Finding the Right Ratio - Combining Relationships, Trust & Technology in the Modern Insurance World
By Combined Ratio Solutions May 20th, 2021
My word is my bond is a phrase that means you will always do what you say you will. People can believe in and trust you when you make a commitment. The Latin version is written on the Coat of Arms of the London Stock Exchange and dates back to the days when people did business on the basis of their word, a handshake and the relationship that followed.
Fast forward to the modern insurance market. Throw in the role of changing technology, changing people and their impact on the way business actually gets done. Consider the value of the relationship in the modern insurance business in context of the transformative promises of technology, and you’ll see a confluence of forces. Forces that create uncertainty around how to “digitally transform,” how to manage a change in carrier-agency leadership, and confusion about how to balance the technological side with the human element in order to continue to foster relationships, compete and win.
In this series of blogs we will explore how best to establish your formula for combining technology and people into a winning recipe. A recipe that finds the right ratio of technology and people and one that enhances the ability to form and manage relationships in an era of technological and social change.
Who Are We and Why You Should Care?
We’re Combined Ratio Solutions and we find that P&C Insurers struggle to identify their best agencies. Some agency producers consistently write profitable business, and some don’t. Popular CRMs are too generic to spot the different ways your people work with the agencies to grow revenue. Insurtech providers talk about digital transformation and the customer experience, but they don’t speak the language of relationships and agency management. Combining technology with the human touch is the way to success. This is where our Agency Engagement Platform “CRS Impact” comes in. Impact helps identify your best producers along with the insight as to what makes them the best. Then you can repeat the same behavior and expect the same result – lower risk, more revenue and improved profits. That’s not insane it’s just good business.
Let’s talk about the main ideas behind this blog series. As we’ve said, while we’re a technology company we believe that success is in finding the balance between that technology and the human side. Our Agency Engagement Platform is about delivering the insights you need to improve your agency business. We’ve built technology to help you do that and we see that technology as augmenting the human side of the relationships you establish and preserve with your agency producers.
In this blog series we’ll explore the three forces that are combining to drive ambiguity in how to best drive relationships with your agency producers:
· Digital Transformation
· The Looming Talent Cliff
· The Irresistible Force (technology) Meets the Immovable Object (behavioral inertia)
We’ll offer some advice about how to best resist the temptation to take one of the two extreme approaches available to us:
· the technology obsession (i.e. if its NOT a technology answer, then it’s not an answer)
· OR the technology denial (refusing to believe that the carrier – agency dynamic has changed or that technology can enhance this relationship at all.)
We’ll lay out the arguments (and rely on some third parties for support) that carriers and agencies still depend on personal relationships to generate the trust needed for friction free business. Success will be found by companies that accept this and that focus their “digital” more around “adapting” to it than treating it as a “transformative” force. We’ll talk about why this is a more effective way of thinking about this technology and then how best to leverage it to enhance your agency relationships.
Finally, will take that point one step further and draw some conclusions on:
· Digital Transformation Vs Digital Adaptation
o Accept that your business mission (and that of your agency producers) – to continually better serve your customer – has NOT changed.
o Present some ideas on taking a more nuanced approach that embraces and adapts to technology without allowing it to assume this intimidating “transformational” role.
· Why “relationships” still matter
o The role of trust in the sales end of the carrier – agency business
o How trust is best established and preserved by a combination of people AND technology - by communicating and sharing the two key elements of trust – ability and character.
The “Combined Ratio”
In everyday insurance language, we all know what the combined ratio is and why it matters to insurers. We’re suggesting that there’s another way we can also use it… the combining of technology and the human side into a ratio that best enables your business success. It’s about finding the right balance. In this case the combining of people and technology into the right ratios that leverage the best of technology with the trust of your word and the value of your relationship. And its not all about us. We’ll rely on other colleagues in the business to provide their opinions that support and even refute our ideas (it’s a free country.) And it’s about YOU. Feel free to share your thoughts with us as the blog goes on over the next few weeks.
