Pandemic Speeds Up Digital Adoption, Insurance Agents Must Meet Demand

“Digital transformations that would have taken three to five years are now happening in under six months.” InsureTech Insights https://www.insurtechinsights.com/how-covid-alters-consumer-demands/?utm_source=LinkedIn

It is estimated that consumer's digital usage has increased by 5 to10 years in the pandemic. Are you responding to these changes for your clients and prospects?  

Independent Agencies can view this as a threat, or they can take this head on as the opportunity that it creates!   Insurance Agency 4.0 is the Independent Insurance Agency’s guide to developing their digital plan for 2021. 

Excerpt from Chapter One: The Fourth Industrial Revolution; The Revolution Comes to Your Agency

The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic and economic crisis is another accelerator for businesses to make their digital transitions. The move to increased digital capabilities was already happening, but now this change and transformation in an industry like insurance has rocket fuel. Wars, disasters, and crisis have always increased the pace of change. According to surveys and studies performed in early 2020 by both McKinsey and PricewaterhouseCoopers, businesses across industries are looking at a reallocation of capital budgets to swing their efforts to their digital transformation strategies. The insurance industry and insurance agencies are included in this mix! Agents that heed this change and take advantage of it will thrive, those that do not will risk irrelevancy. To put it bluntly: If you are not already doing some of this now … you’re behind; if you are not doing it within the next year … your long-term future is in jeopardy. 

Technology levels the playing field for small businesses, no matter the size of your agency. It is time for agencies to be online or left out. In this book, we will explain just what “online,” or digital, means in the insurance agency world. It is imperative that, as an agency principal or manager, we provide an environment addressing the accelerated digital aspects and system needs to support infrastructure and your team.

This is the time for insurance agencies to finally adopt a lower cost, highly flexible operational model that is scalable and uses the digital force multipliers of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The investments that you make in technology make you scalable for growth. These technology expenses or investments will not increase exponentially as you grow revenues. Being nimble moving forward is imperative, as consumers and technologies shift. The pandemic proved that nimbleness is a great trait for any business. Forward-looking agents are moving to reduce, and ultimately eliminate, back office functions in order to focus on revenue-generating activities by educating and protecting clients. This is simply a realignment and evolution of the traditional insurance agency business model. It is similar to manufacturing businesses taking people off the assembly line and having them manage and run the machine-based assembly line. These agents are realigning their human assets behind the technologies to be more efficient. The enhancement of digital capabilities for any business can no longer be three- to four-year plans. They are now. Businesses are reallocating budgets and putting fuel into their digital transformation tanks.

Develop your plan for 2021. Learn more about Insurance Agency 4.0 at www.mattmasiello.com/IA40