Christine Meyer Blood chats with one of the many vendors on hand at the recent Insurance Agency Owners Alliance Innovation conference in Tampa, Florida.

The Insurance Agency Owners Alliance is the fastest growing Association of Independent Insurance Agency Owners in the country. They recently held their annual ‘Innovation’ conference in Tampa, Florida and Christine Meyer Blood was on hand to learn how the agency can better use technology for day-to-day business operations to better serve our customers.

“It’s amazing how much technology continues to change the way we do business and interact with our customers,” said Chris.”This entire conference was focused on innovation. Hearing how other agency owners are interacting with their customer base and learning from some of the vendors who offer new technologies was really eye-opening,” she added.

So what are some of these new innovations that may be coming our way in the near future? Some are as simple as adding online booking capabilities to the agency website to schedule meetings. Video presentations may also be utilized in the very near future. “With a video presentation, we’ll be able to put together a complete proposal where we can review our policy recommendations and the customer can watch it at their own convenience – whether that’s at night or if the customer happens to be out of town,” said Chris.

Zoom meetings to discuss proposals or get questions answered may be in your future if you’d like them to be!

“Of course we’re always just a call or text away,” added Chris. “But we’re also going to be looking at expanding our digital footprint, putting out news and information on YouTube and Instagram and integrating those communications with twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. We want to offer our customers as many touch points for communication as possible,” said Chris.

These changes may not happen overnight – but they’re coming. The integration of the agency’s cloud-based customer management system took several months to implement. But now, when a customer calls, we’re able to instantly access their account – safely and securely. “That’s a great example of technology and innovation at work,” said Chris.

“Attending the Innovation 21 Conference allowed us to see how other agency owners are embracing the future. In the end, it’s all about better serving our customers – and that’s something that will always be our main priority,” she added.