By Agents For Agents, Smart Or Not So Smart?

When It Comes to Insurance Agency Software Systems, ‘By Agents For Agents’ Is Just a Cliché That Sounds Good But Doesn’t Guarantee Better Results. Here’s Why…

For over 25 years, I’ve worked closely with agencies to help them automate processes and boost staff productivity. During this time, I’ve seen countless insurance agency management software systems come and go.

One of the first questions you should ask when evaluating a management system is, “Who designed it?”

This question is more important than you might think.

Think about it:

Would you trust a homeowner or a professional architect to design your house?
If a rocket were being built, would you want an astronaut or a rocket engineer to design it?
When building a race car engine, would you rather have a race car driver or a specialized mechanic do the job?

In other words, does it make more sense for the expert engineer or the user of the product to design it?

Here’s the problem: users often don’t know everything that’s required to design a truly efficient system. Let me explain what I mean.

The Agency CSR Is the Smartest User — But They Only Know What They Know

Who truly understands an agency’s management system best?

Without a doubt, it’s the CSR — the Customer Service Representative. They use the system every day to process work, service clients, handle policy changes, endorsements, renewals, and track outstanding issues. No one else in the agency uses the system as intensively or consistently.

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

It’s the CSR.

Most would agree on this point.

But They Only Know What They Know

While CSRs are the most knowledgeable users of an insurance agency software system, their expertise is limited by the training they’ve received—and that training is usually specific to their agency and the particular system they use.

Let me share an example. Back in 2005, I led a Productivity Workshop for clients of one of the more efficient systems on the market at the time. One agency with 15 users sent 5 of their best CSRs, including their lead CSR, to attend. The plan was for these experienced staff members to learn new strategies and then train the rest of the team.

When they arrived, these CSRs confidently told me they had no idea why their owner sent them—after all, they’d been using the system for seven years and considered themselves highly efficient already. They clearly felt the workshop was unnecessary.

I welcomed their skepticism and invited them to listen with an open mind.

The first half of the workshop passed, and as lunch began, these same 5 CSRs gathered around me—this time with smiles. The lead CSR told me they were already convinced the techniques they’d learned would reduce their workload by at least 10%, and another said it might be even more.

By the end of the day, their confidence had grown—they knew for sure their workload would drop by at least 20% thanks to the new strategies they’d discovered. They were amazed by how much they didn’t know, despite their years of experience.

Now, imagine if these 5 committed but initially unaware CSRs were the ones designing your agency management system. Would it really be optimized to maximize productivity?

Or What If the Agency Owner Designed the System Without Deep Workflow Knowledge?

Imagine if the system was designed by an agency owner who wasn’t deeply involved in workflows and processing work. Think of all the critical details they will be missed simply because they didn’t have the in-depth expertise in workflows and productivity strategies that a specialist consultant brings.

As my experience shows, there’s always more to learn—and that’s why I’ve always said:

“Agency staff only know what they know.”

What they don’t realize they don’t know is often what holds them back. Experienced CSRs may be very skilled in what they do, but they rarely recognize the gaps in their knowledge. There is always more to learn to increase productivity and efficiency.

CSRs and vendor trainers typically lack the extensive background in agency automation, workflows, and productivity strategies that insurance automation consultants possess.

Workflow training and productivity strategies are foundational to insurance automation consulting—that’s where our expertise lies.

Where’s The Disconnect?

To understand why there’s room for improvement in CSR efficiency, consider how most CSRs learn their job:

From existing staff who, in turn, only know what they know—since over 90% learn this way; or
From vendor-provided software training.

The problem is, vendor training never includes workflow or productivity strategy training—it only covers basic product knowledge: how to use system features, nothing more.

This means CSRs rarely learn the finer points of creating a highly productive agency and workflows.

In my extensive work with many management systems, I have never seen one that teaches workflows or productivity strategies.

If your agency wants to master advanced workflows and productivity skills, you must turn to an insurance automation consultant—because this is what we specialize in.

I’ve lost count of how many agencies have told me that when they asked their vendor for workflow help, they were told, “Workflows are up to you.” Vendors just don’t teach it.

Just six months ago, an agency using Epic told me the Applied training team refused to help with workflows, only offering product feature training.

Many agencies have shared that when they asked vendor trainers how to handle day-to-day work like endorsements or renewals, the response was that workflow steps were up to the agency—they only teach how to use system features.

Why Aren’t Workflow-Driven Systems More Common?

Because vendors don’t teach workflows or productivity strategies, they cannot build systems designed to support them.

The result? Feature-driven systems that don’t optimize productivity.

This is exactly why CP Manager is the first truly workflow-driven agency management system. It’s been built and refined by insurance automation consultants who specialize in workflows and productivity.

Otherwise, wouldn’t there already be a workflow-driven system on the market?

The truth is, most new systems on the market merely mimic existing feature-driven products—they lack the expertise to design workflow-centered systems.

CP Manager is not “by agents, for agents.” It’s designed by insurance agency software experts who understand agency workflows and productivity inside and out.

CP Manager: Built by Experts Who Truly Understand Workflows and Productivity

CP Manager was created by highly skilled insurance automation consultants—experts in workflows and productivity strategies who train agency producers and CSRs to become more efficient and effective every day.

‘By Agents, For Agents’ Is Often Just More of the Same

Almost every agency management system on the market today is essentially a copy of existing systems with minor tweaks or added features. For example:

One newer system tried to stand out by adding a bunch of social media features—but these didn’t actually help agencies increase productivity or improve client service. As a result, that system is struggling to stay afloat.
Another system banked on being low-cost, but without strong commercial lines support, no accounting capabilities, and lots of double entry, it’s also having trouble surviving.

If you look closely, most systems share the same core features: ACORD forms, notes, follow-ups, client records, correspondence, and the like. What they consistently miss are workflows, data integration for true single-entry, and a system layout designed to maximize effectiveness by tightly integrating features into a seamless, productive experience.

Systems designed “by agents for agents” tend to focus on cramming in features they think are necessary, without understanding how to build a workflow-driven, highly productive system. That’s because:

No one has built one before—until now.

Introducing CP Manager: The First True Workflow-Driven System

CP Manager breaks the mold. It’s the first workflow-driven system introduced to an industry that has relied on workflows for over 30 years. It’s about time.

CP Manager is not just another “by agents, for agents” system—and that’s a great thing. Who wants more of the same?

See the Difference for Yourself

If servicing your clients faster, helping your CSRs get more done every day, and growing your book of business efficiently matter to you, you’ll love what CP Manager can do for your agency.

Schedule a walk-through of CP Manager today and discover how a system designed to increase your productivity can transform your agency.

The Important Role of the CSR in Your Agency’s Success

When CP Manager was first designed, it was originally called “The Desktop CSR.” Why? Because the CSR is the backbone of every insurance agency, and we wanted the system to reflect their critical role.

Because we're browser based giving you access to CP Manager from any device with an internet connection --PC, Laptop, Tablet or SmartPhone-- we felt Desktop CSR to closely represented a windows based system so we changed the name to CP Manager.

Anyway, moving on with the important role your CSRs play in your agencies success...

Why CSRs Matter So Much

CSRs are the ones who:

Service policies, claims, endorsements, and renewals
Answer client questions and resolve issues
Communicate with carriers to ensure work gets processed
Build lasting client relationships that often lead to cross-sales

In fact, over 50% of CSRs sell additional products to existing clients. That makes them not only service professionals but also frontline revenue generators. Without CSRs, producers would be buried in service work — leaving little time for marketing and new business.

Agencies simply can’t grow without strong, productive CSRs.

The Productivity Challenge

Here’s the reality:

The average Commercial Lines CSR manages just 111 accounts and $296,600 in commissions.
The average Personal Lines CSR manages about 600 accounts and $103,700 in commissions.

Meanwhile, payroll is the largest agency expense — with the average CL CSR earning $42,000 and the average PL CSR earning $34,000 (before taxes and benefits) — and then subtracting agency expenses and commission, that doesn't leave very much of a profit to the agency.

When your biggest expense is tied to productivity, you can’t afford inefficiency. A clunky, feature-driven system slows everything down, creating wasted time and lost profit.

Given today’s tools, those numbers should be at least double. The problem isn’t the CSR — it’s the system they’re working in. A clunky, feature-driven management system slows everything down, creating wasted time and lost profit.

Even a 20% increase in CSR productivity translates directly into significant profit growth for the agency.

Why CP Manager Was Built for CSRs

When creating CP Manager, we dissected every aspect of the CSR role: workflows, data entry, follow-ups, endorsements, renewals, claims — everything. The result? A process-driven system that eliminates wasted steps and connects tools in ways other systems simply don’t.

For example, with endorsements in CP Manager you can:

Add a note or follow-up directly from the endorsement (auto-linking the details for easy tracking).
Create billing transactions with prefilled fields, saving keystrokes.
Flag and track open endorsements on your dashboard so nothing falls through the cracks.
See open endorsements the moment you open a client record.

This same level of smart workflow design runs through renewals, claims, and all core policy tasks — giving CSRs the ability to handle far more clients and policies without sacrificing service quality.

Designed for Growth

CP Manager wasn’t built to be “just another management system.” It was built to empower CSRs to do more, serve better, and help agencies grow profitably.

If your CSRs could handle twice the accounts they manage today, how much more profitable would your agency be?

Even just a 20% increase in productivity would be significant increase in how many more clients and policies they could manage and in the agency profits.

That’s the vision behind CP Manager — and why so many agencies are calling it the easiest, most productive AMS they’ve ever used.

👉 Schedule a walk-through today and see firsthand how CP Manager helps CSRs (and agencies) get more done in less time.

Re-Engineering Of The Agency Management System

**How Our Vision for a “Highly Productive System” Led to Re-Engineering the Agency Management System**

When I first set out to design an agency management system, I didn’t expect to completely re-engineering the agency management system. My goal was simple: create a system that would massively increase an agencies productivity, so agencies could boost profitability and free up time to work on the business instead of constantly being buried in the business.

But once I started analyzing what really affected productivity, I quickly realized how deep the problem ran—and just how limited traditional systems were in solving it.

Why Productivity Had to Come First

Most systems were “feature-driven.” They added notes, follow-ups, attachments, and other features without considering how those features actually fit into workflows.

The result? Systems that worked on paper but were hard to learn, frustrating to use, and loaded with double entry.

I knew the answer was to build a workflow-driven system—one that mirrored how CSRs and producers actually process their work day-to-day. If a system isn’t easy to learn and intuitive to use, training takes longer, efficiency suffers, and profitability declines.

A Consultant’s Approach: Analyzing Workflows

As an insurance automation consultant, I had the advantage of seeing firsthand how agencies really operate. To build the system I envisioned, we:

Flow-charted and outlined every step in key transactions (applications, renewals, endorsements, claims, etc.).
Dissected the CSR’s role to understand every task, staying on top of work in progress, and processing their day-to-day work.
Traced how data flowed through systems to design a true single-entry approach.
Explored automation opportunities while maintaining flexibility for different agency models.

This wasn’t a small job—it required tearing down the management system concept to its foundation.

But from that analysis came clarity: if we wanted a truly productive system, we had to re-engineer everything.

From Feature-Driven to Workflow-Driven

The biggest breakthrough was realizing that to achieve real results, features had to support workflows—not exist in isolation. Notes, follow-ups, policy management, renewals, and endorsements (and more) all had to be re-engineered around the way agencies actually work.

One fellow consultant who reviewed the system told me:

“Brad, do you realize you’ve literally re-engineered the agency management system?”

He was right. But that was the only way to build something that truly delivered on the promise of productivity.

The Results: CP Manager

The outcome of this vision is CP Manager—the first agency management system designed from the ground up to be workflow-driven by re-engineering the agency management system.

It delivers what agencies have been asking for:

A system that’s easy to learn and intuitive to use.
Productivity-focused design that slashes steps, windows, and data entry.
True integration with carriers to eliminate double entry.
A system that increases both productivity and profitability.

In short: not just another management system, but a re-engineered one that helps agencies work smarter, grow faster, and enjoy the results.

Experience CP Manager for yourself. Schedule a walk-through and see how much time and profit your agency can gain with a truly productive, workflow-driven system.