Insurance Agency Communication in the Age of COVID-19
You probably have thought of incorporating different communication options in your insurance agency business practices. But, if you are like most agents, something always comes up that requires your immediate attention...an employee leaves, a renewal comes in for a big account with a huge premium hike, a big claim threatens your contingency income...we’ve all lived it.
Disclaimer: This blog post was started in November of 2019. Since then it has been broken up into multiple posts, reassembled, and through various draft versions, the focus has changed.
This blog post, meandering though it has been through many drafts, is far more relevant now than it would have been last November. As we practice social distancing and business life slows down, it really is time to put some new communication options in place...and finally publish this stubborn blog post.
Two Way Communication Options for Insurance Agency Websites:
Website Chat Client
There are a number of these on the market ranging in price from free to $15 to $20 per month per user and any of these can be added to any website.
The free versions have limited functionality, the most significant limitation being that only one user at a time can be logged in.
Most agencies will want to have 3 or 4 users so that someone is available to get to chat requests quickly, so a cost of $45 - $60 a month would be more realistic.
One service Confluency has direct experience with is Chatra. Their cost currently is $15 a month per user. One nice feature Chatra has is the option to incorporate messages coming from Facebook Messenger into a single dashboard.
Facebook Messenger
Facebook Messenger can be installed on any website and is free but there is a downside. Messenger users, like all Facebook users, provide data to Facebook that Facebook uses to tailor advertising displays.
Confluency has tested this and agencies who have Facebook Messenger installed on their website can expect to have competitor ads inserted into the Facebook feeds of clients and prospects who use the chat service.
Live Chat
A definition of live chat, at least for our purposes here, is a service that makes live chat agents (people) available 24/7 and seven days a week to respond to messages. As with website chat, there are several services available.
Confluency has had direct experience with ApexChat; we used it on the Confluency website for about a year. The ApexChat agents were not well versed in the digital marketing business or Confluency’s services, but that wasn’t necessary.
The job of the ApexChat agents was to capture contact information for service requests as well as capture sales lead information. The service worked well for both purposes. The pricing is based on the number of sales leads captured in a month (stated interest in product or service you provide, name, and email or phone number).
The set up fees are $250 and monthly fees will depend on the number of leads that live chat captures for you. We can send you more information upon request.
Chat-to-Text
Superficially this looks like regular web chat but a chat-to-text service uses your agency landline number to text with website visitors.
Some of the advantages of a chat-to-text service are that conversations can continue even after someone leaves your website, templates can be set up for online review requests and late payers and push communications are enabled.
ZipWhip is a service several of our agents have used, most agencies would need their business package which is $100 a month. A similar service, which can be sampled on the Confluency website right now, is offered by TextRequest. Their monthly cost is $50.
IDEA FOR YOUR INSURANCE AGENCY
A flow of online reviews, a few each month, is incredibly important to achieving search and online visibility for your insurance agency. One impediment is the lag between when you ask a client for a review and when they actually log in to Google to do it. If a client is on their phone they are almost certainly already logged in. Ask them to go to your website, enter their mobile number in your text-to-chat client, and then type in the word review. Use the review template to send them a text message with the link to your online reviews.
Google Messages
This isn’t available for your website per se but it does allow consumers to message you via your agency Google My Business (GMB) profile through a phone app.
Any agency employee with GMB Owner or Manager permission levels can receive and respond to messages. Google Messages needs to be enabled through the GMB phone app and notifications and conversations will take place through the phone app.
Note: In late 2019 Google began selectively rolling out a ‘Request a Quote’ call to action in business profiles which seems to be available to all insurance agencies. Enabling Messages will also enable the ‘Request a Quote’ button.
All-In-One
The only service we know of that incorporates all the above into one dashboard is Podium. There are many powerful features besides an all-in-one dash but Podium requires some consideration due the pricing and commitment, which at the time of this writing was $427 per month with a 12 month contract.
Chatbots
Confluency has made a foray into this area and there is little doubt that chatbot solutions will be developed in the near future that make a difference for agents and clients. There is a company that markets a chatbot for insurance agents in the U.S. as well as Canada, Pronavigator.
One of our agents installed the chatbot on the insurance agency website but removed it after some disappointing results. Your experience may differ from theirs but our opinion, as well as the agency’s, was that the chatbot essentially is ‘conversational’ website navigation. As of this writing you can see a live version on this agency (brokerage) website.
Reaching Out Communications - Video for Insurance Agents:
Video Email
Back in 2007 we at Confluency started using one of the first video email platforms, Eyejot. It was great. Through the Eyejot app you could easily record or send a pre-recorded email and personalize those communications in a way that really stood out.
But there was one problem...thirteen years ago many insurance agents didn’t have audio or video capabilities on their work computers, and even for those that did, getting an in box item that looked like a video just freaked people out. Too soon? Yep, too soon.
In 2020 things are different. People consume video on mobile and on desktops and platforms such as BombBomb are incredibly flexible, inexpensive, and include far more options than video email services from the late 2000s.
Now videos can appear as animated GIFs directly in an email (BombBomb) to increase click-through rates, you track email opens and video views, flip back and forth between camera and screen sharing, embed videos from emails in web pages, and more.
Putting Video to Work for Your Insurance Agency: Do's & Don'ts
We have tied a few different services and the results are far more rewarding than our Eyejot experience: emails get opened, appointments get booked, we save time by explaining things through screen sharing, and...this is probably most important...we are able to make personal connections when in person meetings are not possible. Here’s a rundown on some options:
BombBomb
This is the service Confluency is using currently and we’re sticking with it because it is so superior to everything else we have tried. BombBomb has - and this may seem insignificant but it’s a big deal - extensions for Gmail and Outlook so you can launch video emails in your regular workflow.
BombBomb also has a mobile app so you can do video emails on the fly. Other features include the ability to switch between video and screen sharing, includes notifications for email opens and views, plus many more. There is no set up fee or commitment unless you select the Plus plan. They have a 14 day free trial, a $29.99 a month individual plan but all bells and whistles are in the Plus plan at $588 billed annually. Learn more.
Gmail Plug In - cloudHQ
If you use Gmail this is a good way to get your feet wet with video email because it’s free. Features are basic and video quality is OK, but not great. You can also download a separate extension from cloudHQ for screen sharing.
You can’t flip back and forth between video and screen share in one email the way you can with BombBomb (see the previous comment about limited features) but this isn’t a show stopper if you are just experimenting. cloudHQ
- Gmail video - https://www.free-video-email.com/
- Gmail screen sharing - https://www.record-my-screen.com/
Website Integration - Screencast-o-matic
Screencast-o-matic can be integrated into the back end of a website - for a cost - but there isn’t much advantage to launching it there vs. launching from the native Screencast-o-matic platform. Screencast-o-matic features support video and screencasting and the editing tools are top notch. However Screencast-o-matic doesn’t have Gmail or Outlook integration, a mobile option or many of the other features found in BombBomb. It is far less expensive though at $4 a month per user. Learn more here.
IDEA FOR YOUR INSURANCE AGENCY
Use video email to connect with important accounts or deliver difficult information in a highly personalized way. Video email used in prospecting can reduce the inevitable follow up phone call meetings. Be sure to use the prospects name, write their name on a white board for the email GIF, and remind them of the benefit of your agency service. Be sure to use the word ‘video’ in the subject line of your email. Again, use this email to make a personal connection - use video - don’t waste time using screen sharing to go over a lifeless quote proposal. Instead, use video to highlight some of the coverage options you suggested or discounts available.
Web Meetings
Even if you haven’t hosted a web meeting, you have no doubt been on one. They have been with us in one form or another for over 15 years. Over that time the names have changed, the features have improved and expanded, and most important, they have become more affordable. I can’t even remember the name of the service - charged to my budget - when I worked for an insurance company but can remember the cost: $150,000 a year.
Web meetings aren’t a perfect substitute for face-to-face meetings but they can come pretty close and allow you to use video as well as screen sharing. You can switch ‘presenters’ during any meeting so you get close to the rich interaction you get when meeting in-person.
Zoom has gotten a lot of PR exposure as people observe COVID-19 shelter in place recommendations* and it has a free service level. Zoom supports webinars, as well as Facebook and YouTube live streams, discussed below.
A similar service, which has been around for many years, is GoToMeeting. GoToMeeting only has a 14 day free trial and offers top notch webinar support as well as YouTube Live streaming but doesn’t currently support Facebook live events..
Another similar service with a free always level is Join.me. Join.me (https://join.me). At the moment Join.me does not integrate with either You Tube live or Facebook live events.
*Zoom is more user friendly when it comes to video conferencing than the other alternatives here, hence its popularity boom for virtual cocktail parties.
Webinars, Facebook, You Tube, Linked In Live
Webinars are really just web meetings with one or a few people presenting to many, and again, most of us have at least been on the receiving end of one. Webinars can be recorded and shared with attendees and non-attendees alike after the event itself.
You Tube, Facebook and LinkedIn* all support live events that function like webinars with some added benefits, like availability to more viewers since it isn’t necessary to sign in or download software. YouTube live events, in particular, can deliver a SEO boost.
If you want to use video and screen sharing on a live event, and you probably will, the easiest way to do that is by using an integration with one of the web meeting services highlighted above.
IDEA FOR YOUR INSURANCE AGENCY
We are hearing from our agents about nearly daily updates from insurance companies about claim handling, premium deferments, changes in contact options and more. A great idea for insurance agency live events is to do short updates, maybe once or twice a week, about the changes taking place now and what may happen as we endure the COVID-19 related slowdown in business and life.
*LinkedIn, as of this date, has not made live events widely available. There is a request and approval process presently and approvals seem to be limited to large brands with large numbers of followers.
Making Your Website Stickier - Video
This section could also have been titled making your LinkedIn and Facebook posts more engaging because video does that as well. Videos on your insurance agency website don’t have to be long - under two minutes is best - and they don’t have to be slickly produced. Almost any mobile phone less than 5 years old can produce video more than adequate for the web.
You can do quick explainer videos, client testimonial videos, videos promoting local events or businesses, the list isn’t endless but there aren’t many limits. Video is a great way to personalize insurance and differentiate your agency from the competition.
Once you start doing webinars, live events and using video email you likely also have video content you can add to your website. Most of the web meeting and web email services mentioned above offer the option of downloading your video meeting or email to your computer as an mp4 or other video format file.
The easiest way to get video on your website is to first upload to YouTube. Vimeo is another service similar to You Tube and gives you a little more control over the video settings.
There are a lot of rich communication options for insurance agencies today that are really, really effective and really, really affordable and easy to integrate with social media, email and your website. Chances are your agency isn’t using many, if any of these. Not all of the options presented here will be right for you nor will implementing a bunch of them all at once make sense. But we can take a glass half full approach to our present situation, learn more about improving agency communications, and hit the ground running as business inevitably returns to normal.