![]() Now, thanks to e-signature, that 11-day turnaround time can be cut down to 48 hours, according to the RightSure and DocuSign study. ![]() While email invariably made signing off on a policy easier, it still relies on printing and scanning the policy and mailing it or arranging to meet in person, and requires agents to follow up multiple times to get the deal done. In the paper world, getting a signature from a client on a new account and receiving a completed agreement via postal mail could take up to 11 days, according to a case study conducted by RightSure and DocuSign. The time savings of going paperless are perhaps best demonstrated in the process of getting that all-important signature. With home renewals, for example, “we have an online form that we request people to fill out every couple of years that captures information like updates to the roof, heating, plumbing, electrical and any other changes,” Page says. “It’s huge from an underwriting perspective.” “We’ve built some forms in-house that allow us to collect enough information in the fewest steps possible and complete each transaction in a simplified manner,” he explains. After digitizing the necessary files and implementing processes for scanning, storing and eventually shredding almost every piece of paper in the agency, Page and staff have been able to take things a step further. When Page took the reins of his agency 11 years ago, “I came in and said, ‘All the paper has to go-we’re going electronic,’” he recalls. “Many moons ago, we had many more people doing the same amount of work. “The impact is huge,” says George Page, Jr., president of Page Insurance in Guilford, Connecticut. When intentionally implemented, an abundance of non-paper technology-such as e-signature, fillable PDFs, agency management systems and downloadable applications-can improve productivity and free up time and money for agencies to grow their business. If yours is one of the agencies that isn’t yet paperless, here are four reasons why you should be. But considering the benefits of recalibrating your relationship with paper, those figures seem low. “We are now paperless and very happy to be more efficient.”Ĭurrently, 58% of personal lines agencies and 46% of commercial lines agencies are paperless-an increase from 46% and 38%, respectively, in 2016, according to the 2018 Future One Agency Universe Study. “And then we started the shred process,” Lamb says. The first step was hiring a high-school student to scan the backlog of files into a content management system to digitize the mass of paper files that engulfed an entire room at the agency. We even used paper when a file was taken out of the folder to make it easier to refile the file-that’s just the way agents did things back then.”Ībout five years ago, Lamb’s agency made the decision to “pull the switch” and say, “OK, now we’re done with paper,” she says. “We’d do paper applications, paper forms-you name it, we used paper. In the old days, “there was paper for everything,” says Patricia Lamb, president of Select Insurance Services Agency Inc. Some agents will also remember the slogan “Paper-Free in ’83,” which, despite some progress, is still a long way from fruition. Many insurance agents can recall the daily endeavor of picking up the phone to a customer, listening to their request, putting them on hold, getting out of their seat, visiting the filing cabinet and pulling the relevant file in order to service their account.
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