something else LinkedIn allows you to do? Demonstrate your expertise. No, we’re not thinking about your talent at creating origami swans, or that time you replaced a carburetor without a manual, we’re talking about your insurance business acumen. There are several ways to share your expertise and build authority.

Writing on LinkedIn Pulse. LinkedIn Pulse is LinkedIn’s blog platform. Think of it as a place to create and write insightful, interesting articles and publish them to a wide audience. There are dozens of questions people have about insurance, but don’t know who to ask. You can create posts about those subjects, answer questions, and provide awesome advice.

If these posts do well, they’ll show up in other people’s LinkedIn feeds, LinkedIn search, and maybe even on Google. As the author of these pearls of wisdom, people will look at your profile, see where you work and… Well, you fill in the rest.

Participating in LinkedIn groups. While it’s true that many LinkedIn groups are nothing more than awful, awful spam factories, there are still some good ones out there. Once you’ve found a good group you can respond to questions about insurance and help people out with their insurance issues. Again, this builds your authority as an expert. The next time those people are looking to renew their policy, guess where they’ll turn? Right.

So, you can see, LinkedIn can be a great way to expand your reach and find new customers. Don’t consign LinkedIn to be somewhere you’ll visit “when you have the time.” Rekindle your LinkedIn relationship today, and turn it into a beautiful friendship.

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Reducing Risk and a Well-Rounded Book — Expanding Your Insurance business

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As an insurance provider or broker, you might have decided to specialize in a particular type of insurance. On one hand, that makes good sense, right? You’ve got expertise in a particular area, so you can give top-notch service and advice to your customers. But, by sticking to just one or two types of insurance and customer, you could be severely limiting your business growth, and no-one wants that. You don’t want all your eggs in one basket.

Diversification is smart.

Reducing your risk and liability, because no-one thrives on too much adrenaline. Insurance is all about managing risk, both for the carrier, and for you as an agent.

If you break into new specialties or areas you’re spreading the risk that something bad will happen in a particular area or for a certain type of insurance. For example, if you’re just insuring residential property in coastal Florida, and a hurricane hits — That’s a massive impact to your business. You can diversify via location, types of industry, or lines of insurance.

Expanding your business base, because you want to turn your revenue stream into a river. Selling insurance in more areas means more sales, which means more profit. There are probably only a handful of people who need insurance for their art collection, so it’s great to be an expert in this field – but make sure you are insuring all their lines of business! Their auto, home, workers’ comp, business insurance. Diversify, Diversify, Diversify.

It gives you lots of new marketing opportunities, especially with existing customers, which brings us neatly onto our next point.

Cross-selling and upselling, because just getting new customers is hard… One of the best things about having a variety of insurance lines is the ability to cross-sell and upsell them to existing customers. For Personal Lines – ensure you have home, auto and umbrella for all clients where applicable. For your commercial clients – do you have all lines of business and have you offered them life insurance and benefits?

The more you expand your book, the better these cross-selling opportunities become — It’s like a virtuous circle of insurance joy.

Better for your customers, because what’s good for them is good for you. Finally, having a more rounded book is better for your customers. They can buy all their insurance in one place, and have a single point of contact for all their insurance needs. That reinforces your brand, builds trust with your customer, and helps you stand out from your competitors. Well-rounded books have a much higher retention rate. And that’s pretty great.

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