What is a CRM? CRMs, or customer relationship management systems, help manage interactions between you and your customers by analyzing them and offering suggestions. For insurance agents, using a CRM has become an industry standard, allowing them to track clients and ensure proper workflows are followed.
No matter the size of your team, having a CRM can expedite your processes and ensure every lead is contacted and cared for. Especially in the insurance industry, your customers want to feel as if they are being shown the best policies for their particular situation.
At Hooked CRM, we believe we’ve created a CRM that integrates with your current workflow and enhances your insurance agents. Book a demo with us or schedule a call, and one of our representatives will walk you through our call center solution.
What is a CRM for Insurance Agents?
A CRM for insurance agents is a customer relationship management program specializing in the insurance industry. Insurance agents use CRMs daily to track each lead, write detailed notes describing interactions, and reference previous information for clients. Without a CRM, leads can get lost, and your customers will seek their coverage elsewhere.
Ideally, your CRM should seamlessly integrate with your current VoIP dialer and provide instant feedback for your team. It should make your life easier, so uploading every call causes processes to stagnate.
CRM vs. AMS: What’s the Difference?
Association Management Software (AMS) and CRMs seem very similar; however, AMSs focus on daily management, and CRMs focus on building relationships with your customers. Here’s what each can do for your insurance agents:
What Does a CRM Do?
A CRM tracks every customer interaction, driving sales and growth. Many companies use CRMs to record phone calls, track SMS, and log email engagement rates. Each of these metrics creates a story for your call representatives and agents, which they can adjust on the next calls to ensure they are building the best relationships between your business and your customers.
Depending on the type of CRM, they could specifically focus on call analysis, in-person interactions, or text-based conversations. It’s important to evaluate which one your agents are participating in more to determine which one you should invest in.
What Does an AMS Do?
AMSs are focused more on administrative tasks. Billing customers, providing customer portals for your business, and managing client profiles are just a few of the tasks that association management software accomplishes.
We only recommend an AMS if you need to automate customer billing. However, since insurance sales are typically automated on the side of the insurance company and not the brokerage, it’s not 100% necessary, depending on how your business runs.
Do Insurance Agents Need Both?
It depends on how you run your agency. Most insurance brokerages don’t need an AMS since a decent CMS will handle lead communication, including billing. However, if you have a more complicated workflow, it would be helpful to have a system that automates most of the process for you.
Why Insurance Agents Need a CRM
Getting a CRM for insurance agents is vital to your business success. Today, most insurance brokerages and agencies use a CRM to keep their workflow and system organized, so if you aren’t investing in one already, you’re already behind the competition.
Here are just a few reasons why you should consider the use of a CRM in your business:
Your Lead Volume Outgrows Spreadsheets
If you’re a small business owner, you might already be using Excel as your primary CRM. For small businesses, this can work because of the integrations and formulas. However, if you plan to take on more clients or add more agents to your employee roster, moving to a CRM that can handle your book of business is a smart investment.
Spreadsheets will get messy, causing a disconnect between your client and agents. We recommend curbing the stress and investing in a CRM to keep clients organized.
Follow-up Timing Determines Whether Policies Close
Having a set schedule of when you need to contact your leads is important for your company’s success. The foundational principle for sales success is ensuring you contact your leads within the first five minutes of an inquiry. After that, every minute after will decrease your success rate.
With a CRM, you’ll have full visibility of your calls. Depending on the service you employ, you can also see when your leads come in, making it easy for your agents to contact them as soon as possible.
Retention Requires Consistent Systematic Touchpoints
Today, there are so many ways to contact your leads — email, SMS, phone, in-person, and more. Handling and tracking each interaction can become a headache, especially when they are vital to your workflow. With CRMs, you can ensure each lead interaction is recorded and even schedule when you need to message or call your leads.
After the sale has been made, you must continue the relationship with your client. Keeping track of the various touchpoints maintains the rapport you’ve built, creating brand loyalty and trust. CRMs can ensure you contact your leads promptly.
Compliance and Documentation
Taking detailed notes on every interaction is essential in insurance sales. Agents are required to keep proper documentation throughout the call and remain in compliance with company standards with every exchange.
By utilizing a CRM, you’re able to take the guesswork out of documentation and ensure your agents are within the compliance standards. Depending on the CRM, you will be given a transcript or summary of the interactions, pinpoint exactly where points were missed, or adjust a workflow.
Key Features of a CRM for Insurance Agents
CRMs have plenty of features, so you should choose one that highlights the features that support your insurance agents. Here are just a few features you should be seeking:
Lead and Pipeline Management
Your insurance agents will be juggling several leads and tracking every step of their journey. Your CRM should make that customer journey simple for your agents, housing all the information for each lead and dictating what your agents should do next.
This is an essential element of CRMs that you shouldn’t ignore. If you can’t figure out where a lead is in your workflow, they are more likely to lead to a dead end.
Policy and Renewal Tracking
Depending on your insurance industry, you may have to renew the policy to keep it valid. Because policies can last for years, it can be difficult to keep track of them on your calendar. Prioritizing a CRM that automates policy renewal reminders and pings you when policies end can help you facilitate your leads more efficiently.
The necessity of this feature will largely depend on the insurance industry. However, even if your policy doesn’t require renewals, like whole-life insurance, it’s still necessary to keep a positive relationship with your clients.
Automated Follow-Ups and Reminders
A large portion of an insurance agent’s job is to build a relationship with leads so they can feel comfortable investing in a policy. Sometimes, that requires repeated contact with your leads, and a good CRM can automate these follow-ups or send your agents reminders to contact them.
Even after you’ve sold your policy to your leads, keeping the relationship alive builds on the trust you’ve established, making it easier to renew policies and receive referrals for your services.
HIPAA & PII Compliance
When handling lead information, security and compliance should be the primary focus. These are the bedrock of a trusted relationship, so a CRM that skips out on these vital features is one you should avoid using for the safety of your clients.
At a minimum, your CRM should be HIPAA-compliant if you’re dealing with medical information and PII-protected to ensure the information remains with the agent and client. These are non-negotiable features you should be investing in with your CRM.
Carrier and Integration Support
Depending on your workflow, you could work with various programs to contact your leads. Your CRM should already seamlessly integrate or replace the current systems that you’ve been investing in. One of the main problems we’ve seen in the insurance industry is the needless hopping between different programs to finish a task.
Your CRM should simplify workflows instead of adding another chore, requiring another step in the process. Check to see if the CRM you’re looking at will collaborate with the systems you’ve set in place or replace them entirely.
Benefits of Using a CRM as an Insurance Agent
There are plenty of benefits to using a CRM as an insurance agent, and we highly recommend investing in one if you plan to expand your team or book of business. Here are just a few reasons why we believe it can be an asset to your team:
- Simplifies Lead Management: Your insurance agents should be chasing multiple leads. Having a decent lead management system ensures they can keep track efficiently and effectively.
- Automates Tedious Processes: With insurance sales, there are so many forms, appointments, and messages to track. CRMs take on the heavy burden and ease the process.
- Keeps Track of Your KPI Metrics: Alongside lead management, your CRM should measure call success by tracking your KPIs. This helps your agents prioritize the leads that need more attention.
- Easier Documentation: You should never have to sift through hundreds of leads to find the one you need to contact. Most CRMs have easy search features, so you can easily find the lead or document you’re seeking.
CRM for Life Insurance Agents
Depending on the kind of life insurance you’re selling, your CRM needs will be different.
With term life insurance, you’ll need a CRM that is focused on tracking renewals and following up with customers when policies expire. You should also find a CRM that encourages you to reach out to your clients after policies are sold, so you build a stronger relationship when the renewal times come.
Whole life insurance should cover a policyholder for their lifetime if they pay their premiums, so your CRM should focus on client acquisition and follow-ups. You should also focus on a CRM that builds a strong contact list, so when the client or beneficiary calls back, you can validate their information immediately.
CRM for Health Insurance Agents
Health insurance agents require CRMs built for automated follow-ups. Depending on the insurance provider, there can be several changes within a policy, pricing, or coverage information. Creating a sense of trust requires the quick dissemination of information, so a CRM that automates those tasks is a feature that shouldn’t be skipped.
You’ll also want to consider a CRM that prioritizes omnichannel support to keep track of all your communications with the client. That’ll help you determine how your clients like to be contacted and ensure they receive the care they need.
CRM for Independent Insurance Agents
As an independent insurance agent, maintaining your workflow is key to your success. You’re setting the standard for your process and must determine the most effective and efficient way to contact your clients. A CRM that provides the next steps for each client and clearly dictates them should be your priority when making a CRM purchase.
Your CRM should also automate tasks that take too much time, like emailing or texting information, and give you the freedom to build your clientele more.
CRM for Medicare Insurance Agents
Medicare is a specialized insurance that requires specific compliance and data tracking. Most Medicare plans are only available during the Open Enrollment Period, so your CRM should either ping you a reminder to email and contact your leads before it begins.
Your CRM should also keep your clients safe and HIPAA-compliant throughout the process, taking the load off your agents' shoulders.
How to Choose the Right CRM for Your Insurance Business
Overall, we highly recommend CRMs for your insurance business. They keep the burden of maintaining hundreds of relationships off your agents and allow them to focus on what they need to do.
But with so many options, how do you choose the right one? Here are some considerations you should determine before making a switch:
Determine How Many Clients & Agents You Have
The number of clients and agents you have should help determine the kind of CRM you will need. If you have a smaller number, you might not need a CRM that can house thousands of client profiles across several campaigns.
However, if you plan to increase your business, you should prioritize a CRM that grows with your company. Look for a CRM with multiple options dependent on organization size, and ask if you can upgrade your account to match your needs.
Map Your Customer Journey & Workflow
Before purchasing a new CRM, evaluate your current customer journey map. Identifying the vital touch points with your customers will determine how a CRM can enhance your current workflow.
You should find all the pain points your employees and customers face in your current customer journey map and see if a new CRM solution can bring some life back to your workflow.
Confirm Compliance Requirements for Your Business
If the CRM you’re looking at doesn’t have security and compliance features embedded into its system, you can’t trust that it won’t bring future stress to your business. Before purchasing a new CRM, review your compliance standards and ensure they will protect your data.
Ask for a Demo Before Purchasing
Purchasing a CRM shouldn’t be a shot in the dark. If a CRM looks enticing, it’s always a good idea to ask for a demo. A quick walkthrough of the program and features should give you an idea of how it can fit into your current process and ask specific questions for your workflow.
How Hooked CRM is Built for Insurance Agents
Hooked CRM was built with insurance agents and salespeople in mind. With over 15 years of experience in the field, we saw how different tools were causing agents to become confused and unable to sell effectively.
We’ve integrated a VoIP dialer, CRM, and AI virtual assistant in one platform, creating a seamless experience from start to finish. If you’re in the insurance industry, we know how beneficial Hooked can be.
Book a demo with us today, and we’ll walk you through every feature that was built with your industry in mind.
