With so many aspects of your business to keep track of, you’re probably no stranger to using spreadsheets to organize information and data. For the last several decades, forward-thinking brokers and agents have developed sophisticated templates to save time, improve workflows, and speed up day-to-day work.
However, while Excel spreadsheets may be helpful for some things, they no longer provide a competitive advantage in the quickly evolving and ever-competitive insurance field.
Let’s look at how an improved approach through a benefits placement system can replace those outdated manual processes you’ve been using.
Outdated: Managing the placement process in spreadsheets
You may be accustomed to using spreadsheets to track plan documents, renewals, and stages of client work in a single location. Unfortunately, these spreadsheets quickly become outdated and require manual work as changes arise, which can become cumbersome. As your clients increase, so will the time you’ll have to put into keeping a spreadsheet up-to-date.
Upgraded: A shared system for the entire benefits placement process
A benefits placement system like ThreeFlow offers built-in collaboration and negotiation tracking tools to help you keep track of plan documents, renewals, and RFPs in one single system. With a detailed view of the status of each client that you can quickly access in just a few clicks, you can automate your benefits placement process and improve workflows.
Outdated: Building comparison charts in spreadsheets
When it’s time to put together quote comparisons, many may resort to creating charts and grids in Excel templates to keep everything straight. However, this manual, time-consuming approach can become challenging as your list of clients grows. You also introduce the potential for errors as you transfer quote information from one location to another.
Upgraded: Consistent side-by-side quote comparisons in one system
Save time and speed up your quoting process using a benefits placement system like ThreeFlow. Review the quotes from several carriers to find the right coverage for your clients quickly and negotiate rates with the click of a button.
Outdated: Tracking renewals in spreadsheets
Many brokers believe they find time savings in using Excel spreadsheets for tracking renewals. You can organize outstanding, in progress, and upcoming items in filtered tables, which provides significant time savings over the pen-and-paper process. However, these spreadsheets will only be as accurate and up-to-date as you can manually complete. You’ll likely have to switch back and forth between your many communications processes for status updates, then back to your spreadsheet to input the updates. This “more efficient” process quickly begins to feel manual again.
Upgraded: Renewal tracking and management in a few clicks
ThreeFlow gives you the ability to see a client’s current coverage at-a-glance and the opportunity to start the renewal process with the click of a button. Quickly access the renewal status to stay ahead of timelines. You can better manage carrier relationships using actionable insights and feel confident you’re recommending the right solution for these important client relationships.
Key takeaways
While you may be accustomed to using spreadsheets for your day-to-day workflows, you will see an upgraded placement process by leveraging a benefits placement system. Reduce the data siloes caused by archaic and disparate systems like spreadsheets and put collaboration at the forefront instead. Save time, reduce the back-and-forth, and trust that you’re always looking at the most up-to-date information.
If you're looking for more information on how to upgrade your benefits placement processes, chat with a ThreeFlow expert today.
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