​Author: ACT New Staff

 
Lisa and Will Lemanski provide an object lesson in how perpetuating a family agency can build on existing strengths and introduce new ones. The pair bought Meiers Lombardini Lemanski Insurance from Will's uncle and his uncle's partner in January 2012 with a transition period in which Will's uncle stayed on as a bridge as they began to improve the agency's technology and procedures. 

“We knew we wanted to upgrade the agency management system, so we set about finding a system that would grow with us at ML&L," Lisa says. “Cost was a huge factor. We're a small agency, so we have to be careful with our resources." 

Not knowing which system would be best, they turned to friends and colleagues, friends in the industry and, yes, Facebook, seeing what others liked and didn't like. 

“We were looking for something that would be pretty easy to use but that had the ability to expand. We chose QQ Catalyst," Lisa says. “It allowed us to pull better reports than our prior system, made it easy to document things, and was super user friendly, which was very important to us. We didn't want to traumatize our team."

Bells and Whistles

Always with an eye on what more their system could do for customer service and office efficiency, they have continued to build out their agency management software.

“We added a mobile app that is branded to our agency and plugs into our management system. That has been great," Lisa says. “The policyholder can send us an accident notification for auto, and that gets the claim rolling.

“We also use Rocket Referrals, an online program that allows our clients to rate us from 1 to 10. We can use those ratings to determine our business strengths and weaknesses. It also helps us be more responsive to individual client needs. It links us to our other social media sites, and it plugs into agency management system. We appear more in search results and get online testimonials from it. It has just been phenomenal."

Another customer interface that has proven to be a big winner has been e-signature. Not only does the program they chose allow for electronic signatures of documents; it also nudges clients if they delay in returning a document.
 
“E-signature was one of the things we were most excited to integrate," Lisa says. “But it turned out the clients weren't as excited as we were—they kind of just expected it. Meeting and exceeding those expectations is very important to us."

Increasing access has been another priority. To facilitate better communications, ML&L adopted a new phone system that can change voicemail into text that is forwarded to the right person at any hour of the day.

“The new phone system is huge," Lisa says. “One of our producers who works an hour away from our office can now work from home one day a week. It's easy for our staff to roll something over to him seamlessly from the office phone system. The caller never knows it's going off site."

Agents can also now access the agency management system from off site, allowing them to work as if they are at their desk.

Lessons Learned

Looking to the future, Lisa says they will build on lessons learned. For example, early on they tried to develop a customer relationship management system. They used a developer outside the insurance industry, and—though the system itself had potential—turning it into something that was responsive specifically to insurance was taking too much time and not getting the results they wanted. As a result, they terminated that project. But a CRM isn't off the table. They are keeping their eyes on a new agency management system that has CRM built in. They also replaced their old all-text website with a more modern version. For this effort, they chose a developer that specializes in insurance websites, and it has made all the difference.

As for advice, Lisa says, “Agency leaders need to be courageous and patient. Also, do your research. Talk to other agents. Use Facebook groups. Go to trade shows and learn from the vendors and displays. If it weren't for our involvement at the state and national level, we wouldn't be where we are. It helps to know you are not alone as you make the strides forward—and get caught in some problems on the way."