Asked what benefits their agencies gain from using real-time tools, 78 percent of respondents said "saves many keystrokes" and 71 percent described real time as a "significant time-saver for staff." Participants also identified ease of use (71 percent), faster/instant customer response (68 percent), the ability to quote more business faster (47 percent), freeing up more time for sales and service (47 percent), and greater accuracy (45 percent) as benefits.
"Real time delivers so many positives it truly should be viewed as an agency 'best practice,'" Durland added. "Those who are willing to make changes and adopt new workflows realize a host of benefits."
"As a manager, I certainly appreciate the service, efficiency and revenue gains real time offers," added Campaign Co-Chair Joyce Sigler, CISR, CPIW, CPIA, vice president of administration at Jones & Wenner, an insurance agency in Fairlawn, Ohio. "But it's more than that. Having employees use these tools through our management system offers a range of management benefits, too."
Survey respondents identified better activity documentation (33 percent), easier defensive remarketing/quoting (28 percent), faster and easier staff training (27 percent), and password maintenance improvements (24 percent) as other benefits of using available real-time tools.
"Forward-thinking agencies recognize that it's more efficient to use a standard workflow instead of take redundant steps to jump to various websites and portals to accomplish the same work," Sigler noted. "Being able to have employees do the same thing the same way from carrier to carrier is huge."
Top Real-Time Service Transactions
Those who use a real-time tool said that personal lines billing and policy inquiry transactions were used most commonly, by 91 percent and 84 percent, respectively. In commercial lines, 71 percent of agencies that use real time said they make billing inquiries using real-time tools in their system; 64 percent use real-time tools for commercial lines policy inquiries.
Seventy-three percent of survey participants who use a real-time tool for inquiry and service transactions said they use it to perform personal lines claims inquiries; commercial lines claims inquiries are conducted by 57 percent of users. Personal lines endorsement processing is handled using system-based real-time tools by 55 percent of real-time users. These proportions of use are unchanged from the 2010 survey.
About the Real Time/Download Campaign
Launched in 2007, the Real Time/Download Campaign (www.getrealtime.org) is dedicated to improving the competitiveness of the independent agency distribution channel. The campaign isn't advocating a specific technology, but a workflow approach that frees up more time for agencies to sell, process and service business. Most agents can leverage tools already contained in their agency management systems or comparative raters.
Campaign participants include agents, brokers, carriers, technology providers, user groups, and agent and industry associations. The campaign is led by industry groups and sponsored financially by: ACORD and the ACORD-User Groups Information Exchange (AUGIE); Allied Property & Casualty Insurance/Nationwide; Applied Systems; Applied Systems Client Network (ASCnet); Artizan Internet Services; CNA; EMC Insurance Companies; Erie Insurance; Grange Insurance; Harleysville; The Hartford; Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America (IIABA) and its Agents Council for Technology (ACT); IVANS; Liberty Mutual Agency Corporation; MetLife Auto & Home; Network of Vertafore Users (NetVU); PIA of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut & New Hampshire; Progressive; Travelers; Vertafore; and Westfield Insurance.