Small and mid-sized agencies (agencies of roughly 50 employees or less) often face a tough challenge: how to compete with larger firms that have more resources and tech investments. While smaller agencies can often offer more personalized service, community connections, and flexibility, their size can hold them back in areas like efficiency and scalability.

That’s where automation comes in.

By streamlining routine operations, automation enables small and mid-sized agencies to operate more efficiently without sacrificing the personalized touch that makes them unique.

The Value of Automation for Small to Mid-Sized Insurance Agencies

Automation for insurance has become a game-changer, with studies showing that businesses can save up to 40% of the time spent on repetitive tasks by automating their rote operations. By automating routine processes, small agencies can unlock significant benefits, such as:

Efficiency and Time Savings

Automating tasks such as policy renewal, document retrieval, and direct bill reconciliation allows agencies to streamline labor-intensive processes and reduce associated costs. Employees can then focus on strategic initiatives instead of mundane tasks.

Enhanced Accuracy and Compliance

Automation ensures agencies adhere to regulatory standards and operate with precision, as bots strictly follow predefined workflows. Manual, data-driven tasks, such as sending out NOCs, are prone to human error and time sensitivity. Automation minimizes the risk of errors, safeguarding revenue and improving the customer experience.

Common Misconceptions About Automation in Small and Mid-Sized Agencies

Automation is too expensive

RPA (robotic process automation) offers smaller insurance agencies an affordable, scalable alternative to traditional tech investments. Unlike other systems that require large upfront costs and lengthy implementation, RPA can be deployed quickly and is often more budget friendly.

Small and mid-sized agencies can implement it with minimal financial commitment and see benefits almost immediately.

We’ll lose the personal touch with clients

One of the biggest concerns about automation is that it may lead to a decline in personalized customer service. On the contrary, automation can actually enhance the customer experience. By automating routine tasks, agents can devote more time to building strong relationships with clients, providing personalized advice, and addressing complex issues.

Automation is too complex to implement

Implementation difficulties are based on how complex the process is. Straight forward and rule-based processes can be automated easily. Complex workflows with multiple integrations require more time and additional planning. Regarding timeframes: simple, well-defined tasks can be automated in weeks, while more intricate processes might take a couple of months.

Steps to Start Implementing Automation in Your Agency

Evaluate Your Needs and Priorities

RPA shines when handling tasks that are repetitive, rule-based, and high-volume. Tasks that drain your team’s energy but don’t directly involve revenue generation are the perfect choice. Any data entry task, and AMS processes like direct bill reconciliation, sending NOCs, document retrieval are prime candidates. Also, processes that seasonally rise in volume, like policy renewals are also good for RPA.  Basically, if a task involves lots of manual steps, has a clear set of rules, and is prone to human error, it’s likely a great fit for RPA. 

Choose Scalable, User-Friendly Tools

Selecting the right automation tools is crucial. For agencies with smaller RPA initiatives, cloud orchestration is the perfect fit. It gives agencies the power to grow and scale their RPA programs as and when they’re needed. Also, agencies can evade the expenses of building and maintaining an RPA infrastructure and purchase the hosting and processing power on a monthly or annual basis.

Start Small and Grow

Don’t try to automate everything at once. Start with a few key processes, such as policy renewals or document retrieval and gradually expand your automation efforts. This phased approach allows you to test the waters, identify potential challenges, and refine your automation strategy. Also, by starting small, you can minimize disruption to your workflow and ensure a smooth transition to automation.

The vBots Advantage

Small insurance agencies can no longer afford to overlook the power of automation.  From boosting efficiency and accuracy to enhancing customer experiences, automation can unlock a world of possibilities for smaller agencies.  

Eleviant has been a leader in the RPA space and automated over 100+ workflows for more than 50 small agencies in the last two years. Our accelerator bots are out-of-the-box automation tools that can be deployed for your agencies in as little as 3 weeks.  

If you are still on the fence about RPA, reach out to our experts and check out this blog.