MANAGE & LEAD
THE REALITY OF TEXTING FOR INSURANCE AGENCIES
Eliminate phone tag and get instant results
By Pat Alexander , CIC
During every meeting I have attended in the last few months , there have been questions , and discussions on “ should an agency allow texting by its clients and staff . And , if so , how do we control Errors & Omissions and documentation in our agency management system ?”
Empowered clients will communicate with agents most conveniently , so the real issue becomes how the agency will manage to text if the client prefers to use it ? Read on to learn the concerns agencies have with texting , current best practices for managing these communications , and the technology options for managing texts and importing them into your systems . There may be other options , and not everyone uses Microsoft Outlook . Your technology professional should be able to assist you with the details .
AGENCY CONCERNS If clients are texting staff members on their personal phone , several issues come to my mind :
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What if your staff member is on vacation where their phone is not functioning , or they are just too busy to take care of the issue ?
What if your staff member is ill and cannot pay attention to incoming messages on a real-time basis ?
▸ What if the individual is no longer a staff member ?
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What if the individual says they will take care of the request and do , but doesn ’ t document in the system and something is not correct ?
I have heard more than one agency principal flatly state that they weren ’ t going to allow any texting . Others don ’ t see any way to stop people from texting but don ’ t know what to do with it and set parameters . Many people commented that it was seamless to attach an email , voicemail , or other documentation in their agency management system , but not with texts . Since it is difficult to manage the text information ’ s capture , they want to ban receiving texts . We need to remember that capturing email information in an agency management system was not always easy . Once upon a time , we copied the emails and pasted them into an activity or note since we couldn ’ t attach anything to our agency management systems .
Through communication with the various agency management vendors from their user groups , the vendors enhanced their systems to handle email attachments . From this grew the ability to attach multiple other attachments easily . We hope vendors will create streamlined workflows for capturing texts and possibly as a part of their mobile apps . The initial attachment functions were “ clunky ,” but as time and technology have progressed , this function has become more streamlined .
In today ’ s world , texting is a reality . It is not only your young clients that are engaging in this act . Texting eliminates telephone tag and results in an almost instant response .
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