Breaking down barriers: the impact of digital data intake on carrier-agent relationships

Let's face it. The way we communicate with carriers is broken. We fill out forms, make phone calls, fix errors, and constantly scan for updates. And we need to do it for multiple carriers.

It’s a long, drawn-out process that's not only tedious but also inefficient.

How claims and policy download improve carrier communications

The introduction of claims and policy download significantly improved how independent agents communicate with carriers.

Claims and policy download are industry-standard message processes to download policyholder information from an insurer’s claims systems directly into an agency management system. It allows a company to send detailed claims and policy information to keep agents up to date with the submissions, underwriting, claim adjustment, and settlement processes of the insurer. 

Sure, the claims and policy download process made things a lot easier. And it's a great start.

However, it's far from perfect. Not all carriers have adopted the claims and policy download process. And for those that have, carriers still use different formats for labeling policyholder data, making it difficult to keep track of information.

Digital data intake: The next step in carrier communication

But there's more that can be done. Digital data intake is the logical next step. Instead of manually collecting customer information in the first place, collect customer data in a fully-digital format for easy sharing and synchronization with carrier systems.

Digital customer data intake is acquiring digital data from customers through user-friendly digital journeys. It allows you to quickly and accurately collect customer data, signatures, and documents and remove friction from the data collection process.

Digital data intake can streamline communications across the policy lifecycle, including:

• Submissions: A digital customer journey can be quickly built and deployed to capture submission data in a single step.
• Underwriting and Quoting: Automate collecting customer data, signatures, and documents for underwriting.
• Loss Reports: quickly capture loss report information.
• Policy Servicing: Automatically capture customer data from policy renewals, changes or cancellations.
• Claims Intake: Quickly capture claims information with digital journeys.
• Billing: Self-service application for policy renewals greatly reduces time-consuming phone calls for billing inquiries.

Features of a digital data intake process

So what makes digital data intake different? Here are some of the features that make digital data especially useful to insurance agencies:

• User-friendly data collection UIs: Collect customer data, signatures, and documents from any device in a single step.
• Simplified integration: Easily integrate and sync with multiple carrier systems.
• Integrate with multiple carriers: Collect data once from the customer, and adapt data sharing based on individual carrier requirements. Customize data sharing for each carrier.
• Automated workflow: Two-way syncing with carrier systems ensures that everyone is on the same page.
• Intelligent data capture: Smart validations at the point of entry ensure the verification of customer data before it even makes it into your internal systems. This prevents costly mistakes and lengthy back-and-forth communications with policyholders and carriers.
• Secure storage and document sharing: All information is stored securely in an encrypted format so only authorized users can access the data. Avoid sending important documents via email, and instead, securely store and share customer documents.
• Multi-channel support: Support customers from multiple channels, including web, mobile, SMS, voice.
• Adaptive technology: Create custom forms quickly and easily without coding.
• Audit trail: Track all customer interactions, including who entered what and when.
• Data insights: Get valuable data insights to help improve operational efficiency and customer experience.

Benefits of digital data intake for independent agents

For independent agents, digital data intake offers a number of benefits:

• Streamlined processes: Eliminate manual data entry and tedious paperwork and streamline the entire policy lifecycle with automated workflows to improve operational efficiency.
• Improved customer experience: Offer self-service applications for policy renewals, changes or cancellations.
• Increased sales efficiency: Automatically collect customer data for underwriting and quoting and boost policy sales growth.
• Improved carrier communications: Automatically share customer data with carriers to increase accuracy and ensure timely decisions.
• Improved customer experience: Customers get a better experience through user-friendly digital journeys, quick document capture, and secure storage of documents.
• Faster response times: Automated workflows allow for faster responses from carriers and improved customer satisfaction.

Digital data intake is an essential tool for independent agents that helps to reduce the complexity of carrier/agent communications, eliminate paperwork and manual data entry, boost policy sales growth, improve customer experience, and ensure timely decisions from carriers. It's a great way to take your agency operations to the next level.