The relationship between insurers, broker/agency partners, and customers is critical to driving sales, profitability, retention, and market share. Today’s buyers are more informed and more demanding, while the need for customer engagement has never been greater. Carriers are expected to deliver a differentiated, extraordinary customer experience. But often, insurers are working in a siloed environment with inconsistent processes and controls, and with multiple legacy systems. Gartner estimates that more than two-thirds of global life and P&C insurers still rely on legacy systems (some dating to the 1970s or ’80s) to a significant degree to manage their core processes.

What if there was an easier way to focus on real-time, relevant information, at the right time to make more intelligent business decisions and cement customer relationships? Here are six best practices to accomplish just that:

1. Gain a single view of the customer
   Decrease screen toggles and create an integrated, consolidated dashboard outlining the complete customer relationship with key data points, such as Policy Type, Claims History, Earned Premium and Loss Ratio. Break down internal silos with the help of analytics, allowing for more intelligent and scientific decision-making around cross and up-sell opportunities that are in accordance with Underwriting Guidelines.
2. Offer a multi-channel experience
   Customers seek a shopping experience that offers them simplicity and control so they can assess their needs, gather information and compare quotes. But customers also want access to their insurer after the transaction to obtain advice or ask questions — whether it be over the phone, via a live chat, or in person. They need a multi-channel approach — via independent agents or brokers, online and direct. Allow reps to access customer data anytime, anywhere, with customer data available at their fingertips.
3. Create and execute a mobile strategy
   On the customer side, insurers need to understand how to connect with insurers for sales, pricing, paying bills and reporting claims. Internally, the front end sales team needs to utilize mobility to initiate new business, deal with customer service issues, investigate claims, prospect, cross-sell and upsell. Gartner estimates that by the end of 2015, personal lines property and casualty (P&C) insurers that do not offer online and mobile transactions will lose one-quarter of their current market share. 
4. Gamify and socialize collaboration
   Empower employees across departments to work together to engage customers with gamification and Salesforce Communities. Gartner predicts that by 2015, 40% of global 1000 organizations will use gamification as the primary mechanism to transform business operations. Improved visibility allows better management of the entire customer lifecycle, increases productivity, and reduces the amount of time needed to respond to RFPs.
5. Score your agents and brokers
   With flexible and multi-dimensional Producer and RFP scoring, Carriers can determine where to focus their attention. According to Gartner, companies that automate lead management see a 10% or greater increase in revenue in six to nine months.
6. Add real-time reporting and workflows to the renewal cycle
   Real-time reporting and customized dashboards deliver actionable insights, such as when a customer is at risk of switching carriers. Workflows can prompt sales reps on renewals, or deliver custom alerts where action is needed — such as alerting of a new claim — to increase the overall rate of retention.

Want to learn more? Join us for the Insurance and Tech Webinar: How Insurers Can Unlock the Value of Relationships on Tuesday, September 30th at 10am PST, 1pm EST. Speakers include guest speakers from Berkshire Hathaway, and industry experts from salesforce.com and Bluewolf.