Is your company still reticent to modernize its technology? If so, you and your company can be sustaining much more of an opportunity cost than you know.
Just ask Australian insurance broker Scott Morrison, who provided Insurance Business with a solid business case for using mobile tablet technology such as iPads, BlackBerry PlayBooks or Androids.
As Morrison noted, brokers can achieve business success simply modernizing the way they work – that is, by working smarter, without necessarily working harder.
Saving Time
In Morrison’s example, he chose an industry software called RMS InControl, which integrates across the Internet to allow advisers and their assistants direct access while out of the office. Information can be taken directly from the client, entered into a mobile tablet, and then the information can be automatically charted for visual emphasis, thereby eliminating the need for another appointment.
Earning More
Using a tablet, Morrison and the client can walk through the questioning process online. All of the questions are prompted step-by-step onscreen, causing each of them to be discussed and answered. In contrast, using a pen and paper process, some of the questions might be skipped. Morrison says the benefits of using a tablet are three-fold:
• the tablet will make the broker take a comprehensive and more client-focused approach;
• this approach benefits Morrison’s clients, who have commented that they better understand the process and their need for insurance as a result; and
• since using the online process with clients, Morrison’s overall income has increased by 25%. This came from selling additional policies, which, in turn, covered insurance risks that were identified through discussions prompted by the software.
Mobile tablets v. laptops
Scott switched to a mobile tablet and uses a wireless connection. He brings printouts of the questionnaire to each client – with pre-meeting questions filled in – in case there’s a problem with the connection.
Immediacy
When he steps back into his car in the client’s driveway, Morrison is able to email them a meeting summary automatically, as well as send a request to his assistant to start the process of gathering quotations in support of his advice.
Flexibility
Using the tablet, Morrison doesn’t have to go back to the office to drop off paperwork: he just drives to his next appointment. This saves him at least three to four hours a week travel time, and thereby saves him gas money. Morrison has thus saved significant downtime in travelling, reduced data entry time (remember, it’s already done with the client) and eliminated the need for a follow-up appointment. Don’t forget that following the comprehensive questionnaire has increased his income by 25%.
The final tally
Morrison crunched the final numbers as follows:
Morrison now has one fewer appointment per client. That’s two hours, plus three to four hours of travel time, eliminated each week. In addition, Morrison’s tablet has eliminated two hours of report writing and data entry per week.
In all, 7.5 hours of time have been freed up each working week, multiplied by a 45 working weeks.
That equals time savings of 337.5 hours each year, or eight and a half weeks or two months!
Given an additional 7.5 hours a week, Scott could fit in at least four to six extra appointments. Assume that two of these additional appointments would be with new clients.
Say the industry average commission for a new client is $1,400. Presuming Morrison had an 80% sale rate, those two extra appointments x 45 weeks x 80% x $1,400 (plus Morrison earned 25% more based on identifying the new risks) = $126,000 additional income generated.
Morrison subtracts the cost of his tablet, a 64GB iPad, for $1,150. Other tablet-related costs include annual software of $2,000, plus throw in $2,250 for broadband and mobile computing.
$126,000 less $5,400 worth of total tablets costs = $120,400. Do you think this too high an opportunity cost for comfort?
