We had a great time at the Benefits Selling Expo last week!
- Yes, the JW Marriott in San Antonio is really nice,
- Yes, the resort is located on a TPC golf course,
- Yes, the food and entertainment was really good.

But what we enjoyed the most, and our primary reason for being an exhibitor, was to gain the opportunity to speak to our audience directly.  Given our agency management system is entirely web-based, and our clients are located all over the country, we primarily only work with clients over the phone.

The Benefits Selling Expo allowed us to have more in-depth conversations, focusing on what our clients truly need from our services.  We also found value in hearing various speakers and networking with other industry professionals - you never know what strategic alliances may be out there!

Thanks again to everyone that stopped by and visited with us..... even if it was just to pick up a cool ice cube!!

"My job of configuring commissions has been made so much easier. It's been a life-saver and most of all, time-saver!" - Patrick, Don Allred & Associates, Inc.

So many agencies struggle with the manual effort of trying to process commissions. With the advancements in technology, it's surprising how many agencies are still re-keying their carrier statements into their commission system. And often, that "commission system" is a collection of spreadsheets that are used to track, calculate, and pay commissions. AgencyBloc's commissions module was built to solve this problem.

How it works:

1. Input .XLS or .CSV formatted carrier commission statements into AgencyBloc with a simple import process that is done with the click of a button.
2. AgencyBloc does the calculations based on how you pay your commissions (% of commission, % of premium, per life, or flat amount).
3. Accurate commission statements are produced and can be sent to your agents and MGA’s.

     AgencyBloc is not affiliated with any of the companies above in anyway. BlueCross BlueShield ®, Aetna®, Delta Dental®, United Healthcare®, Unum®, Humana® and Prudential® are registered trademarks.

With the announcement of Google Drive on Tuesday (April 24, 2012) - a web based product where users can “create, share, collaborate, and keep all of (their) stuff” - many became worried about the privacy of the information that they store while using cloud computing systems and programs. Not long after Drive was announced, people began Tweeting and blogging about Google’s Terms of Service and comparing them to similar cloud-based products such as Dropbox and Microsoft’s SkyDrive.  In a Nutshell, Google’s Terms of Service says anything stored in Drive belongs to Google, while Dropbox and SkyDrive say that anything stored in their systems belongs to the user.

Here at AgencyBloc, we take no ownership over any information that our users upload and/or store in our system and we take security of that information very seriously.

How do we compare to Google Drive?
Google Drive Terms of Service: “When you upload or otherwise submit content to our Services, you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works...”

AgencyBloc Terms of Service: “We claim no intellectual property rights over the material you provide to the Service. Your Content and files uploaded remain yours.”

Data Privacy & Ownership

“The confidentiality and integrity of your data is of the utmost importance to AgencyBloc. In addition to a variety of controls securing your data, we also have an extensive QA process to prevent any type of data loss or integrity issue. We also do not hold your data hostage - you own it and can pull various forms of Excel/CSV exports at any time.”

We understand the security concerns that people have when it comes to personal and/or business-related information. When users send us their “books of business” or other confidential files, we use an encrypted channel - this way no files end up in the wrong hands. When using AgencyBloc to manage your agency, you don’t have to worry about your data being shared or held hostage - it’s your data, not ours.

We are thrilled to be attending the 8th Annual Benefits Selling Expo in San Antonio, Texas this year to talk about AgencyBloc and connect with others in the industry. We’d love to meet with benefits brokers who are looking for a way to increase efficiency, enhance customer satisfaction, control costs, and stay competitive in the health and life insurance industry! Come learn more about AgencyBloc from Adam and Cory in booth 221. Reach out to us via Twitter, LinkedIn, or e-mail if you’d like to get together at some point during the conference.

Current clients - if you are going to be at the Benefits Selling Expo please stop by and say hello, we’d love to catch up!

Hope to see you there!

Your agency is unique, so we’ve made it easy to customize and personalize AgencyBloc to your unique way of doing business. Regardless of what solution you're using today, we make it easy to transfer your data onto our platform.  Once you’re here, there are a number of things you can do to make it home. Here are 5 ways AgencyBloc can be customized to your agency’s way of doing business:

User Permissions

1. User Accounts, Privileges and Teams
We understand that there are many different unique situations surrounding agent/agency relationships and this is why user accounts can be set up exactly how you want them. Security groups can be used to limit or expand the amount of information individual users can see, edit or customize themselves.

One of the first processes agencies go through is determining how team members will leverage AgencyBloc in their day-to-day operations.  We’ve discussed various agency roles, but what we want to emphasize here is the ability to setup managers, organize Teams and assign various duties appropriate for each team member. Once teams are set up, these team members can work together on completing tasks that are assigned to them. Activities can be created so that team members know what has been done and what still needs to be done - this way there is no overlap.

2. Data Administration

Customize Data Terms

Your agency probably uses a lot of different classifications/terms that you might not even think are unique.  Let’s take “Status” for example, the variation of policy statuses that we have seen is countless - i.e. ‘Active/In-Force’, ‘Cancelled/Replaced’, ‘Pending/Quoting’ - it goes on and on.  Just because you’re upgrading technology, you shouldn’t be forced to a limited or different set of terms.  AgencyBloc has over 25 fields that are available for customization so that your agency can use its internal language in the system and not the generic “default” terms that other systems require you to use.


3. Custom Fields
Each primary section of AgencyBloc has a dedicated tab called "Custom Fields."  Here users can add any field specific to their agency that is not already accounted for in AgencyBloc. Agencies use this customizable feature to track things such as additional lead or contact information, and extra commission information. Just about any unique information that your agency tracks can be accounted for in AgencyBloc. These custom fields are active and reports can be run from the information stored in them. Don’t lose valuable information just because your generic CRM system doesn’t have a place for it.

4. Commission Schedules
We’ve seen just about every possible way that an agency can calculate commissions and we’ve accounted for them all.  However your agency pays out commissions, AgencyBloc has the ability to calculate those commissions using percent of premium, percent of commission received, per life, or as a flat amount. You can also specify pay-outs based on carrier, coverage type, or even plan code. If compensation adjustments need to be made, rate schedules offer a convenient way to quickly adjust pay-outs for hundreds of policies. No more guessing or assuming - AgencyBloc makes sure every commission dollar is accounted for.

5. Reports
It’s great to have all your information in an organized system that’s easy to use, but what are you going to do with it once it’s there? Reports are a great way to quickly pull data from the system so that it’s usable for you right away. There are a countless number of custom reports that can be generated using AgencyBloc. A user has the option to run reports on Groups, Individuals, Agents, Policies, Carriers, or Activities. Each of those reports can be filtered in a number of different ways so that you get just the data you are looking for. As for tracking commissions, AgencyBloc has seven different commission specific reports for staying on top of this crucial aspect of the business. With these easy-to-use reporting functions you are just a few clicks away from the exact data that you want/need. Don’t use a CRM system that determines which information is valuable to you and which information is not - be in control of your data.

Agent Contract Report

When selecting an agency management system there are a number of things to consider and we feel that choosing a system that can be customized to fit your agency is a very important consideration. Not only will the transition be much smoother but the users of the system will have a much shorter learning curve and be up and running very quickly.

Find out how AgencyBloc can be customized to benefit your agency today with a Free Trial or a Free Live Demo.

One of the most important aspects for any insurance agency or agent is referral business. We see a lot of Health and Life agencies that successfully leverage horizontal alliances, for example, by partnering up with financial advisors.  The two organizations will exchange client introductions when appropriate, providing both a value-add to the customer and increasing each others client bases.

Here at AgencyBloc, we often field questions similar to:
- “Can we track prospects through the sales & enrollment process?”
- “Can I track my various lead sources?”
- “Can we see a total listing of all policies sold through a referral relationship?”

Tracking Prospect Activity
One of the many benefits of utilizing an agency management system is the ability to track and retrieve information on all of your agency’s various interactions.

As your team tracks prospects through all the steps of the sales and quoting process, any staff member can quickly see where any individual is located in the pipeline. Providing timely feedback to those who have trusted you with a referral could be critical to maintaining that relationship and getting subsequent referrals.



Tracking Lead Sources
Contacts within AgencyBloc can be associated with any type of Lead Source (customized by the user) as well as a Lead Date, referring agent and even a secondary Lead Source. These same data fields are often then utilized as filters when generating reports.

Total Policies By Referral Source The old saying goes, it’s hard to see the forest for the trees.  Users of AgencyBloc can quickly quantify and compare referral sources by generating a policy report that shows how the customer/policy was acquired. The two screen-shots below show
1- the filter options for creating the policy report and
2- the Excel output containing the aforementioned data

You've worked hard to earn trust in your field and convert leads into sales.  With a platform like AgencyBloc, your process can be streamlined and you’ll have the data to help maintain and quantify referral relationships.

There’s a good chance you or your agency has some of these relationships today, are they being tracked as well as they should be?

SCHEDULE A LIVE DEMO!

As phonebooks inevitably become obsolete, consumers lean on search engines to find local business information like phone numbers and addresses. Beyond that, consumers use the reviews and ratings on these local listings to make informed decisions. It’s important for local business’ to not only claim these listings, but to control and monitor the content...especially the reviews.

So you’ve got a negative review...now what?

Create a Plan
Creating a plan to respond to reviews is often forgotten about until it’s too late. Your plan doesn’t have to be complicated, but it does need to be documented. Remember, plans change, so don’t be intimidated into thinking this is set in stone.

• Determine who is going to monitor reviews
• Ensure responses are going to be written with consistency
• Remember the outlet you are responding on
• Be clear, be concise, be courteous
• Optional – Create a timeline/checklist for responses

Don’t Just Wing It
While a quick response is important, the worst thing you can do is respond off the top of your head. Consistency is key. Consumers may ask the same question ten different times, in ten different ways...so make sure you’re prepared.

• Fully understand the issue, prior to responding
• Don’t be vague, offer a specific answer or fix
• Reassure that future consumers won’t run into the issue

Respond and Fix
You’ve sent a response, now what? Simple, if the issue can be fixed, fix it! Nobody likes negative reviews, but the information obtained can be quite valuable and could potentially make your business better. Oddly enough, a balance of negative reviews and positive reviews can often give greater credibility. Most consumers can sniff out a fake “5-star” review when they see one.

Ignoring the Review Won’t Make it Go Away
The longer you wait, the worse it will get. You don’t always have to agree with the review, heck, you probably never will if it’s negative. Remember, opinions are opinions, and on the Internet...everyone’s got one. The important thing is that you acknowledged the customer, offered a response, and hopefully an acceptable solution.

So where are you seeing most of your reviews come from?