Insurance policy renewals and applications without headaches.

A new agency embraces new technology.

When Eric Cervantes launched Risk Protection Managers (RPM), he was committed to using technology to create a company with streamlined, efficient operations, including automated policy applications and renewal processing. There were no legacy systems to ease into extinction. No existing, it’s-how-we’ve-always-done-it culture to hold the company back.

While being a new agency comes with its own set of challenges, the ability to create workflows from scratch was a genuine opportunity. Finding a better process for insurance applications and renewals led RPM to Broker Buddha. The platform became a key component in the effort to build an agency that moves information seamlessly while delivering a customer experience that leaves people thinking, “Wow, it’s never been this easy before.”

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Information in, information out.

Collecting information and disseminating it to lots of different contacts and companies is a longstanding challenge for independent agencies. Fact is, business people aren’t exactly filled with excitement when it’s time to provide all the information that is necessary to complete an insurance application or renewal.

“Getting existing clients or prospects to take the time to provide what’s needed for renewals or applications has never been easy,” remarked Cervantes. “And I get it — filling out forms is boring and time-consuming. We wanted something that would make it as easy as possible.”

Cervantes and the team at San Antonio-based RPM realized that making renewals and applications faster and easier would not only improve their operating efficiency, it would help create goodwill with clients and prospects. After all, nobody wants to work with an agency that makes things, well, difficult. When it comes to a business must-have like insurance coverage, “easy” is exactly how people want it served up.

It’s especially true when it comes to renewals. Think about your last trip to the physician. Did you enjoy completing the form that asked for the exact same information you provided just a few months ago? Our guess is probably not.

With Broker Buddha, RPM secures policy renewals much more quickly than it has in the past, without all the back-and-forth exchanges of emails and phone calls. Not only is existing information already filled in, automated messages remind clients when it’s time to renew and the agency receives an alert once the necessary information has been provided.

A dedicated landing page delivers results.

Cervantes and his agents are especially big fans of the dedicated landing page they use with Broker Buddha. Seamlessly integrated into their own company website, it makes the application process completely straightforward. Whether agents send the link to a client in an email or pull up the page during a meeting, it’s a relief to avoid taking information on a notepad and then inputting it later at the office.

“It’s like Broker Buddha has cut out a huge step in the process. When marketing a policy, the underwriter’s contact details are right there and all the information is sent directly to them,” Cervantes said.

Before Broker Buddha, an agent at a company like RPM would have probably needed to download a PDF, print it, fill in the necessary information, scan it, send it to the client, and then hope they would get around to completing and signing it. That’s a lot of steps, along with a lot of chances for mistakes. Humans, after all, are only human. The more times an agent is forced to input information, the more likely they are to make a mistake.

But it’s about more than time saved. For Cervantes, one of the greatest benefits of the Broker Buddha platform is how it eliminates tedious administrative tasks for his agents.

“In my experience, the best sales people don’t like doing paperwork,” Cervantes said. “They are action-oriented — building relationships, finding new opportunities — these are the parts of the job they enjoy. With Broker Buddha, they have more time to focus on what they really love to do.”

It doesn’t hurt that the interface and design is intuitive and easy to understand. If they can click on a link — hello, Amazon shoppers — clients can handle working on Broker Buddha. And for agents, becoming confident on the platform happens very quickly.

How much time does Broker Buddha really save?

Sure, there are lots of SaaS applications that claim to save time or money. Or both, since time is money. But with the Broker Buddha platform, agencies see real, quantifiable reductions in the number of hours they spend processing insurance policy applications and renewals.

“I think it’s fair to say that it saves each agent at least 90 minutes every week,” noted Cervantes. “Multiple agents, week after week — it’s not hard to see the value of that.”

For an agency like RPM, freeing up that kind of time is critical to meeting aggressive growth goals. Instead of completing forms, agents at the firm can use those hours to pursue new opportunities or bolster existing relationships.

Looking forward, Cervantes sees Broker Buddha becoming more integrated into the other systems at RPM and believes his agents will learn how to become even more efficient by using the platform.

“I like Broker Buddha so much I told a friend at another agency about it,” Cervantes said. “The insurance industry has never been considered an early adopter but people are accustomed to the advantages technology provides. Agencies that adapt are the ones that will succeed.”

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