The thought of suiting up, commuting and sitting in an office for eight hours a day is the definition or agony for many young professionals. Millennials, Generation Y, people born from 1974-1980; whatever you want to call them, this segment has been exposed to the internet and mobile communication for most of their professional lives. And for many, this exposure has instilled a sense of connectivity carried from work to home to play. 

In referring to Millennials, an article on BrightHub states:

“The influence of this new and completely different workforce will bring with it a tsunami of change. These workers are not cube-dwellers, they are an instant gratification, naturally multi-tasking, technology-eating/breathing and consuming force that will join the voices of the older Baby Boomers who are also demanding flexibility in their work opportunities.”

From an insurance business perspective, whether you’re seeking new talent or trying to hold on to existing team members, understanding this paradigm shift and surrounding yourself with the right people is key to growing your agency. A staff that clocks in at nine, clocks out at five and takes a one-hour lunch break in the afternoon is an archaic model.

Flexibility works both ways however. While you may not feel great about an employee sauntering in at 10:30 a.m. on a Tuesday; the client email they respond to at 10:30 on a Saturday night can make up for that extra hour of sleep. The key is having the right insurance technology solutions and infrastructure in place to monitor productivity and make communication efficient.

Social media is creating new portals for 24/7 communication but can also introduce privacy risks when personal information is available. While social media tools are excellent for support, a virtual insurance office that is constantly generating leads and offering visitors a “storefront” experience is the first step towards streamlining your agency for the next generation of insurance professionals.

Lead generation is obviously important, but from the Millennials perspective, the virtual insurance office must provide access to client and policy information. Work is done from laptops at children’s doctor’s appointment or on smartphones while at the local coffee shop, and not necessarily in a poorly decorated cubicle. What’s more? This on-the-go business execution can generate more leads just by having agents out in public.

Is your agency prepared to handle the demands of Millennials, who, consequently, will make up the bulk of new insurance policy buyers in the coming years? You are if you use their tools and play by their rules.

(Special thanks to Steve Anderson for inspiring this article.)

Independent insurance agents no longer need to be convinced that integrating technology is a good idea. Choosing which technologies to integrate and how to leverage them to achieve insurance marketing objectives are definite challenges.   In conjunction with the Agents Council for Technology (ACT), the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America (IIABA) recently posted an article on this topic recommending technology solutions agents can use to streamline businesses practices.

The article, written by insurance technology luminary Steve Anderson and aptly titled, Technology Tips to Boost Agency Productivity, “…provides independent agencies with practical guidance on ten tools that could boost their productivity and marketing effectiveness in 2010.”

The Insurance Marketing HQ whittled Steve’s list down to three, but depending on an agencies needs, any of the choices could be valuable additions.

Voice Recognition
“People have always talked to their computers — using four-letter words in many cases — and until recently, computers didn’t listen very well. Affordable, usable, and reliable voice recognition software has been an ‘any day now’ technology for at least a decade. If you tried it in the past and gave up you should give it a fresh look. I use and recommend Dragon NaturallySpeaking (version 10 preferred). The software works seamlessly with Microsoft Word, Excel, Internet Explorer, and Outlook. It is available at many retail stores and through www.nuance.com.”

Send & Receive Large Files
“Being able to attach large files to an e-mail to send to someone else is becoming more difficult as organizations place limits on the size of received e-mails. This problem can arise when trying to send a submission to an underwriter or with a client who needs to send you a picture or large spreadsheet. www.SendThisFile.com and www.YouSendIt.com are Web-based services that streamline the process of sending and receiving large files.”

Outlook (Email) Rules
“Outlook rules will help you flag a particular e-mail so that you can respond appropriately. For example, you might want to set up a rule that whenever an e-mail is received from one of your top ten clients, Outlook will notify you of the received e-mail. Fortunately, Outlook provides a step-by-step process that allows you to create a rule easily.”

IMHQ Tech Tip:
Digsby.com – IM, Email and social networks in one, easy-to-use application. If your agency is involved with different communities on the social web, Digsby organizes them all together providing a dashboard-column driving experience and real-time alerts (that can be turned off) anytime someone comments, tweets, becomes a fan, etc. It’s also great for inter-office communication as it integrates IM services like AIM and Google Talk.

(IMHQ strongly recommends agencies draft a social media policy so employees understand how to use without abuse.)

American Agent & Broker Magazine recently published a roundtable style interview with six top insurance industry consultants in the December, Review and Outlook 2009-2010 issue. The article, “It’s the economy-and more…” offers the combined knowledge of Presidents and CEO’s from Colorado to Maine, asking questions about what’s important to agents in 2010.

While the economy remains a top concern, surviving and growing in the current economic client is the matter at hand. The reoccurring points to take away from this article involve integrating streamlined technology and social media into marketing plans and overall company culture, initiatives the Insurance Marketing HQ fully endorses.

Excerpts from the roundtable are included below:

What are the top 3 concerns of your clients, and has this changed from a year ago?

Demmie Hicks (President and CEO, DBH Consulting): A primary concern of agencies and brokerages is how to achieve organic growth in the recession.

Rick Gilman (APR, CMP, Communications Consultant): The economy and the impact of M&As on growth, which has not changed from last year. Another concern is the growth of viral marketing and staying on top of the technology, which was not really on the radar a year ago.

Howard E. Candage (President, H.E. Candage Inc.): The state of the agent community is a definite concern. Customers are directly acquiring insurance products through the Internet and direct marketing.  Agencies face increasing expenses and diminishing marginal compensation and the capitalization width is thinning. Agents should change their market opportunities by using the Internet, especially with social networking.

What new technologies should today’s agents and brokers invest in?

Rob Lieblein (Managing Partner, Hales & Co.): The big trend that you are seeing in technology is that all major management system vendors have migrated their applications to the Web and are offering hosted solutions. ..We see the need for many benefit firms to upgrade their technology platforms to become more efficient during a period when their revenues and margins are being squeezed. We believe that technology is going to be one of the key.

Hicks: Because we don’t traffic in technology solutions, it’s hard to say which specific technologies we would recommend. But related to technology is social media, which portends major change for our industry. People are becoming increasingly used to receiving only the communication they want, when they want it. An agency or brokerage that isn’t using social media as a strategy by the end of 2010 will find itself running to catch up.

Chris Burand (President, Burand & Associates. LLC): Before investing in new technologies, agencies should invest in training their employees on their current technologies, some of which are extremely basic. These technologies are essential going forward and if the employees are not using them, these investments and any new investments will be wasted…Agencies going after large accounts need to invest in technology that will reduce cost and increase the profitability of their clients.

Gilman: Agents and brokers should be looking at social media to improve marketing and relationship building with clients and prospects. Agents and brokers also should invest in Real Time technologies to improve internal efficiencies and broaden CSR potential by focusing more on sales and service. 

Candage: Agents and brokers should use the Internet to provide relationship marketing, communicating with their customers in multiple ways to their preference and using your Web presence more effectively. Agents should also communicate with their companies in a more uniform and effective way

What opportunities do you expect to see in 2010?

Gilman: Technology developments offer the greatest opportunities for everyone. Your agency can become anything you can imagine. Perhaps the greatest challenge is in the limitations of the insurance products our industry offers. The technology can free up the true potential and creativity of the insurance industry so finding the right match between the market and the flexibility of technology might prove to be the ultimate opportunity.

Thank you Mr. Gilman, we couldn’t have said it better ourselves.