When It Comes to Agency Management Systems, ‘By Agents For Agents’ Is Just a Cliche That Sounds Good But Doesn’t Mean You’ll Get Anything Different or Better. Here’s Why…

For over 25 years I’ve been working with agencies helping them to more effectively automate their agency and to increase the productivity of their staff. Along with this I’ve worked with a lot of agency management systems.

It should also be expected that over the years I’ve watched a lot of new management systems get introduced to the industry.

When looking at a management system the first question we ask ourselves is, “Who designed it?”

This is a far more important question than you may realize.

Consider this.

There’s a big difference between living in a home and building a home. If you had the choice between a homeowner or a professional architect designing a home who would you trust?
If a rocket was going to be designed and put together, would you rather the astronaut or a rocket engineer designed it?
If you were building a race car engine, would it make more sense that a race car driver designs it or a mechanic who’s an expert in race car engines?

In other words, does it make more sense that the engineer of the industry or a user of the product design the product?

There’s a lot of things a user doesn’t know and there lies the problem. Let me give you an idea of what I’m talking about.

The Agency CSR’s Are The Smartest. However, They Only Know What They Know

First, let’s establish who in the agency knows the most about agency automation, the management system the agency is using and how to use the management system the best, along with who knows the most about workflows and doing their job as efficiently as their system will allow them.

Consistently this person is the CSR because it’s the CSR who uses the system every day to process their work, service clients, handle policy transactions, process endorsements and renewals (to name a few), and stay on top of policy issues that are outstanding like new applications submitted and open endorsements. Nobody uses the management system more than the CSR.

It’s very clear who’s the most knowledgeable when it comes to agency automation.

It’s not the agency owner. It’s not the producer. It’s not the bookkeeper.

It’s the CSR!

Most everyone would agree with this.

However, an agency’s CSR only knows what they know based upon the training they receive (who trained them?) which is specific to their own agency and the management system they’re on.

Let me give you an example. I did a Productivity Workshop for clients of a specific system back in 2005. This particular system was one of the more efficient systems on the market.

This one agency with 15 users sent 5 of their best CSR’s to this workshop including their lead CSR. The idea was if they learned anything that could help them increase their productive these 5 very experienced CSR’s could train the other CSR’s in the agency.

When the CSR’s entered the workshop they strutted to the front of the room where I was standing and bluntly told me they had no idea why the agency owner felt they should be at this workshop, that they had been on their system for 7 years and were already extremely efficient and didn’t feel like they needed to be at this workshop.

They obviously were not very happy about the owner of the agency sending them to my Productivity Workshop since they already felt like they knew everything there was to know about using the system in the most efficient way possible.

I politely acknowledged their feelings and suggested they have a seat and let me know what they think at noon when we’d be taking a break for lunch.

Those 5 CSR’s started out as a tough crowd sitting in their seats with clearly closed minds from my viewpoint believing they had no reason to be at this productivity workshop. Thankfully they actually listened and took notes.

Lunch came ending the first half of the class.

Immediately after I excused the group for lunch these 5 girls again came to the front of the room and swarmed me. But this time they had smiles on their face.

The lead CSR did most of the talking and said to me that from what they learned in just the first 3 hours of this workshop they were convinced it would drop their workload easily by 10%. Another CSR said the increase was even more than that.

[After just the first 3 hours] …they were convinced it would drop their workload easily by 10%. Another CSR said the increase was even more than that.

They told me that if they hadn’t been here to experience what they learned they would never have believed they could’ve learned enough to affect their workload this much.

They were very anxious for the second half of the class after lunch.

At the end of the first day again I had a conversation with these 5 CSR’s again. With everything they had learned through the day they knew for a fact that they would drop their workload by at least 20%.

They were just blown away with what they learned because of what they didn’t know. Yet, when they arrived they were convinced they couldn’t learn more, that they already knew everything there was to know about processing their work in the most productive way possible with the system they were on.

What if it was these 5 CSR’s, who were more committed to increased productivity than many of the CSR’s I’ve work with, were the ones designing a system for you?

Or what if it was the agency owner who didn’t really get involved in workflows and processing work who designed the system?

Think of everything they would’ve missed or not put in place because of not having the in-depth knowledge I have with workflows and productivity strategies.

As they found out, there’s a lot more to know.

This why I’ve always said…

“agency staff only know what they know.”

It’s what they don’t realize they don’t know that’s hurting them. The problem is, experienced CSR’s don’t generally realize they don’t know something. While they’ve become very good at what they know, there is always more a CSR can learn to increase their productivity and be more efficient.

CSR’s and vendor trainers just don’t have the extensive background in agency automation, workflows and productivity strategies like an insurance automation consultant has.

Because workflow training and productivity strategies is foundational to the insurance automation consultant, we’ve become experts in this area.

Where’s The Disconnect?

To understand why there’s room for improvement to help the CSR become even more efficient and more productive we have to look at how a CSR learned their job. Generally a CSR will learn her job and the steps to perform it one of two ways:

From the existing staff who only know what they know since over 90% learned from #2 …
From the trainers of the software system they use. The problem is, not a single vendor teaches workflows and productivity strategies. All they teach is foundational Product Knowledge training.

Neither of these training solutions will teach a CSR the finer points and steps to creating a highly productive agency. Why?

I’ve worked with a lot of management systems and there’s not a single one that teaches workflows or productivity strategies. Not one.

What vendor trainers teach is simply product knowledge training courses. This is where you learn how to use the features in the system. That’s it!

Consistently, across the board, if your agency wants to learn the advanced skill of workflows and advanced productivity strategies you must turn to an insurance automation consultant. That’s because this is what we’re an expert in.

I can’t tell you how many agencies I’ve worked with who prior to working with me had asked the vendor to help them with workflows to be told, “Workflows are up to you”. They just don’t teach it!

Just 6 months ago I was talking to an agency on Epic who shared the exact same thing. He asked the training department with Applied if they’d help him with workflows with Epic and they told him that’s not what they do. They said they could help him with how to use the system but workflows were solely up to him.

Many agencies have told me that when they asked their vendor CSR’s or training team how to process their work (endorsements, renewals, etc.) they were told the steps were up to them, that all they could do is show them how to use the features in their system.

Like I said, vendors just do not teach workflows or productivity strategies.

Therefore, if they don’t teach these two very important courses and agencies aren’t purchasing courses on workflows and productivity strategies, how can they create a highly productive management system built to support workflows?

They can’t!

Instead the industry ends up with just another feature driven system.

It’s not surprising that CP Manager is the first system to be workflow driven with many design structures and features overhauled to increase your productivity… it’s taken “insurance automation consultants” who specialize in workflows and productivity strategies to do it.

Otherwise, don’t you think there would already be a workflow driven system on the market?

Designers of the new systems hitting the market have simply mimicked what’s already out there because they simply do not have the expertise to create a workflow driven system. Instead, like everything else out there, the new systems are simply feature driven systems.

CP Manager is not by agents for agents.

CP Manager is by the highly skilled Insurance Automation Consultants who are experts in workflows and productivity strategies who train agency producers and CSR’s how to become more efficient and productive.

‘By Agents For Agents’ Is Just Going To Get You A Lot Of The Same Ol’ Stuff Already Out There

Almost every system on the market is simply a copy of other systems on the market with a few uniqueness’s added to it and a few improvements added to it. For example:

One of the newer systems added a bunch of social media features to it thinking this would really make them stand out from the other systems. The problem is, this did absolutely nothing to help the agency increase their productivity or service their clients. Other than this feature, it’s pretty much just like the other systems. This particular system is struggling to survive.
Another system believed price was the key, that a low price would allow them to grow. But without much of anything for commercial lines, no accounting, no workflows to speak of and lot’s and lot’s of double entry, they are also struggling to survive.

When you start reviewing systems you find they all pretty much have the same core features. They all have ACORD forms, they all have notes, follow ups, client records, correspondence and the other must have “core features”.

What is so consistently missed is workflows, data integration to create a single-entry system, how the features are integrated into the system, a layout that’s designed for maximum effectiveness and having everything tied together to create the most productive system possible.

You see, systems designed by agents for agents are focused on features making sure the one’s they believe need to be in the system are in place.

The problem is they have no idea how to create a workflow driven system or a highly productive system because there’s no model to follow. That’s because…

a system like this has never been done before.

It’s obvious why everything out there is feature driven. That is…

until now with CP Manager, the first workflow driven system introduced to an industry that’s been workflow driven for over 30 years. It’s about time!

CP Manager is not by agents for agents and that’s a good thing. Who needs more of the same thing?

Schedule a walk-through of CP Manager now and see what a system designed to increase your productivity can do for your agency.

If servicing your clients faster and watching your CSR’s get more work done each day while also being able to service more clients each day is important to you, you will love CP Manager. Let us show you what CP Manager can do for your agency by scheduling a walk-through of CP Manager now.