When Marty McFly traveled to 2015 in Back to the Future II, the movie emphasized the increased use of technology in people’s everyday lives. While we may not have flying cars or automated dog walkers, society today isn’t too far off from their predictions.
From automated robots rolling around grocery stores waiting to help customers at the push of a button, to purchasing a brand new car online, we are living in the age of the Internet of Things.
The insurance industry, however, has been slow to adapt to this increasingly digitized environment. While the world around them is enjoying futuristic amenities, agents are still doing a lot of work manually and over long periods of time.
This is where insurtechs can help.
We know there is one major concern about introducing these solutions into the insurance industry: insurtechs will take away the need for independent agents. But we’re here to show you this is just a myth; independent agents and insurtechs actually go hand-in-hand.
A Relationship that Benefits Both Parties
The sole purpose of most insurtechs are to use technological innovations to increase margins and efficiencies that you don’t get from the current insurance model. A key area to begin working toward this goal is starting with independent agents.
Agents need a more streamlined approach to their everyday tasks, and insurtechs can provide that.
Agents will see a wide variety of benefits from a partnership with an insurtech: greater insight into customer needs, faster decision time, increase in productivity, improvement of claims transparency, a reduced likelihood of fraud, and more.
Insurtechs are here to help independent agents grow, and let their agencies enjoy the financial benefits of that growth. The more efficient an agent can be, the more time they will have to focus on what’s important: write more business.
While quoting solution insurtechs can assist independent agents in obtaining multiple insurance quotes in a matter of minutes and bind the transaction right there, payment solutions can digitize your payment system and allow for customers to pay effortlessly by just a click of a button. There are a variety of different insurtechs that can help your agency in multiple areas.
Insurtech Won’t Replace Independent Agents
The goal of most insurtechs is not to do the job of an independent agent, but to be an asset for independent agents to use. There are also a large group of insurtechs that don’t work with independent agents, but instead offer benefits in other areas of the industry.
It’s important to remember that a key component of independent agents can never be replaced by insurtechs: human connection. In today’s world, now more than ever before, people are looking for people.
The expertise and knowledge of seasoned industry professionals is still highly valued and sought out; insurtechs can’t replace this. Instead, it is the partnership and collaboration between the professionals and the technology advantages of insurtechs that will change the insurance industry together.
What’s Right For You?
The decision to partner with an insurtech is different for everyone. Every agency has its own pain points and requires different solutions to fix them. So if you’re looking to partner with an insurtech, make sure you know how to find the right one for your agency.
