New AgencyIQ Features

Happy New Year 2012! A new year brings new OPPORTUNITIES…. and AgencyIQ has rolled out New Features that will have a positive impact on your marketing in 2012. The best news is….. they’re FREE!

*Upgraded Email Certificate – promotes improved deliverablity and open ratios for emails to your prospects and clients….FREE!

*Newsletters - send a monthly Newsletter to up to 2,000 recepients per month….FREE!

*Mirrored Emails - receive emails to any email address outside of AgencyIQ… great for mobile applications or remote use and keeps a record of all of your correspondence…FREE!

ALL of these New Features are fully integrated into the AgencyIQ workflow platform and create a fully robust Marketing System for your agency!

Check out these new features in our “Lunch-n-Learn” webinars on Wednesdays from 12:00-1:00pm CST. You can also learn more about Newsletters by clicking on the following link Webinar Schedule

AgencyIQ is excited to bring these Powerful, New Tools to you for 2012….
Let us help you Grow with our AgencyIQ Marketing System!

AgencyIQ Newsletters

AgencyIQ has rolled out another powerful tool to engage your prospects and clients while building your brand. Newsletters are the perfect compliment to an on-going drip email campaign. With AgencyIQ, you now have the ability to coordinate your drip email efforts with the “POP” of a well timed Newsletter.

Newsletters are a great way to:
*Cross-sell
*Send reminders to review coverages
*Provide emergency contact info in case of a disaster
*Seasonal and Holiday greetings
*Build your Brand and Relationships

As an AgencyIQ subscriber, you have the ability to send a Newsletter to 2,000 receipents per month….. FREE! Additional mailings are available, contact us for rates.

We want to help you with implementing your Newsletter campaigns, so visit our webinar schedule and register online!  Our Webinar Schedule will  feature a series of Sessions devoted to Newsletters!

View Training Video

When the Tech Team came out with this feature, I was like…Uh-Oh… What is it and how do I explain it? Turns out it’s Very Simple and VERY COOL! This new feature allows you to store all of your email correspondence inside AgencyIQ AND in another email address. So, for example, you receive an email into AgencyIQ, it will also show up in your Outlook or other email address. Many of you have requested this feature and now its functioning inside your AgencyIQ account. Follow these steps to activate this feature in AgencyIQ:

*Go to “My Settings” in the top right hand corner
*Click on the “Email Configuration” Tab
*Type in your “Mirrored Email Address” in the 2nd Box
*Click “Save”

That’s it! Now, anything you do inside AgencyIQ or your other email address server will be “mirrored” in both accounts. If you’re on the move or don’t have time to sign into AgencyIQ, you can still see all of your correspondence inside your other email address. This also provides accurate tracking of ALL of your email correspondence with clients, no matter if it orignates from AgencyIQ or your other email address!’

Watch the Set Up Video Above!

If you have any questions about this NEW feature or any of our other NEW features that have rolled out in the last few weeks, visit our website www.agencyiq.net and contact us for assistance or an overview of all of our new features!

Increase Your Exposure

AgencyIQ has recently UPGRADED our email delivery performance by partnering with SendGrid. This new partnership will dramaticaly increase email deliverability and open ratios for emails sent through AgencyIQ. Without boring you with a lot of technical details, simply put, this higher certification rating will result in more emails getting through filters and security because of our “good email citizenship” rating with this certificiation platform.

So what does this mean for you and your agency?
(MORE DELIVERIES + MORE OPENS)+MORE CLIENTS = $$

The best news is that all of this happens behind the scenes, so you don’t have to do anything different…AND… IT’S FREE! By being a subscriber to the AgencyIQ system, you are the beneficiary of our constant, on-going efforts to bring you the most up-to-date, innovative technology and workflow tools to help you grow your business!

Contact us today at AgencyIQ

1. Plan & Organize – without a plan, you will experience an 80% failure rate. Time spent organizing is time well spent. It doesn’t matter how you organize, just organize in a way that works for you.
2. Set Goals & Prioritize – the first step is to decide what you want to achieve. Keep the goals achievable, with a little bit of stretch. Next, prioritize! Use the 80-20 rule from our old friend Mr. Pareto… 80% of the reward or achievement comes from 20% of the effort.  Spend time in the areas that offer the greatest return on effort.
3. To Do or Not to Do – that is the question! Combine a list of action items with your calendar. You can see your progress and make adjustments as needed. Knowing where you are is half the battle most days.
4. Delegate – No is not a four letter word! Some tasks are just not worth your time, but others on your staff could be a perfect fit for activities that are a drain on your schedule, but still need to be handled.
5. Don’t schedule 100% of Your Day – Interruptions are going to happen… so build time into your schedule to accommodate them! Not only will this lessen your stress level when emergencies happen, but it will lessen the number of “fires” you have to deal with on a daily basis.
6. Know Your Prime Time – we all have biological a “prime time” when we are running on all cylinders. Knowing if you’re a morning person, afternoon guru or night owl, you can try to schedule your priority tasks for those times.
7. Reward Yourself – break your day into small blocks and give yourself a small reward  for achieving a goal. Building small successes as you move through the day will give you both emotional and physical boosts.  All work and no play makes for a long day!!!!

1. Develop multiple revenue sources – Never rely on one customer, industry or client to be your only revenue stream. Diversity will help insulate you if you lose a high value customer. You should plan on losing at least 10% of your customer base annually, not necessarily through your fault, it’s just the natural flow of business.
2. Document It! – The first rule of business is ‘get it in writing”. What may have been understood in a verbal conversation can easily lead to major misunderstandings at a later date….that’s why the court house is full of lawyers. A well defined and thorough written document can save hurt feelings, money and clients!
3. Rainy Day Money – You never know when your revenue stream will be interrupted or for how long. Fire, flood, natural disasters or even economic uncertainty can bring business to a sudden stop. Having a reserve fund to see you through slow months or more trying situations can save your business until your cash flow returns to normal.
4. Back Up, Back Up, Back Up…. In case you are one of those folks who has never experienced their computer hard drive crashing….YOU WILL BE, it’s just a matter of time. There are so many easy, automatic ways to back up your business data, especially from PC’s and laptops available today. I suggest you consider an online backup system that is cloud based. They are numerous and inexpensive, and are accessible 24/7, allowing you to recover vital data to keep your business moving if those geek gremlins attack.
5. Have a Plan – sounds easy, and it really is. Take a few minutes and think about some of the vital activities you, your staff and your business perform routinely. Write them down, make copies, distribute and familiarize key employees with those processes. Then, when someone is out for a day or week or month, a co-worker will know how to turn on the copier, write an invoice or turn on the coffee maker!

Survey results from an online insurance comparison site CoverHound.com  indicate that consumers of auto insurance still prefer to deal with local agents versus online or telephone purchases from direct carriers.  While direct carriers continue to gain market share, shoppers still prefer that personal connection. That’s great news for agents!

The survey shows that 39% prefer to deal with a local agent, 32% prefer direct contact with carriers and 29% are indifferent. Not surprisingly, 50% of 18-25 year olds preferred a direct carrier association, while only 27% of 41-50 year olds held a similar preference.  As an agent, this provides some valuable insights into market demographics and should assist you in defining your marketing strategy. Utilizing online technology should be an important part of you marketing plan. Having a presence online is crucial to reaching a significant percentage of the market, regardless of age, but is essential to reach the younger age demographic.  By making contact in an environment clients are comfortable in, you make yourself available to begin the process of developing a lifelong relationship. Reality is, the younger age demographic will probably have less extensive insurance needs early in the relationship, but as they mature, their insurance needs will increase to keep pace with larger homes, more expensive cars, life insurance policies, and health care needs.  Branding yourself as a valuable resource that will assist a client with wealth retention and protecting them from loss from young adulthood will create a steady, reliable income stream potential.

The use of online technology by consumers will only continue to grow in the next ten years and beyond. Position yourself NOW to be an active participant with your potential clients online. If you haven’t already done so, take a look at what AgencyIQ can do to assist you with our online program. Our customizable software and drip email marketing campaigns will assist you in growing you business!!

1) Informational – pretty straight forward, the client has questions regarding your company, services, coverages etc…..
2) Problem solving – the client has an issue that requires your assistance to resolve. This is an opportunity to shine and earn a customer for life!
3) Angry beyond reason – redirect to #2 – the client is definitely not happy, wants to bend someone’s ear and set things straight! The goal here is to get them back to status #2.

The key to successfully negotiating all of these scenarios is to LISTEN carefully to what the client has to say! Don’t get ahead of yourself and start forming a response in your mind before they finish their statement, really listen to what they are saying. Confirm what you’ve heard back to the client, using the appropriate tone of voice. Once you’re both on the same page, respond with positive words, your willingness to assist with the request. If it is a problem solving opportunity, be compassionate and empathize with the client. Be prepared to offer alternative solutions to counter the sometimes unreasonable solution requests. Don’t make any promises you cannot keep and honor any time line commitments you make to respond to the client. By quickly addressing the issue, following through with your commitments, you can earn a client’s business… for life! For those dreaded angry beyond reason calls, take a deep breath, let the client air it out and don’t take it personally… I know, easier said than done, but you can do it! Sometimes, simply saying “I’m sorry”, or “I apologize” can diffuse a tense situation. The goal is to get the client beyond being mad and focusing on a solution to their problem (#2), which is at the root of their anger.

At AgencyIQ, we strive to provide excellent, effective, timely customer service. If you need assistance, use our video trainings, email, on-line chat or call one of our customer service reps… We look forward to hearing from you!

• Don’t use false or misleading header information
• Don’t use deceptive subject lines
• Identify the message as an ad
• Tell recipients where you are located
• Tell recipients how to opt-out of receiving future emails from you
• Honor opt-out requests promptly

Take a few minutes to review your emails and you will probably find you are already complying with these requirements. AgencyIQ has gone to great lengths to make sure that all of our clients comply with the CAN-SPAM laws. If you have any areas of concern about your emails, use a simple rule of thumb…. If you received this email, would you feel like you were being mislead, could you find the sender if you needed to, and could you stop the messages if you wanted. There are a number of individuals and some organizations that are extremely concerned with being found in violation of this law, some to the point of nearly paralyzing their email marketing efforts. If you have specific questions regarding this Act, click on the following link http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/business/ecommerce/bus61.shtm to go to the FTC website for specific guidance. This law is not designed to cripple the use of email for commercial business purposes… it was created to ensure the responsible use of a powerful marketing channel. At the end of the day, email marketing is a significant tool in your marketing arsenal and when used correctly and responsibly, you have no worries. Now, hit the Send button!

Lead Providers Tab

Add a lead provider by clicking the “add lead provider” link in the top left of that tab.  Next, select your lead provider’s name from the list and click the “add provider” button.  You will be prompted to enter your account number or any additional information needed by the lead companies.  Once you submit this information, a request will be made of the lead provider to set things up and your leads should start flowing into AgencyIQ soon!

Checking on the Status of your Lead Set Up

The status of your requests will be listed as pending until the first lead is received from that provider.  Once a lead is received, you will be able see when the request was made as well as when the first and the most recent leads were received.  If you have been on the AgencyIQ System and already have your lead providers set up, you can visit this location to see when the last lead was received from your lead providers and add new lead providers after you sign up with them.

Continue to watch for more updates and features coming soon!