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In the professional world, remote work is becoming more of a new normal—even in the world of insurance sales. According to Gallup, nearly seven out of every 10 employees were working remotely in May.
But what does this mean for insurance sales? It means you are less likely to get face-to-face time with your clients. With so many aspects of people’s day-to-day lives going digital while they’re at home, it’s time that you adapt your health insurance application and enrollment process, too, so you don’t miss out on sales.
One such adaptation is helping your clients search for and enroll in health insurance plans online—with or without your direct input.
Why Your Agency Needs to Support Online Health Insurance Enrollment
In recent years, many consumers have gotten comfortable buying things online. We shop for everything, from batteries and clothes to food and electronics, on Amazon; we pay our credit card bills online; and we manage our portfolios digitally, too. In other words, we’re all used to the convenience that comes with being able to do things online, and we increasingly expect it, including when we buy insurance. Insurance businesses can meet these expectations by enabling clients to shop for, apply for, and enroll in insurance online—from the comfort of their own homes.
You may be thinking, “Well, I haven’t seen that option on some carriers’ websites.”
The good news is that by making smart investments in technology, it’s possible. For example, Quotit’s health insurance enrollment software enables clients to compare their options and enroll in a single policy or multiple health plans on their own in just a few clicks, while you still make the commission. Conversely, if your clients like how hands-on you are, you can guide them through the process, too.
With Quotit, you’re able to offer plans from more than 300 carriers across the country, delivering a strong customer experience. Plus, we have a “Streamlined Enrollment” feature for a single, consolidated application so your clients have to fill out only one online form, even for multiple policies.
It’s the easiest way to sell insurance online quickly and securely—even while you’re working from home.
The Benefits of Online Health Insurance Enrollment
Online health insurance enrollment delivers a number of benefits to independent agents and agencies of all shapes and sizes:
1. It meets clients’ expectations
In our increasingly e-commerce-driven age, clients expect to be able to buy things online. So offering online health insurance enrollment meets these expectations.
When it comes time to buy insurance, some clients and prospects will prefer that you hold their hand, whereas others might prefer to do everything on their own. With an online quote and enroll tool in place, you can cater to both of these preferences and deliver a strong experience to all of your clients, no matter how they prefer buying insurance.
2. It supports social distancing
Even when things open back up in your state, not everyone is going to be keen on meeting at a coffee shop or an office to sign their paperwork. In this light, online health insurance enrollment can be particularly helpful for clients who prefer to practice social distancing for the foreseeable future.
3. It increases agents’ productivity
To get to the application and enrollment stage of a sale, agents first have to:
- Pull quotes
- Compare plans
- Create and send proposals
- Spend hours over the phone and email matching a client or prospect with the plan that meets their needs
The last thing they want to do is spend even more time manually enrolling clients in their plans. Online quote and enroll tools can increase agents’ productivity by speeding up their workflow and enabling them to focus on other important issues.
With online quoting and enrolling tools in place, enrollment becomes a seamless process that can be completed in just a few clicks. For those who prefer to buy plans on their own, it can even be accomplished without any agent participation!
With more time on their hands, agents can invest more of their energy in growing the business in other important ways, rather than overseeing the enrollment process.
4. It helps establish you as a trusted advisor
The goal of every insurance agent should be to become a strategic consultant and trusted advisor for all clients. That way, when a client has an insurance need, they won’t even think about potentially taking their business elsewhere.
By offering online health insurance enrollment, you are empowering your clients to shop for plans at their own leisure and compare them on an apples-to-apples basis. This gives them the peace of mind that comes with knowing you’re not hiding any plans from them or steering them to a plan that’s more expensive.
As a result, you become that trusted advisor, and you’ve earned their business that day and in the future.
5. It increases organizational efficiency
Every insurance agent knows what it’s like to have stacks of paperwork on their desk and filing cabinets filled to the brim with client and prospect records. In a pinch, finding the right information at the right time is something like finding the proverbial needle in a haystack. Unless you’re the most organized person in the world, chances are that it’ll take you a bit of time to track down the precise information you need at any moment.
Moving to online health insurance enrollment is a digital transformation initiative for your insurance business. You’re moving the enrollment process from paper to digital, which gives you all the information you need in one place—accessible anytime.
By storing your client and prospect information in an online CRM, rather than your Outlook contact book or frustrating spreadsheets, you can power your enrollment with data you’ve already collected from conversations and the quoting and processes. Learn more about how our CRM connects to other tools here.
6. It enables you to solve clients’ needs rapidly
In the COVID-19 era, some people are getting laid off and losing their insurance coverage because of it. With an online health insurance enrollment tool, you are able to match these individuals with new coverage quickly, helping them when they need it the most.
“Quotit’s tools and streamlined enrollment process is the answer to online health insurance—especially during this time,” one manager at an insurance agency explained.
By being able to pivot quickly and help someone in their moment of need, you’ve once again earned their business, perhaps for years to come.
It’s Time to Start Using an Online Health Insurance Enrollment Solution
The benefits of online health insurance enrollment can be boiled down into two trends:
- Making it easier for clients and prospects to find coverage that will keep them healthy
- Building a more efficient operation for your insurance business—one that’s well-positioned to thrive in the work-at-home era and beyond
Transitioning from an insurance company that worked out of an office to one that’s fully remote isn’t the easiest thing to do. But with the right approach—and smart investments in technology—you can keep your business’s momentum going without a hitch.
If you need some help adjusting to remote work, here are some tips for selling insurance over the phone and some advice for how to drive more insurance sales from home. Read these pieces to get some ideas on how you can change your workflow to make the most out of the new reality of remote work.
And remember, smart investments in technology can really help you maximize your opportunities for selling insurance from home. For more information on the easiest way to add online health insurance enrollment functionality to your website—and to see the solution’s transformative power in action—schedule a demo of Quotit today!
