Insurtech: An Easy to Understand Guide for Your Agency

Insurtech (insurance technology or insurance tech) is a type of technology used by insurance companies. In simple terms, it is a type of technology that provides a competitive edge in many ways.

Insurtech companies, including smaller insurtech startups, offer products and services to meet almost every need you can think of for your agency. In this article, you’ll learn more about:

• Why insurance technology is important
• Whether insurtech is just another technology trend
• How insurance technology helps your clients
• How insurtech improves risk and agency performance
• How insurtech can be your agency’s competitive edge

Prior to COVID-19, the insurance industry began experiencing significant changes from various technology trends: social media, online platforms to process changes, and more. 

They provide trustworthy solutions designed to meet what insurance carriers and agencies need.

Why Is Insurtech Important?

Insurtech is important because it can help your agency in different ways, including:

• Improve risk assessment capabilities when offering insurance products and services to prospective and active clients
• Improve the insurance claims process
• Help your insurance agency manage its social media (yes, that really does count as insurance technology; anything that helps your agency with digital transformation counts as insurance technology)
• Provides an opportunity to increase the performance of your agency

Insurance technology can be important to your agency for specific reasons, but it depends on your needs. For example, some insurtech relies on AI (artificial intelligence). It could enable your agency to have 24/7 customer service for prospective and active clients. A chatbot on your website could answer basic questions about the insurance services you offer and the insurance companies you partner with. It could provide quotes for life insurance.

Your insurtech could provide custom insurance offerings, claims processing, customer service, and how to find you on social media for clients who log in. 

Is Insurtech Just Another Technology Trend?

As fast as technology moves, it is a fair assumption that the idea of insurtech is just another technology trend. Except, if the pandemic taught us anything, it is that insurance companies and our clients needed (and continue to need) a digital transformation to access insurance options, claims processing, customer service, and access to policy information. If you’ve used an app on your phone to pay a bill or access information for financial services, you’ve experienced exactly what your clients want and need out of insurtech.

Because insurtech serves both clients and insurance companies, it will continue to stay around. Clients and prospective clients wanted these solutions before the pandemic and relied on them during the pandemic. People who were suspicious of technology before the pandemic were thrust into using these apps and continue to use them since they are more convenient than waiting on hold to talk to customer service with the insurance company.

For businesses like yours in the insurance industry, the digital transformation may have felt unnecessary or unneeded before or during the pandemic. Yet, insurtech helped the insurance industry take the ability to run a successful and profitable agency to a remote level, including customer service, claims processing, and risk assessment. Insurtech can also be used to help you maximize your profits.

How Insurance Technology Helps Your Clients

Insurance technology helps your clients and your prospective clients in many ways. Some of those ways are broad. Some of those ways are more specific, depending on what precisely the insurance tech provides.

From a broad perspective, insurance technology helps your clients by saving them time and by giving them the convenience of accessing information whenever they want it or need it. Fewer things in life are more frustrating for people than needing to talk to a customer service agent, an insurance claims agent, wanting to get policy information or even needing to start an insurance quote on a new product or service, and it’s after business hours, the weekend, or a holiday. And, yes, there are still some insurance carriers who don’t have anyone available on those days.

If your agency offered this type of accessibility, imagine how your clients and even prospective clients would feel. Insurtech companies provide agencies with this competitive edge!

Specific insurance technology apps provide more options than others. So, what you would choose depends on what you want to offer to your clients. For example, you choose an insurtech option that provides claims processing because that is the most requested feature you have from your clients. Perhaps you choose an insurance tech option that enables your clients and prospective clients to complete a quote for their insurance needs within the app. It might then give them options and a way to purchase through the app while also adding them to your email list.

How Insurtech Improves Risk & Agency Performance.

So, can Insuretech improve risk and agency performance, or is it all about improving the lives of clients? Of course, improving the lives of clients improves your life by default.

They’re more likely to refer your agency to their friends and family.

While we’ve focused a lot on how insurtech helps clients and prospective clients, it also improves risk management and agency performance. Certain insurtech companies are explicitly designed to help insurance companies and insurance agencies with risk assessment and improve risk. Some focus on underwriting. Insurance technology is a wonderful world because you can find technology that matches the insurance services you want to improve.

Insurtech can improve agency performance as well, depending on the type that you adopt. For example, using chatbots on your website to answer basic questions about the insurance offerings from your agency can drastically reduce the amount of time you spend answering those basic questions. Offering clients and prospective clients the ability to begin insurance quotes or start the claims processing process online or through an app can also improve performance. You or your employees can devote more time to other activities.

Insurtech & Your Agency: Your Competitive Edge!

Insurtech is not a technology trend! It is a competitive edge that you can use to both make your clients happy that they chose your agency and better improve how your agency operates. The hardest part is choosing the best insurance technology services for your agency!