If you’ve considered investing in health insurance quoting software, you may have focused on the features that will improve the productivity of your sales force. Automation, lead generation, sales tracking, quoting and the ability to produce immediate proposals can certainly eliminate daily tasks that take precious time away from building client relationships and closing sales. These tools can drive productivity, control costs, and maximize the value of your existing infrastructure, but don’t underestimate the role quote engine software can play in elevating the customer experience.Health insurance quoting software let’s you focus on what matters most – your clients. In a market flooded with options, a consumer will gravitate toward an agency that provides a one-stop shopping experience.
Hosting a tool that provides immediate access to thousands of plans from hundreds of carriers sends the message that you value your clients’ time and respect their need for comprehensive and accurate information as they search for insurance. It instills confidence in your expertise within a matter of minutes and helps you build trust before even speaking to the prospect.
Demonstrate your commitment to your clients by integrating a quote engine into your existing website. A customer’s positive experience will not only help you close a single sale, it will strengthen your brand and exponentially increase your revenue with ancillary product sales and referrals.
Consider ways insurance quote engine software will improve your customers’ experience:
More Time to Focus on Customers
Any tool that can automate a time-consuming process is a worthwhile investment. Statistics have shown that businesses without automation spend 71% of their time and resources planning and defining processes. Imagine how many prospects you could nurture and clients you can serve with such a substantial increase in free time.
Expedite movement through the sales cycle and close a sale faster by providing more information to clients in less time. Instead of wasting time manually pulling quotes from a number of carriers, a quote engine will allow you to gather vital cost and benefit information for your clients to compare and choose from.
When automation can help you manage client relationships by sending automatic responses to inquiries, follow up emails, monthly newsletters, and calendar reminders, you are creating the trust necessary for a successful long-term partnership.
Your automated communications can be customized to address prospects or existing clients and can create a more personal connection. Use automation to send birthday greetings and holiday wishes, and build a friendly rapport that will encourage customers to see you as a trusted adviser, not just as a sales agent.
Reduce Mistakes
Human error is a fact of life, but in the midst of a hectic open enrollment period, mistakes can occur more often. Don’t let simple errors tarnish your professional reputation. Clients need to think of you as a trusted advisor with the expertise they need access to in order to make the right purchasing decision, but providing inaccurate information will diminish your chances of closing a sale. With so much competition in the market, any mistake can derail a sale and send a prospect to another agent.
Having a quote engine will help eliminate mistakes and improve the customer experience. Quotes come in a proposal-ready format, removing the need to copy and paste plan information from each carrier’s site to your own presentation.
Real-time carrier updates within quoting engine software can make sure that all of the information you are presenting is accurate and will keep you up-to-date whenever there is new information from carriers. Comprehensive insurance quoting software will allow you to download enrollment forms and applications with your broker information pre-loaded, keeping all your documents professional and error-free.
Access to Alternatives and Options
Consumers are very accustomed to using the Internet to gather information about everything from real estate to electronics, but searching for and comparing insurance options can be time-consuming and frustrating.
Provide an unrivaled customer experience by having access to hundreds of carriers with thousands of plans and the expertise to narrow down those plans based on a client’s specific needs and preferences. With plan benefits and costs at your fingertips, you can build the ideal solution for your client, and deliver professional proposals immediately.
Choosing insurance is a distinctly personal choice that can affect an individual and their family’s health and finances, so consumers need – and expect – patience, expertise, and efficiency as they compare their options. Closing a sale can require several contact points, but quote engine software can expedite your responses to questions and requests for additional plan options. Any tool that helps you respond quickly and accurately to clients, increasing the number of prospects you can reach within a day, is worth the investment.
More Solutions with Cross-Selling
Offering a full range of insurance products gives you the opportunity to generate more revenue and improve the customer experience. Don’t underestimate the value of being able to quickly deliver comprehensive insurance solutions to your clients with the help of ancillary products.
Cross-selling can provide clients with a package of coverage that meets all their insurance needs. If a customer already has confidence in you, they will consider you their go-to resource for all their insurance-related needs - and selling to an existing client is much more cost effective than selling to a new one.
According to research, 80% of your future revenue will come from 20% of your existing customer base. Providing a variety of insurance options, such as health, vision, dental and life, in a one-stop-shop makes it easy for your customer, especially if you are doing the “heavy-lifting” in searching for plans and narrowing down options that will suit your clients’ particular needs. Organize products into low, mid-range, and high-end options and use your insight into your existing customer’s circumstances to find the right plans. Focus cross-selling on maximizing the value for your client, not just increasing your revenue.
Having expertise in a broad scope of products and thoughtfully pairing complimentary products will demonstrate your commitment to helping your clients find custom solutions to their insurance needs. For instance, clients that choose to enroll in a high-deductible health plan may benefit from a critical illness or accident policy to help cover unexpected costs. Ancillary products can provide much needed coverage during gaps in other plans. Drive sales by using a cross-sell engine and shopping cart to provide automatic product recommendations.
Investing in the Customer Experience
Adding health insurance quoting software to your set of sales tools can improve the customer experience and help your agency stand out in a competitive market, but the return on investment can be significant. With immediate access to accurate, real-time costs and benefits from hundreds of carriers, you will improve response time, expedite proposal delivery, and close more sales. You’ll have more time to focus on what matters most – clients.
