Being Scalable as an Insurance Company: 3 Tips

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Scale an Insurance Company|Being Scalable as an Insurance Company: 3 TipsStarting an insurance company is already challenging, mainly because of the competitive market in the industry. So you must beam with pride that you established your agency with fantastic staff and regular clients despite all the hurdles you faced. You might feel happy and satisfied for a while, but sooner or later, you’ll find yourself ready to grow and move out of your comfort zone. The problem is that most insurance agency owners often hit a growth ceiling which hinders them from moving forward.

You know that you have to gain more clients, but your daily work occupies you. You know some of your staff are retiring or resigning, and you have no idea how to handle it. Latest tech updates, innovations, and new trends are available, but you cannot incorporate them into your company. Change is challenging, and progress is always hard to achieve. However, you have to focus on executing strategies for your company’s growth.
This article will break down some tips to make your company progressive and scalable:

Take advantage of the available data

Your company’s progress will heavily depend on your choices. It is fine to listen to your intuitions once in a while, however, make it a habit to make decisions based on the available data like sales, cash flow, and staff performance. You can use the gathered information to pinpoint your company’s strengths and weaknesses. For example, you found out that your team is having difficulty stimulating pricing strategies. You can use insurance software to monitor your pricing continuously and compare it to your competitors to improve your pricing strategies.

Keeping tabs on your renewal increases, sales, staff performance, and cross-sell opportunities is a good start in using data to your advantage. It also allows you to spot clear opportunities and trends that you can use to recommend additional insurance policies to clients. Additionally, having a comprehensive understanding of the data can help you set realistic and attainable goals for your insurance company.

Upsell and expand existing clients

The most practical way to expand and grow your insurance company is by investing in your existing clients. Since you have established rapport with your clients, they trust you and your team, making it easy to offer new policies. First, you should learn and address your client’s needs. Then, you can look back at your previous conversations and line up a new policy for them. This can be hard since most clients can’t see the point of availing of a new policy, so ensure that you have a comprehensive discussion that can enlighten them on the advantages and coverage of the new policy.

Increase access to the market

Insurance market access is crucial for growth since it affects client retention and acquisition. Ensure that you have access to the right markets to reach more potential clients. The goal is to provide as many quotes and products and show clients that your company is a better option than your competitors. It may sound challenging and daunting, but you have to continuously update your policies for your company to stand out in the market. In addition, you can challenge and motivate your agents by giving incentives and compensations based on their performance.

Final thoughts

The insurance industry is competitive, and you have to learn new trends, analyze data, and infiltrate the market to survive. These tips can help you make your insurance company scalable.
Image: https://pixabay.com/photos/business-meeting-partnership-6839039/

Four Reasons Outsourcing Might Be The Right Choice For Your Business

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Reasons for outsourcing|Four Reasons Outsourcing Might Be The Right Choice For Your BusinessBusinesses today must handle a wide range of duties, with numerous parts and facets of the business to consider. Having said that, most businesses now face the prospect of outsourcing. While it is wonderful for a company to manage everything in-house, it does not make financial or operational sense. Given this, we will assist you in determining whether or not you should outsource more aspects of your organization.

Does It Make Financial Sense?

When it comes to outsourcing, this is the first question you should ask yourself. You must ensure that the company to whom you outsource will save your organization money. Many people overlook outsourcing since they believe it will be the more expensive option. However, it is frequently the less expensive option in the long run. The best thing to do is to look at the expenses over a longer period of time, such as a year, to obtain a true grasp of which choice is the most cost-effective. After all, hiring a new employee and handling everything in-house can be expensive.

Could You Benefit From Expert Help?

Aside from the financial aspect, you should also examine whether you need to capitalize on a superior experience. When it comes to hiring accounting support for your business such as Perks, this is a fantastic example. You must ensure that you have adequate IT assistance in place to ensure that your systems operate effectively at all times and that you have adequate safeguards in place to protect you against the possibility of a data breach. If you do not have this experience in-house, you must engage the services of someone who does.

Are You Always Swamped With Work?

The third factor to consider is the passage of time. One of the primary advantages of outsourcing is that you will gain time, which will allow you to focus on the most important operations at your company, i.e. the ones that drive your bottom line and make your firm more money. Outsourcing can be quite useful in terms of business growth in this situation.

Do You Need To Reduce Costs?

Hiring and training employees is one of the most time-consuming and expensive operations in any organization, regardless of size. These procedures can take months, and even then, there really is no guarantee that the individual in issue will be a worthwhile investment and a valuable member of the team. Outsourcing enables you to transform labor costs into variable costs by just paying for the services you intend to use.

Most businesses have seasons of the year when they have more work and, as a result, more capital, and times when they have less work and, as a result, less capital. In ordinary circumstances, you would pay all of your employees the same wages year-round, as well as other expenses – office and toilet supplies, furniture, specialized equipment, computers, servers.

Final Words

When it comes to deciding whether or not outsourcing is good for you, there are numerous aspects to consider. Outsourcing is quite advantageous in a variety of situations. It can benefit your company by allowing you to leverage on higher talent while guaranteeing that you only pay for services as and when you require them. When you examine this, it’s easy to see why outsourcing has become such a popular option for so many individuals today.

What You Should Consider When Scaling Your Business

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Scaling your business|What You Should Consider When Scaling Your BusinessThere will be a time when scaling your business feels right, but to turn this idea or ambition into reality, you must start focusing on an action strategy. Organic scaling and growth can of course happen—but it can take time. If you want results you need to start creating (and working towards) an action strategy, because this way you can take control of scaling up your ambitions. Here are some important points to consider during the scaling-up process.

Are Your Heart and Mindset Focused on Success?

If your heart and mindset are not where they need to be, you may find that you simply go through the processes when you are scaling up. When this happens, your actions may not have any effect on the business, meaning that the procedure of scaling up the business may not be as successful as once anticipated. Getting your mindset focused on the task at hand, and being sure and certain about what you want to achieve is important. You cannot successfully scale up your operations if you are not sure which direction you are going in or why.

Can You Scale Up Existing Operations or Do You Need a Complete Change?

Scaling up in business from where you are at the moment might be easier said than done. Establishing what point you are building from is important: can you scale up your existing operations and set-up; or will you need to look at making complete changes? For example, when you scale up will you grow too big for your existing premises and will you need to move to new ones? Being realistic about your starting point is just as important as anything else that you do.

How Much is Scaling Up Going to Cost?

All scaling up has an associated cost. For example, if you are moving premises, you will have to leave behind the residential internet you currently have, and instead focus on purchasing commercial internet. You will also have to look at hiring new people (to ensure that you have a strong team to move forwards with). When you are factoring in costs for scaling up, you need to look at your daily operations for at least the next 12 months. If you do not establish your costs then you will struggle to financially plan ahead, and this may mean that you go through financial difficulty when you don’t need to.

Do You Have the Right Team Around You?

When you have the right team around you, then you can be sure that success is on the cards. The right team will help you grow your business, and this will take personal ownership of what happens. If you do not have a supportive team around you, then you will face issues surrounding productivity and efficiency, and this is not an issue that you want to tackle when you are trying to focus your efforts on scaling up.

What Does Your Action Strategy Look Like?

An action strategy for scaling up is a must—no matter what stage you currently find yourself at. When you have an action strategy to work alongside, you can focus your efforts, and also target your spending. Without a strategy, you could end up spending funds on areas that are not necessary; or you could end up pursuing avenues which are non-starters.

5 Ways Contact Center Software Tends to Fail

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Contact Center Software|5 Ways Contact Center Software Tends to FailGood contact center software works in the background. The best solutions are so low-key that the average consumer doesn’t even notice they exist.

In most cases, the only sign of the software is that the experience was better and more streamlined than the customer expected.

We actually think the average consumer is more likely to notice call center software when it fails than when it works properly.

With that in mind, here are five signs that the contact center software you’re interacting with isn’t working as expected.

1. You have a long wait

Nobody likes to wait on hold, and the best contact center software keeps wait time to a minimum.

It does this in many ways. Call routing, self-service, and automation shorten call time and maximize agent availability.

And even when there is a queue, good tools offer some form of virtual queuing. This feature lets the caller hang up and opt for a call back rather than waiting on hold.

Next time you have a long wait when calling a contact center, it’s probably because the software doesn’t have this feature.

2. You can’t get through to an agent

The next sign of failing call center software is when you can’t get through to an agent.

This is usually due to a frustrating IVR experience. This is the technology you probably know as the automated solution that answers your call before transferring you to an agent.

A good IVR asks useful questions to help connect you with the right agent. But if the IVR isn’t programmed in a user-friendly way, it can stop you from accessing the help you need.

Common problems include the reason for calling not being listed or lists that are long and time-consuming to listen to. These issues mean you’ll struggle to get through to relevant help.

3. You keep having to repeat yourself

Good contact center software connects with other business technology, such as CRM, helpdesk, and multiple communication channels, to improve agents’ access to customer information.

When set up well, all agents can see your account information and contact history. This means you can speak to people on different channels without repeating yourself.

An example of this is what happens when you contact a support team via website chat.

The agent who answers your request inputs the details of your query into the software. Then they can contact you via email or phone when the problem is fixed.

The person who contacts you doesn’t even have to be the same person who answered the query, as everyone can access the data.

4. You’ll speak to the wrong person

A clear sign of failing call center software is when the person who answers the phone is not someone who can answer your problem.

This could be because they are in the wrong department, location, or even speaking the wrong language.

The best contact center tools have powerful features that automatically route people to the right agent.

For example, the software can:

  • Look at your phone number to see where you are calling from and direct you to a local agent
  • Look at the country you are calling from and send you to an agent who speaks your language
  • Match your phone number to an existing customer profile and send you to an agent based on your account status
  • Match your phone number to a recent order or booking and send you to an agent who can provide further information

5. The agent doesn’t know who you are

Good call center software matches your phone number to customer profiles. It can then send information to the agent before they answer the phone. The agent can then personalize their service to your needs.

On a basic level, this means greeting you by name. But it could also be having information about recent purchases or reservations on hand so they can preemptively answer your question.

If the agent doesn’t know who you are when they answer, there could be a problem with the call center software.
Good Contact Center Software Streamlines Support
Ultimately, good contact center software streamlines the support experience. It removes barriers, improves UX, and ensures agents can provide fast, relevant help to customers.

This benefits both customers, who get better support, and businesses, who can answer more queries in a shorter amount of time.

Biggest Mistakes Businesses Make When Outsourcing

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Outsourcing Mistakes|Biggest Mistakes Businesses Make When OutsourcingOutsourcing work is one of the biggest factors that makes a business successful. There is a range of tasks that you can outsource, such as administration, accounting, IT, communication, and much more. Outsourcing has become a vital ingredient in the growth of any business because it enables your business to get things done efficiently, take advantage of expert knowledge and expand its capacity, all while cutting down on costs.

Unfortunately, outsourcing has its challenges. If outsourcing is not done correctly, then you may find yourself damaging your business growth, and spending more money.
Here are some of the most common mistakes that businesses make when outsourcing that you should avoid.

Not providing guidance

When you outsource something, while you are paying for their skills and expertise, they are not a part of your business. Many businesses will make the mistake of handing off work with no guidance and expecting a high standard of work that aligns with their business. The problem with this is that everyone works to a different standard, and has different expectations. Therefore, when you outsource work, you should always provide comprehensive instructions and guidelines about the work you want to be completed. You may even work closely with them at first, to ensure they get to know you and your business. While this may take a little investment at the beginning, it will make things much smoother moving forward.

Not doing it soon enough

It is never too early to outsource work. The earlier you outsource work, the quicker your business will grow. Unfortunately, many businesses wait until they are a bigger corporation before outsourcing work, which will take a lot longer to obtain. Many companies tailor their services to support businesses of all sizes, such as small business accounting services that take care of your finances. You do not have to wait until you are bringing in a certain amount of money. In business, you have to invest the money that you have in aspects of your business that will give you a greater return. By outsourcing work early on in your business, you give your business an advantage by accessing expert knowledge, getting things done faster, and freeing up your time to focus on the tasks that matter and will drive business growth. Running a business entails many aspects that require specialist skills, and outsourcing will minimize time, costs, risks and mistakes.

Not measuring the performance

With anything in business, you need to be monitoring your investments closely to ensure they are performing as they should be. Many businesses will outsource work, and push it to one side. However, you should put measurements in place that track the performance, standards and returns. There is an element of trust you must instill when outsourcing work, but you should always verify your investments. Make sure you give it time to work and adjust your outsourcing where needed. Work closely with the company you are outsourcing to, to meet your objectives and ensure your investment is worthwhile.

Outsourcing is one of the best and quickest ways to grow your business, as long as it is done correctly.