What are your professional resolutions for next year? Maybe you want to take your insurance game up a level and streamline your operations? Or maybe you’d like to implement new tools to help you provide even better service to your customers? Whatever your professional resolution is, IPFS® is here to support you with our Legendary Service®* coupled with One Platform of powerful tools and technology. Here are some ideas to get you started:

1. Generate more lead

In an increasingly busy world, it’s important to implement automated lead generation methods. Automating lead generation cuts down on the amount of time insurance providers need to invest in the process while also providing an easy and convenient method for connect with customers. This broadens your potential customer base, helping to increase the potential number of leads to be captured.

Online forms and quotes can capture email addresses while simultaneously helping on-the-go clients access the information they need to get started on a policy. When you collect this data, you are able to use it to follow up with potential customers, better understand their target demographic and market, and discover what services are most needed.

2. Reduce cancellations

Maintaining consistent coverage is essential for your insureds, and it’s also an important time-saver for your agency. When your insureds have fewer cancellations, you spend less time reinstating policies and more time selling insurance.

In studying the impact of our cancellation avoidance tools, IPFS found that:

• Insureds who register on ipfs.com are 4.9 times less likely to have cancelled accounts.
• eForms users are 1.6 times less likely to have cancelled accounts.
• Account holders who sign up for cancellation alert text messages are 1.7 times less likely to have cancelled accounts.**

IPFS’s cancellation avoidance tools are simple to sign up for and easy-to-use, making them an easily accessible tool for your agency. We’re here to help you reduce cancellations and spend more time doing what you do best – serving your customers.

3. Increase income

When your agency offers premium financing, you gain access to a much broader audience of insureds when compared to your competitors who don’t offer financing capabilities. Insureds with financing options can secure the coverage they need all while maintaining the flexibility to use their working capital most effectively. When insureds have access to premium financing through IPFS, you are empowering them with access to:

• Flexible terms and a fixed interest rate for the length of their loan
• The ability to finance multiple policies within one loan agreement with the convenience of a single bill
• A low minimum amount financed and no maximum requirements
• Electronic contract submission and convenient eForm electronic notices (where permitted by state law), reducing the volume of paperwork associated with the process
• Easy and convenient payment options

By expanding your potential audience of insureds, your agency is better positioned to secure more policies. Premium financing can also increase the potential dollar value of the policies offered, as insureds can pursue higher cost coverage options that might otherwise be out of their preferred price range.

4. Implement a wider range of payment options

Flexible payment options allow your customers to pay their premiums in the way that is most efficient and convenient for them. Some of the most important payment options include:

• Online payments via ACH or credit card
• ACH or credit card payments made over the phone via our Interactive voice response system, or a live associate
• Check or money order
• Preauthorized recurring ACH or credit card payments
• Bank bill payment

At IPFS, we understand the importance of making sure your insureds have access to the payment options they need. We offer One Platform of solutions designed to connect your insureds with a wide range of payment options.

5. Expedite your sales cycle

When your back office saves time by expediting the sales cycle, your front office (and your insureds) will benefit. That’s why it’s important to have a cohesive set of tools designed to enhance your office’s efficiency. IPFS designed our One Platform of solutions with this in mind. From flexible online payment options to cancellation avoidance alerts, IPFS’s One Platform is your one-stop-shop for the solutions you need to streamline your operations and expedite your sales cycle.

6. Improve your customers’ experience with your website

Regardless of industry, customers across the board appreciate an easy-to-use website. When you implement a functional and visually appealing website, you are better positioned to attract new customers while retaining existing customers. As you think about what you want your website to look like and do, keep in mind that high-quality insurance agent websites are:

• Clear and easy-to-use – customers should be able to easily request a quote, contact your agency, or review their current insurance coverage.
• Responsive – meaning they automatically adjust to look good on any device.
• Built on a platform that can easily scale up – as your business and client base grows, you may want to be able to upgrade your website hosting plan to allow for more pages or features.

7. Streamline document delivery and signature and down payment collection processes

When your agency sends documents and collects signatures and down payments electronically, insureds can quickly and easily work through the process of getting the coverage they need. Electronic document delivery allows for paperless processing of loan agreements while also powering a more customized workflow for collecting signatures.

IPFS offers eSign because we understand how important it is for insureds to be able to sign important documents electronically. In a few seconds and with a few clicks, insurance agents can send documents and receive signatures back, and even utilize IPFS to collect the down payment expediting your sales cycle and getting your insureds quickly connected with the coverage they need.

8. Integrate your Agency Management System (AMS) for better efficiency

When you integrate your AMS, you can access powerful reporting functions, automate time-consuming data entry, and track opportunities – all with a few clicks. Integrations like those offered by IPFS can empower your agency to:

• Streamline data entry tasks
• Easily sign in across all systems
• Quickly and easily transmit data across systems
• Generate and submit premium finance agreements electronically

Getting set up with integrations in the coming year will better position your agency to provide your customers with fast, high-quality service.

Offering insurance doesn’t have to be a complicated, multi-step process. Make 2023 the year that your insurance agency gets set up with the tools and technology you need to streamline your operations for both new and existing customers.

*Legendary Service is a registered trademark of Blanchard Training and Development, Inc.

**IPFS collected this data from 2016 to 2019.