Knowing that agents are more satisfied with benefits they derive from carrier relationships than they are with carrier technology, you might think that agents would want carriers to step up efforts to improve technology going forward.
Executive Summary
Agents surveyed late last year gave carriers a rating close to 5 on a seven-point scale when scoring the usefulness of carrier technology in handling various agency activities and scores closer to 6 for the benefits they derive from relationships with carriers. But looking out into the future, agencies still say they want carriers to focus more on the relationship aspect of the business, according to the second annual DCC/IJ Independent Agency Survey. Part 3 of a four-part article series.But that’s not what consultants from Deep Customer Connections found based on a second annual survey of agents conducted late last year.
As revealed in the first two articles of this series, agents assigned grades close to 5 on a seven-point scale (7 being the highest score) when rating the usefulness of carrier technology in handling various agency activities and uniformly higher scores—closer to 6—for the benefits they derive from relationships with carriers.
And among four areas that agents were asked about—prospecting for new business, writing policies, servicing policies and supporting policyholders with claims—carriers got the lowest marks for their technology designed to help with claims and prospecting.
