Turning over the calendar and starting a new year is an important milestone for individuals and businesses alike. Your customers are making resolutions and deciding how they can do their best work and be their best selves in the new year, and you should do the same. So what resolutions can an insurance agency make in 2021 to ensure that it’s your best year yet? Read on to learn how to improve your online services, stay abreast of change, and encourage your agents to sharpen the skills they’ll need to meet your clients’ changing needs.
Beef Up Your Online Services
What kinds of virtual meetings and online services are being offered by your agency? Even without the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, you should have been offering clients ways to reach you, communicate with you, and have necessary meetings online. Why? Because even in the absence of a global pandemic, these options help your agency appeal to disabled clients, frequent travelers, and those who just prefer to conduct business from the comfort of their home. Virtual services that make your office more accessible are a simple way to grow your client base.
And with the emergence of COVID-19, there’s even more demand for virtual meetings and online services. Yes, 2020 was a difficult year, but some good things have come out of it, and at least one Forbes contributor counts virtual meetings as one of the best things to come from 2020. So take this time to look over your agency’s virtual and online offerings. Is it easy for clients to reach their agents online? Can in-person sessions be easily replaced with virtual meetings? If not, what can you do to shore up those options? You can expect clients to continue to demand more robust online services long after the pandemic ends.
Stay on Top of Drastic Changes
Another thing that people learned in 2020 was that a change in the environment – like a pandemic – could result in drastic changes that play out in unexpected ways. Who expected a shortage of toilet paper, for example? Or, more strange still, serious scarcity of coins? And people probably weren’t thinking much about how their insurance products were affected by the pandemic – until it happened.
For some consumers, these changes were a good thing. For example, many car insurance consumers saw rebates because of the prolonged change in their driving habits due to the pandemic – good news for them! Of course, others found themselves needing to drop some of their insurance or even found themselves unable to pay premiums because of changes to their finances – not good for them or for you. You can’t fix everyone’s problems, but by staying on top of economic changes, you can be prepared for these issues as they occur, and you can stand ready to help your clients meet their needs. While 2021 is a new year, it will have its own challenges, so resolve to stay aware of them and to be proactive.
Take Advantage of Personal Development Time
Are your employees ready to meet the challenges of 2021?The major event that changed the face of 2020 – the global pandemic – still isn’t over as of the start of 2021. And even when COVID is just a memory, it will most likely have changed the face of business for good. That means that professionals in 2021 will need to keep up. Experts say that this is an important time for employees to take advantage of personal development, coaching, and educational opportunities.
This works on both an individual and an agency level. Individuals should be looking for their own opportunities for personal growth in both their professional and personal lives, but companies should also be open to encouraging and providing openings for career growth during this time. It’s a good way to make sure that your employees are prepared for upcoming challenges and meeting the changing needs of your clients.
To find out more about how your insurance agency can thrive in 2021, learn more about the American Agents Alliance membership benefits.
