Insurance companies are facing looming uncertainties. Mounting pressure from inflation, rising interest rates, and macroeconomic and geopolitical concerns dampen investors’ optimism. To this end, investors should concentrate on creating a lasting competitive edge.
Often held up in daily responsibilities, insurancers find it hard to focus on the core business operations. With a virtual insurance assistant, insurance agencies can focus on growing their sales pipeline, generating leads, and more.
A virtual assistant can help insurance businesses with many back-office tasks, such as policy modifications, billing, and customer support, and ensure nothing slips through the cracks. This blog will discuss working with a virtual assistant and the services they can provide for insurance agencies.
What Is an Insurance Virtual Assistant?
A virtual insurance assistant works from a distance and handles different responsibilities for insurance companies. They take customer care calls, respond to general inquiries, research potential coverage options to recommend to customers, and more for the insurance industry.
Insurance businesses can utilize a virtual insurance assistant to maximize their productivity and performance. For example, if your insurance agents are stretched thin with incoming policy claims and queries, a virtual insurance specialist can come to the rescue and handle the situation.
7 Key Tasks a Virtual Insurance Assistant Can Do for You
For insurance companies, virtual insurance assistants carry out many activities. They frequently handle the following jobs:
Data Entry in AMS/CRM
Insurance companies can hire virtual insurance assistants to do data entry or data “clean-up” inside the AMS or CRM. Virtual insurance assistants move data back and forth between different software programs and eliminate duplicate entries. Thus, these virtual insurance specialists ensure data is clean and up to date. They can override premiums and commissions inside the systems to ensure the reporting is correct.
Administrative Tasks
Every insurance agency has to deal with administrative tasks such as transcription, file management, email management, and research. Insurance agencies can hire virtual insurance assistants to perform administrative tasks so they can focus on high-value business processes.
Also Read: Is a Remote Assistant Worth the Investment?
Insurance Assistance
A virtual assistant with phone skills can answer customer care calls and help customers with pressing issues. For instance, customers often inquire about what insurance policy they are eligible for and what kind of coverage might be best for them. A virtual insurance assistant conducts research, reviews policy information, and recommends options to clients. Similarly, a virtual insurance verification specialist can verify the claims faster and provide support to an insurance company.
Preparing Policy Information
Making bids and ensuring that the details of each client's policy are updated is part of any insurance agency's general practice. A virtual insurance assistant gathers policy information, modifies current rules, and provides bids for new clients because this requires a lot of administrative work.
Lead Generation, Nurturing & Management
A virtual insurance assistant can assist insurancers in effective lead management. They also ensure insurance businesses close more deals by converting prospects into customers.
Accounting & Bookkeeping
Insurance accounting services have emerged as a strategic approach for insurance companies. A virtual insurance assistant lessens the burden of staffing in-house bookkeepers and accounting professionals. They provide comprehensive services to insurance businesses that make it simple to comply with statutory requirements.
Website & App Development
Insurance businesses need advanced websites and applications that will reduce their insurance work and offer a seamless experience to their customers. A virtual insurance assistant offers top-notch web and mobile applications. They are well-versed in website and app development design to ensure all your insurance business requirements meet your business needs.
Benefits of Hiring Virtual Assistants for Insurance Agencies
Employing a virtual insurance assistant might completely revolutionize the way insurance companies operate. Using virtual assistant services has several advantages, such as:
Improved Customer Service
In the competitive insurance industry, there is a need for insurance carriers to put the customer experience at the center of their business strategy. Insurers that offer superior customer service beat their peers. A virtual insurance assistant does research on your behalf for your support and sales teams. As a result, insurance businesses can save time by not undertaking policy research.
Organized Leads
A virtual insurance assistant can aid insurance companies in managing their vast network of current, past, and potential clients. With a virtual assistant, insurance companies can keep their lead database in order and access it easily.
Focus on Insurance Activities That Drive Growth
An insurance business spends an average of 16 hours per week on administrative tasks and other work that doesn't require their expertise or authority. This substantial loss in productivity inhibits the expansion of crucial initiatives for the insurance industry.
Using a virtual insurance assistant allows business owners to focus on the efforts that promote growth.
By offloading all of the time-consuming and tedious administrative tasks, they free up a ton of time for insurance companies to improve their strategic projects and establish crucial contacts.
A Big Saving on Hiring and Employee Costs
While hiring a virtual assistant, there are no hiring or incentive costs, which can save your company thousands of dollars.
According to a study by the Society for Human Resource Management, it costs $4,129 on average to fill a job opening. It includes:
- Time invested in preparing job listings
- Cost of posting jobs on employment boards
- Recruitment advertisements
- Examining applicants and conducting interviews takes time.
- Background check costs
- Costs of training
- Employees benefits
Increased Business Efficiency
Businesses are attempting to cut expenses by broadly sustaining the economic gains made by virtual staff. Salesforce and Airbnb have significantly reduced office space rent. Insurance companies can use virtual insurance assistants to increase business efficiency by taking a cue from these successful businesses.
A virtual insurance assistant swiftly and accurately analyzes large volumes of data. They provide precise market information and help insurance companies make decisions more quickly. They can also speed up insurance back office support and accurately take the role of manual processes in customer service activities like generating quotes or processing payments.
Increased Insurance Sales
Virtual insurance assistants aid companies in boosting sales by enhancing the general consumer experience when using their goods or website. They achieve this by providing customers with quick responses. It increases engagement and leads to higher conversion rates for insurance businesses.
How Much Does a Virtual Insurance Assistant Cost
Generally speaking, a virtual insurance assistant costs $8 to $16 per hour, depending on where you hire them. In contrast, employing in-house employees costs between $17.00 and $19.83.
Insurance companies need to evaluate if they are hiring a trained virtual assistant or whether they need to do so.
Employing a qualified virtual assistant can save insurance companies money and effort on training, saving them up to $1,800 a month.
To this end, insurance companies can save money by working with a reputable outsourcing partner like Office Beacon to hire a virtual insurance assistant while successfully streamlining operations to drive growth.
Conclusion
It has become imperative for insurance companies to acquire virtual assistants due to the many advantages they offer. Are you looking for an efficient way to manage your customers and optimize business tasks? If you nodded yes, Office Beacon could be of assistance by providing trained virtual insurance agents.
Talk to our experts now to see if hiring a virtual insurance assistant is best for your agency.