Moving to a New Agency Management System
For the past 4 years, we’ve surveyed health and life insurance agencies to ask them about the technology they currently use and plan to use in the future. From these surveys, we’ve learned that at any given time, about a third of insurance agencies are planning to adopt new technology.
For the life and health insurance industry, there are two major technology options for managing your book of business:
The move to new technology can be scary. So today, we want to help you understand the steps you can take to help quell that fear and make your transition as successful as possible. This blog specifically is covering the process after purchasing a new system and how to manage the technology change in your office.
If you’re currently looking to make a tech change, here are some resources that can help make sure you’re making the right choice for your agency:
How to Manage a Technology Change in Your Agency
It’s important to have your whole team on board to help make the process more fluid for everyone involved. Hopefully, you included others in the decision-making process, but if you didn’t, now is the time to bring them into your corner.
One of the key ways to achieve this is by appointing department “experts”. These experts will be your champions to help:
- Achieve employee buy-in in their departments
- Mitigate questions by being the go-to person for their department
- Elevate morale by encouraging their individual teams to use and be successful with the new software
After that, it’s time to learn.
Like anything in life, new software takes time to learn and adapt to. Give yourself and your team time to learn the new system by attending trainings and utilizing the resources provided by your software’s team. These will prove invaluable to you later on.
However, it is important to note that onboarding is only as successful as the time you put into it.
You and your team must put in the time and dedication to understand the new system and navigate the areas specific to your jobs. It’s just like a marathon—you won’t successfully finish one without putting in the work and training ahead of time.
The 3 Steps to Managing Tech Change
We already discussed the steps at a high level, but the 3 steps you need to consider are:
- Appoint Department Experts
- Schedule Your Trainings
- Set Up Your Future Game Plan
To learn more about these 3 steps, check out the infographic below. To view in a larger format, simply click on the infographic to open an enlarged version in a new window.
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We really mean it when we say make sure your game plan is flexible.
Remember, your agency is made up of humans and everyone learns differently. Also, life happens.
So, ensure your game plan is fluid and easy to change. It’ll cause you and your team more stress to try to stick to an ill-fitting game plan than it will to change to one that better fits you.
Changing game plans is not giving up; it’s a deeper understanding of your agency at a micro-level.
From there, it’s all about building your agency. Utilize the new tools at your disposal to meet the goals you’ve set out for yourself. See where you can expand and how you can become more deliberate and successful in your ventures.
Learning a new technology should also be fun; so don’t forget to sit back and celebrate the milestones. It’ll help boost your agency’s morale and make the whole process more enjoyable.
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Posted
by Allison Babberl
on Wednesday, April 8, 2020
in
Insurance Agency Management System
- data management
- productivity
- vendor vetting
About The Author
Allison is the Content Lead at AgencyBloc. She manages the creation and schedule of all educational content for our BlocTalk and Member communities. Favorite quote: “Conversation is the bedrock of relationships. Without it, our relationships are devoid of substance.” -Maribeth Ku
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