Renewals are an integral part of every insurance agent and broker’s business. Not only is it a time to ensure agencies retain existing commissions, but it also affords teams the opportunity to connect with their customers and cross-sell and upsell new products. However, without a properly integrated AMS and CRM system, agents are left without the means to properly manage the renewal process, putting their retention strategy in serious jeopardy.
Rate increases for renewals today range between 2% and 15% and form an important part of an agent's annual income. Renewals are also a vitally important time for Producers to touch base with their customer and review their risk coverage requirements.
While the renewal process can offer great opportunities for agents and Producers, it can also be particularly challenging.
Clients will often use the time to look for better or more affordable options, and this has increased as consumers struggle with cost-of-living pressures.
To make each renewal count, it’s vital for Producers to be up to date with their client’s current coverage needs, including new purchases, new additions to the family, and any other aspect that may need new or revised cover.
Successful agents will begin the renewal process around 120 days before the policy falls due, reviewing the client’s needs. They will then set up meetings with the clients between 90 and 60 days before renewal.
However, without an AMS and CRM integration, it is difficult to set alerts in their CRM system. In fact, while renewals are meant to appear as new opportunities in Salesforce or deals in HubSpot, they are often not even categorized as existing policies in the agent’s CRM system once they reach their expiration or X-date.
This means that an agent needs to manually pull data from the agency’s AMS, compile an Excel spreadsheet with all the policy information, and create a report that outlines each policy’s X-date. Or, if they choose to use document management systems, they will need to maintain a comprehensive file system with clear labels, organizing documents based on renewal dates. Neither option is efficient, and both open the agent and insurance company to costly errors.
Without proper integration, Producers miss out on all the benefits of a streamlined process. Agents can’t synchronize customer data, track renewals, or initiate workflows. There also is no way to track renewal commissions, jeopardizing annuity income.
Most importantly, it makes it almost impossible for businesses to accurately build and maintain retention reports. These are vital for insurance companies, which suffer one of the highest acquisition costs of any industry.
Synatics’ Data Integration Hub (DIH) syncs the AMS policy data within the CRM system. The solution enables agencies to move data bi-directionally between their AMS and CRM allowing for effortless access to client information in the CRM. This makes Producers’ and agents’ lives administratively seamless and eliminates the need to bounce between multiple systems and screens to access X-date information.
Synatic’s CRM sync integration gives businesses insights into all aspects of their customer policy details. It allows companies to build comprehensive and accurate retention reports and to make better business decisions.
By combining the power of the AMS with the CRM system, agents are empowered to deliver the best service possible. Benefits of this include:
The benefits of an integrated CRM system and AMS collectively result in a higher probability of renewal success. For businesses where more than 80 percent of their revenue is derived from 20 percent of their clients, focus must clearly lie in retaining as many clients as possible. This means ensuring as many successful renewals as possible, which demands a great integration solution – powered by a Synatic data integration hub. To find out how you can improve the integration between your AMS and CRM in order to facilitate easy policy renewals, contact Synatic today.
