The Future Really Is In the Palm of Your Hand

Many of you reading this might remember “the good old days.”  It was a little before my time, but I’ve heard the horror stories about the overwhelming amount of people and time it took to present a policy to an insured.  For all of you young whipper snappers it went something like this.  A producer would quote it, using nothing more than a pencil and calculator, pass that on to a CSR who would fill in endorsement forms by hand and then finally it would end up in a processor’s hands to be typed up and mailed out, all in a few days!  How’s that for efficiency?

 

And yet, are we any more efficient today?  We can turn our computer on, and in forty five minutes or less, quote a policy, issue it, take a payment, print it out, and hand it directly to the insured.  We are able to handle the work of three people, in a tenth of the time and in spite of that, finding the extra time in the day to conquer important tasks eludes us.

The majority of you don’t need to work any harder; you probably couldn’t even if you wanted.  But you can work smarter.  The Next Generation Agent answer to being more resourceful might just be in the palm of your hand.  You’re probably using it right now.  Of course I’m referring to your smart phone (On a side note if don’t own one, get one).  It could be argued the development of the smart phone has been the single greatest innovation to improve productivity since Henry Ford gave the world the moving assembly line.  No matter what occupation you’re in, it has become an indispensable tool.

So how can it help us in insurance?  Here is just a small list:

·         Most have high pixel cameras to take pictures of risks.  Store them on your phone or in the cloud (Google it).  Or immediately use it to send them to your underwriter. 

·         Need help finding a risk?  Use the GPS and mapping systems to guide you and even trace the distance to the nearest fire department for PC rating.

·         Receive and answer email while away from the office or use your hands free device to handle that important phone call while driving your car or better yet hitting the links at the driving range.

·         An infinite amount of apps to keep you on time with alarms, reminders and notes.  Some of my favorites are Card Munch, Any.do, and Evernote.

·         Marketing capabilities through social media like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+

·         Banking apps to track expenditures or PayPal to send and receive money.

·         Getting ahead of the game as insurance companies are just now developing their own paperless apps for insured’s to manage their policies.

·         And probably the most important, the Starbuck app that you can use to pay for your coffee and earn member rewards….like more coffee!!!

I know that adapting to change can be hard, and certain aspects of technology can be intimidating, but don’t let a little fear hinder you from discovering innovative and creative techniques to becoming more efficient.  In conclusion and to quote a phrase from one of my favorite TV shows, Star Trek, The Next Generation, “Resistance is futile.”