Cali-Mel
New Member
- 3
1/1 is coming up, the busiest time of year with group renewals, for both employers and brokers!
I am looking for tips on handling the increased work flow at our brokerage.
Background: I used to work at United Healthcare 20 years ago and remember using Excel spreadsheets of our 1/1 renewals to handle the tasks (yearly project management for sure!). I am now back in the insurance industry and know there has to be a better way to manage this.
My current company is a small local broker; so much of what we do is "recreating the wheel", or rather constantly fine-tuning the process for tasks that get done every month, for every renewal. We don't have fancy, expensive resources available, but I feel like we're not very efficient using a check list for every group and a very basic spreadsheet report for renewals, rather than a detailed tracking system of some kind. Often I find a step was missed and was either never completed or is completed late as there are MANY steps in a renewal.
Can you tell me what your brokerage does to manage 1/1's? With my history working at a huge company during 1/1, I am having a hard time convincing my team we need to handle 1/1 like a major project and not treat it as we do renewals the rest of the year. However, since we don't currently have a fancy system in place I am trying to find a good solution that doesn't cost a lot but also something that encompasses all the steps needed to complete renewals for 75% of our business all at once.
Do we need a better spreadsheet? Do you use Excel? Project Management software? CSR tools (we use AgencyBloc)? Checklists?
Any tips would be great. Thanks!
I am looking for tips on handling the increased work flow at our brokerage.
Background: I used to work at United Healthcare 20 years ago and remember using Excel spreadsheets of our 1/1 renewals to handle the tasks (yearly project management for sure!). I am now back in the insurance industry and know there has to be a better way to manage this.
My current company is a small local broker; so much of what we do is "recreating the wheel", or rather constantly fine-tuning the process for tasks that get done every month, for every renewal. We don't have fancy, expensive resources available, but I feel like we're not very efficient using a check list for every group and a very basic spreadsheet report for renewals, rather than a detailed tracking system of some kind. Often I find a step was missed and was either never completed or is completed late as there are MANY steps in a renewal.
Can you tell me what your brokerage does to manage 1/1's? With my history working at a huge company during 1/1, I am having a hard time convincing my team we need to handle 1/1 like a major project and not treat it as we do renewals the rest of the year. However, since we don't currently have a fancy system in place I am trying to find a good solution that doesn't cost a lot but also something that encompasses all the steps needed to complete renewals for 75% of our business all at once.
Do we need a better spreadsheet? Do you use Excel? Project Management software? CSR tools (we use AgencyBloc)? Checklists?
Any tips would be great. Thanks!
