An AMS benefits every department in your insurance agency. Here are some ways you can integrate it into every role at your agency.
An agency management system (AMS) is an extremely useful software that insurance agencies can use to organize their book of business and more effectively run their operations.
Often, these are built for a specific niche market within the insurance industry. AgencyBloc, for example, is a platform made specifically for life and health insurance agencies. One of the biggest benefits of using an industry-specific AMS is that you get the features you need without having to extensively customize it.
Each department in your agency has different responsibilities, some of which can be tedious or time-consuming. In this blog, we’ll discuss how each department in your agency–from the C-suite to sales–can use an AMS to streamline their work.
Use the links below to jump straight to your position:
Agency Management System Tools for the C-Suite
As a C-level executive, it’s important to have a pulse on your insurance agency’s health. This can help you make better-informed business decisions and strategies. There are a few tools in an industry-specific agency management system that can help you do this.
Key Tools for You in AgencyBloc
Dashboard Analytics and Custom Reporting
Data is critical–it gives you a clear, unbiased look at your agency's health. Deciphering data with visual representations, like dashboards, make it much easier to gain actionable insights that you can use to pivot your business strategy. Here’s an example of the reporting Dashboard in AgencyBloc:
Dashboard Analytics from AgencyBloc
Our reporting and data analysis tools give you a high-level dashboard of what’s happening in your business, trends that are occurring, and the direction your business is heading. This data can help you make decisions about:
- Future staffing
- Product offerings
- Business verticals
- Geographic locations
- Short- and long-term goals
This tool can also indicate areas where you should dive deeper. Dig into that data with AgencyBloc’s Custom Reports. By building custom reports, you can easily look into:
- The breakdown of all the groups or individuals in your agency
- The number of in-force policies
- New versus old policies
- Adds versus terms/drops
- Incoming commissions versus paid commissions
- The efficacy of sales initiatives
- The performance of lead sources
You can also build custom reports to measure KPIs (key performance indicators) and see how you’re stacking up against your goals.
If you’re unsure where to start or which graphs and charts you should monitor, check out our blog, The 5 Key Performance Indicators Life & Health Agencies Must Be Tracking.
Calendar
Daily task management can be time-consuming. Our calendar tool allows you to keep track of everything in one place. In addition to managing your own tasks (known as Activities in AgencyBloc), you can use this tool to create and assign tasks to others and use our Automated Workflow feature in conjunction with this to streamline the process.
“AgencyBloc has helped us build our business. It's the perfect tool for benefits professionals.” —Dominic S., Benefit Profiles Inc.
“I wish we would have switched to AgencyBloc sooner because the system is such a good match for our agency. It does exactly what we hoped it would do, and I wish we’d have found it earlier.” —Amy L., Altura Benefits
Agency Management System Tools for the Commissions Manager and Team
When it comes to commissions, every dollar counts. It’s no secret that commission processing can be difficult, time-consuming, and frustrating–but it doesn’t have to be. There are a few tools you can use to optimize this process.
Key Tools for You in AgencyBloc
Commission Module
Running commissions in a generic CRM or via spreadsheets can present many problems, including:
- Human error
- Extensive time commitment
- Missed commission payments
A thriving health and life insurance business needs to have a system that can efficiently process commissions. Agencies using AgencyBloc’s Commission Module have spent 75% less time processing commissions than they did previously with other tools–and they’ve uncovered thousands of dollars in missing compensation.
You can also use our Commission Module to map commissions and keep tabs on what’s coming in versus what you expected, how that’s being paid out, to whom, and when. Plus you can track advances, adjustments, repayments, and more, giving you peace of mind that you and your agents are being paid appropriately.
Our Commission Module also allows for seamless carrier commission imports, saving you valuable time and money.
Dashboard Analytics and Custom Reporting
In addition to processing commissions, you also need a way to analyze the insights that your commission data offers. Using our robust commission reporting tools you can get as high-level or granular as you want when it comes to your commission activity and easily identify missed commissions, top-producing agents, profitable lead sources, and more.
“We've been able to cut our time processing commissions by 75%, saved nearly $33,000 every year in employee time, and have gained 90 hours back every month. Switching to AgencyBloc was the best decision I made as a commissions manager.” —Leslye G., JTS Financial
“We have been able to recover over $69,000 in missing compensation with AgencyBloc.” —Becca D., United Producers Group
Agency Management System Tools for the Office Manager, Administrative Assistant, or Customer Service Rep
As part of the admin team, your job is to help keep agency operations organized and customer service running smoothly. An AMS gives you a seamless way to manage and assign tasks, pull reports, access client profiles, calendars, workloads, and more.
Key Tools for You in AgencyBloc
Calendar and Client Details
When it comes to customer service, access to client files and notes is critical–especially when a client calls and their agent isn’t available. In AgencyBloc, you can provide excellent customer service by quickly running a global search of all records to locate the client’s file, which agent they’re associated with, and their policy information.
Individual Summary View in AgencyBloc
But that’s not all.
Using the Activities list on your AgencyBloc Dashboard and the Activities Tracking and Calendar feature, you can quickly see what agents are working on, how full their day is, and if it’s realistic to get in touch that moment.
If a client calls in to update information, for example, you can easily navigate to their notes on file, update the data, and pin it so the agent of record can see it the next time. You can also make a new permanent Activity to log the conversation for future reference.
Automated Workflow
Beyond manual task assignments, you can use AgencyBloc’s Automated Workflow to create workflows that help every department work efficiently. These workflows are easy to follow, trigger on their own, and keep your entire team on track to build retention, increase conversion, and reach company goals.
Quoting & Proposal Building
Manage all new and renewal business quoting, proposal creation, and enrollment with Quote+, an AgencyBloc solution.
Compare and present small group employee benefits quotes for medically underwritten, community rated, and ancillary products in one location. Then, build employer-ready proposals to present to prospects and clients. Once the employer groups have made their final selections, your team can quickly map that data directly to the carriers to streamline the enrollment process.
“Our office moved to AgencyBloc 3 years ago, and we haven’t looked back. Our office can track our growth, whether it’s the number of policies written by an agent, agency, or with a particular carrier. We've connected the workflows to AgencyBloc's Lead Forms to automatically create a record and notify our team of the new lead. All in all, AgencyBloc has made our great office, even better.” —Jen K., Universal Insurance Advisors, Inc.
“AgencyBloc does everything we need it to. We have 6 people in our office using a different primary function, but we can all build on the same task(s) in AgencyBloc. It has really helped our team's cohesion in regards to getting and staying organized.” —Marci D., Pellegrini & Associates
Agency Management System Tools for the Sales Manager
As a sales manager, your position is vital to the success and the future of the business. You must have a way to thoroughly manage and monitor the sales initiatives and efforts of your team.
An AMS with comprehensive lead and sales management capabilities can give you and your team the tools to be more efficient and effective.
Key Tools for You in AgencyBloc
Lead and Client Management
With AgencyBloc’s Sales Pipeline, you can supervise your sales process, track your sales cycle, forecast revenue, and monitor the trends. You can then use this data to hone your sales process.
Sales Pipeline in AgencyBloc
Our integrated website lead forms give you a seamless way to collect and organize lead information. You can build custom lead forms and use them on your website. These are connected to AgencyBloc, so once your lead fills out the lead form, their information is instantly populated into our platform.
Once a lead converts into a client, link your policy, individual/group, and opportunity documents together for a detailed record of conversations, interactions, and sales that you can use in the future.
Additionally, AgencyBloc integrates with a number of lead vendor services and Zapier, which can help populate leads in your account for your agents to work.
Automated Workflow and Agent Management
Use AgencyBloc’s Automated Workflow to create lead, opportunity, and client-specific workflows that keep agents on task and help them work more efficiently. Through these workflows, you can streamline lead nurturing, client and agent onboarding, sales management, and more. Automated Workflows also help you stay on top of internal communications and support your agents with task management and timely certification and licensing renewals.
Oversee your agents’ workloads and production by monitoring their Activities in order to find ways to help them grow and reach their goals.
Dashboard Analytics & Custom Reporting
Real-time sales analytics through AgencyBloc’s Sales Dashboard gives you key insights into your leads and helps you monitor the efficacy of your sales efforts. Some examples of sales-specific reports you can generate in AgencyBloc include:
“We've been with AgencyBloc one year, and we love the streamlined processes. We wanted a system to centralize our client communications and commissions. AgencyBloc has saved us a significant amount of time; it allows me to do what I do best: finding new clients and training our agents.” —Vanessa V., Voss Insurance Group
“AgencyBloc is amazing, simple to use, user friendly, and has impeccable staff. They are always looking for new ways to improve and truly listen to their clients. They recently launched a sales pipeline feature that has truly changed the game for a one-stop-shop for all things CRM and insurance management!” —Trudy P., Diversified Life Solutions Brokers Ltd.
Agency Management System Tools for the Sales Agent
As an insurance agent, your goal is to efficiently manage your book of business, boost retention, and increase your conversions–and an AMS can be a huge help in all of this.
Client Management
Keeping all of your client notes, activities, and attachments in one place can give you more insight into each contact within your book of business. These detailed historical records of conversations, interactions, sales, choices, and more can help you build better manage leads and clients. Not only does this help you stay current with your contact communications, but this can also assist with errors and omissions (E&O) claims.
Activities (tasks) in AgencyBloc cannot be deleted or altered, so they’re a factual record of what you’ve discussed with the contact, what they’ve chosen, and how you’ve proceeded. You can use these to help protect yourself should E&O claims arise.
Calendar and Automated Workflow
When it comes to maintaining your book of business, client retention and customer service are key. However, when you’re busy, it’s easy to let both of these fall to the wayside in the pursuit of new sales.
To help, use an agency management system that prompts you to reach out–or even does it for you! AgencyBloc’s Automated Workflow helps you stay on top of those crucial touchpoints you must have throughout the year, such as:
- Client anniversary
- Client birthday and half birthday
- Three months into policy
- Six months into policy
- Policy renewals
You can also streamline renewal season touchpoints, as Automated Workflow sends triggered tasks and emails to you and emails to your clients. It simplifies the process and can help you stay in touch even when you’re swamped.
Cloud-Based Storage
Cloud-based data storage gives you the ability to securely access your book of business from any location, at any time, from any device. This means you can easily service your clients even on the go, which makes them happier and more likely to stay with you.
Dashboard Analytics and Custom Reporting
Growth is the main goal of many agencies, and an AMS can help facilitate that. Growth can include two distinct groups: cross-sells and new business. With analytics and reporting tools, you’re able to easily find cross-selling opportunities in your current book of business.
In terms of new business, you can run lead source reports to find your most profitable lead sources so that you know where to better focus your efforts.
Sales Pipeline
Growth is much more achievable when you have the tools to manage your sales. Whether you’re bringing in new business or growing existing business, you want to be able to track your efforts, monitor your sales process, and have a view of what’s happening.
AgencyBloc’s Sales Pipeline uses a Kanban-style board that visually shows how many contacts are in your pipeline, what stage they’re in, how fresh/stale they are, the likelihood of converting them, and what the goal close date is.
Every agent has a sales process. AgencyBloc’s Sales Pipeline gives you a visual way to analyze yours and see how it’s working, where you’re thriving, and how you can improve.
Quoting & Proposals
As you know, the quoting and proposal process can be time-consuming. Thankfully, Quote+, an AgencyBloc solution, streamlines this process by giving you a central location to create and manage insurance quotes, proposals, and enrollments. You’re also able to use our secure, private marketplace to easily get quotes for medically underwritten, community rated, and ancillary products from a range of carriers.
Not only does Quote+ take the headache out of the quoting and proposal process, but it also saves you time–which is especially valuable during Open Enrollment.
“AgencyBloc has helped our agents to be more efficient and effective with our business and with our clients.” —Shirley V., Advantage Insurance Benefits
“One of the difficult things, when you're a single agent like I am, is that you don't have time to manage your database. I was really missing a complete database with all of my information in one place. AgencyBloc solved that problem for me. It has saved me hours every month of going through my commissions line by line. It's well worth the investment and the time to manage your data properly.” —Randy F., Foulds Health Insurance Agency
Is AgencyBloc for you?
Finding the right platform for your agency can be the difference between thriving and just surviving.
AgencyBloc is the #1 Agency Recommended Management Platform for life and health insurance agencies. With the right tools and industry-specific features, AgencyBloc is designed to help agencies, like yours, scale and grow. We’ve helped thousands of agencies reach their goals, whether it’s growth, organization, efficiency, and beyond.
See AgencyBloc's Capabilities First-Hand
Schedule your personalized one-on-one, live demo with one of our industry experts to see how AgencyBloc can help organize, automate, and grow your agency today.
This blog was originally published on October 22, 2019, updated on May 20, 2021, and updated again on April 11, 2023.
By Allison Babberl on April 11, 2023 in Technology
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 Kuzmeski More articles