In a recent AAIS Webinar, industry leaders from Britecore, East Tennessee Mutual and Friends Cove Mutual discussed ‘How Small Insurers Can Compete and Win the Customer of the Future.’

Introduced by AAIS VP of Solutions and Partnerships Truman Esmond and moderated by BriteCore Chief Marketing Officer Amede Hungerford, the panel of experts included Barbie Lambert, General Manager and Secretary/Treasurer of East Tennessee Mutual Insurance Company, and Dan DeArment President & CEO of Friends Cove Mutual Insurance Company.

East Tennessee Mutual is 125 Years-old and services smaller communities. As recently as of 2001, the insurer did not have a computer on their legacy system. Working with BriteCore since 2011, they were quickly able to identify issues in processes caused by legacy systems and upgrade their approach and use of technology.

Friends Cove Mutual was inspired to move away from its legacy system due to a “lack of granularity of data and customer service,” according to Mr. DeArment. In 2009, the carrier experienced difficulty in responding to a query by the Pennsylvania Insurance Department.

While upgrading internal systems can enhance customer service and speed to market, the panelists agreed on the importance of modernizing to enhance relationships with agents. Mr. DeArment has seen a vast improvement in Friends Cove’s relationships with their agents through the years. Before they modernized, agents only had access through Microsoft remote desktop. They could only log in to view documents on a server. Since modernizing their portal, ‘everything’ is available to agents in their browser, and they’ve eliminated much of the issues related to printing documents.

Friends Cove has added enhanced features to their system, such as a live chat, allowing agents to get help while quoting something. This makes the submission process for agents “easier and easier”, according to Mr. DeArment.

For more of the discussion from this AAIS Webinar, click on the video above to hear about topics including: changes in daily processing activities, what enables organizations to grow, and much more.