Online smart forms change how this commercial insurance agent works.

When Parker Christian left his sales position with the San Francisco 49ers and began his career as a Commercial Lines Account Representative at HUB International, he was struck by the level of detail-heavy, manual entry work the job required. He expected commercial insurance to be complex, but was taken aback by the slow pace that legacy processes caused. The reliance on paper forms for renewing policies was especially jarring. 

“After experiencing that, using the Broker Buddha platform was a no-brainer for me,” Christian noted. 

Staying connected during the pandemic. 

Like most of us, Christian is now working full-time from his home office. He’s grateful that HUB had already made it possible for him to work remotely a few days each week, so it has been a relatively seamless transition. 

Staying connected to clients has never been more important, and Broker Buddha has helped Christian do that. He’s fielding more inquiries than ever from customers, and there is no shortage of emails that are stamped TIME-SENSITIVE. Every minute counts right now, and being able to rely on our software to automate tasks frees him up to deliver the kind of service that clients need right now. 

Growing his book efficiently. 

Prior to the coronavirus outbreak, Christian’s book had grown nearly 25% over the past two years. That kind of expansion is enviable, but he needed a way to scale quickly to handle all that new business. 

Christian started using Broker Buddha in May of 2019, and the automation has been the biggest benefit for him. Previously, following up on renewal applications was very time-consuming and inefficient. Emails could be ignored or disappear into a client’s InBox, voice mails might not be checked, and some communications could get lost in CRM software. 

“Account managers only have so many hours in a day,” Christian explained. “So if you keep adding clients, you need to keep adding people—unless you can leverage technology.”

Now, with automated email reminders and pre-filled forms, Christian says he saves, “...about two to two-and-a-half hours every week,” by using Broker Buddha for renewals. Not only is that a lot of additional time each week, it’s freedom from the kind of tedious work that nobody enjoys.  

The Customer Experience in Commercial Insurance

Technology companies and emerging food companies are a key focus for his California-based agency. Both categories are filled with clients who are accustomed to taking advantage of the benefits of new technology.  

“These are companies that are looking for the next big thing,” said Christian. “And the people who work at them are not especially excited about filling out a bunch of old-school forms. They are far more likely to tackle the renewal when they can get it done online.”

Transparency in the renewal process. 

It’s not just that clients typically return renewal forms more quickly than they did in the past. There is also valuable transparency, because Broker Buddha makes it easy for agents to see how much their customers have completed. 

“If I look and see that a customer has started a form but only completed about 70% of it, we can ping them. It’s a great nudge to get them to give it the attention it needs to finish the job. When it was an email with a PDF attached, I couldn’t even tell if they’d read it.”

With the extra time he’s gained, Christian can focus on further growth. Right now, of course, that might not be on the immediate agenda, as agencies help their clients navigate through the pandemic. When this ends, however, the push to both acquire new business and retain existing clients will be on, and agents that have automated the renewal process will have an edge. 

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What’s more, when the economy restarts, companies will have no shortage of issues that demand the immediate attention of their people. That means they’ll have little patience for an old-school commercial insurance renewal process, and enhancing the customer experience with our platform will be an effective way to increase retention. 

White Glove Service

To get even more out of Broker Buddha, Christian has started using our White Glove Service. It frees him from spending hours of time setting up new accounts or renewal templates—our team takes that on for him. 

“I’ve always had great experiences with the Customer Success team at Broker Buddha, so I was confident White Glove Service would be a real benefit,” added Christian. “In the past, 80-90% of my time on the platform was inputting financial information—now that’s handled for me.”
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Making the most of every minute, doing more with less, staying connected to customers—the advantages of our platform were obvious to Parker Christian nearly a year ago. They were always valuable, and during these challenging times, they may be more important than ever.