The COVID-19 health crisis is something the world hasn’t experienced in centuries. It caught everyone off guard, affecting almost all industries in one way or another. Some businesses have even had to completely close down, the hardest hit sectors being hospitality, tourism, education, retail, and wellness, because of lack of customers.
Challenges faced by insurance agents
Without a doubt, the insurance sector has also been affected, especially because insurance companies primarily run on traditional business models. A lot of insurance processes require physical interactions. As insurance agents, we have to collect policy documents from the insurers for our clients in person. We also have to meet our prospects face-to-face to sell to them. We also need to meet our new clients in person for them to sign their policy documents, and to meet our existing customers for them to collect their cheques or insurance certificates.
The above are just a few of the contact-based tasks that we need to do in our day-to-day jobs. There are many other processes that require us to be in the field, which implies that with the current physical distancing requirements, it’s difficult to keep our regular routines. We can’t continue with contact-based methods of operation during the ongoing crisis. So, we’ll need to adapt to the new normal by making changes here and there, to ensure business continuity. How?
Here are 5 things we need to do to ensure business continuity during this pandemic:
1. Cut down on meetings and field work
As previously mentioned, a lot of insurance work is contact-based. However, this pandemic requires us to maintain social distancing in order to reduce the spread of the virus. This means that even though our jobs require us to meet clients and insurers, we’ll need to find alternative methods of operation. For example, let’s move our meetings online. By now most of us have heard of zoom meetings, right? And if we don’t have the resources for online meetings, phone calls will suffice. “How about the signing of important documents, like policy documents or claims documents?”, you may ask. Well, we can use emails. Send the documents to clients or insurers via email, let them print and sign, then scan and send the documents back.
2. Set up remote work alternatives
Let’s do some research and find out which solutions will enable us to keep working even when we can’t go out in the field. Are there platforms that we can use to quickly generate insurance quotations, make insurance product comparisons, and so on? It’s also easy to forget important call appointments when we’re working from home, seeing as we’re hardly remembering what day of the week it is. So, which platforms can we use to set up reminders for our important call appointments? Such alternatives will help us continue with our work remotely and ensure the continuity of our businesses after this pandemic.
3. Be transparent with clients
This pandemic has affected everyone in one way or another. So, it’s likely that our clients will empathize with us if we’re not able to meet some of their needs on time. We just need to communicate with them satisfactorily. For example, if getting policy documents will take longer than expected, communicate this. Don’t give your customer a run around. This will ensure that we retain our clients and keep our businesses running even if our services are slower than usual.
4. Create an online sales strategy
We still need to make sales; otherwise, our businesses will fail. This means that we need to adapt our sales strategies during this pandemic. Let’s go online and start selling digitally. For example, we can sell via social media by monitoring and responding to product related inquiries. We can also create social media posts or landing pages that let people know that we’re still open for business, and they should contact us for their insurance needs. We can also use email marketing to reach the prospects in our email lists. We can also reach prospects through social media and Google advertising.
However, once we go online, we should always remember to monitor social media to ensure that we’re not getting any negative reviews. This will ensure that we solve client issues on time before they get out of hand. Negative social media reviews can easily ruin our reputations and cost our businesses as a result.
5. Hygiene!
We’ve all read or heard the news about the workplaces that have had to close because of cases of COVID-19 among their staff. We want to ensure that our businesses stay open by preventing this. Therefore, for those of us still going to work, especially if we run agencies, let’s ensure that we uphold the WHO recommended hygiene guidelines that will help us beat the covid-19 virus. Let us:
– Practice routine cleaning and disinfecting of our work facilities, including desks, door knobs, handrails, computers.
– Provide hand washing soap, water, and hand sanitizers in the offices
– Wear face masks
– Provide gloves for the cleaners
– Maintain physical distancing in the offices
What else can we do to ensure business continuity during this pandemic? Please share with us in the comments.
For advice on which digital tool or platform will enable you to continue running your business effectively during this pandemic, please talk to an Agencify expert. Send your email to info@agencify.insure
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