Benefits of ABS Agency Builder
In no particular order, this list shows why ABS Agency Builder is worth much more than we charge. We encourage you to compare us against even the most expensive agency management software. Dollar for dollar, you'll never beat us.
Folio Reconciliation: Your record of new and renewal business sorted in the same order as your Folio statement. This helps agents recover missing or improperly computed commission. Click here to learn more about reconciliation.
Efficiency/Productivity: Many agents have told us that ABS Agency Builder is worth one or two full time employees, but nothing matches the following true story: An agent in Arizona called one day to inquire about our program. It seems they had been looking for an additional employee, and had interviewed a person with lots of experience. When they called the agent who had laid this person off, here is what her former employer said: We bought Agency Builder, and we just don't need her anymore. The Arizona agent bought our software, and over two years later still hadn't added more staff.
X-Dates: X-Dates are self maintaining so your prospecting information is always up to date. All policies have a Status of Active, Inactive, or Prospect. ABS Agency Builder defines an X-Date as the Renewal Date of any Prospect policy. That way, the X-Date Report will show X-Dates for prospects, and existing clients. For example, you may have sold the auto policy, but not the fire. This client would show up as a Fire X-Date. Keeps things from falling through the cracks.
Business Letter Library: ABS Agency Builder has an extensive library of letters that are listed in drop-down menus. They can be sent with only a few clicks of your mouse. These virtually eliminate your need to type a letter for anything but the most unusual circumstance. When a letter is sent, it is automatically logged in the Account Activity Log (see below).
Binders, Certificates, Evidences of Insurance, and even Loss Reports are printed with only a couple of mouse clicks. For example, it takes about 10 seconds to create a Binder. That is because the information that must appear on the form, is stored in the database. Have you ever had to create more than one Mortgage Evidence Of Insurance for a title company? Well, now it can be done effortlessly. Like the letters, when one of these forms is printed, it is automatically logged in the Account Activity Log (see below).
Account Activity Log: This maintains an ongoing record of the service work you do for you clients. All entries are Time and Date stamped. We have included an innovative way to prevent back-dating. This feature makes your Log more admissible in court, if it ever comes to that. It is also a great way to document things for Claims. A good number of agents report that their Activity Log helped in "Claims Not Covered" or E and O claims.
Lienholder List: ABS Agency Builder allows you to record lienholder information. The advantage is that you only need to enter the information once. You don't have to type it on a binder of certificate. You simply select the policy's lienholder from a drop-down list and it is assigned to that policy. Then if you ever have to recreate a certificate, the lender information is already there. If the title company makes a last minute lender change, you can have a new certificate in a matter of seconds (because you change lenders by selecting the new one from the drop-down list).
Finding Account Information is extremely easy and flexible. A convenient Search utility lets you locate accounts by Last Name, Entity Name, DBA Name, Phone Number, Policy Number, Monthly Pay Account Number, or the Last Name of any family member. The later is very handy for households with step-children, or a wife with a different last name than her husband.
Reminders/Things-To-Do: Keep track of the tasks you must perform. Even have the important ones pop up a reminder at a predetermined time of day. Assign tasks to clients so when they are completed, they are automatically logged in the Account Activity Log. In addition to helping with customer service, the reminder system is a good way to get new business. Let's say you sell a Builder's Risk policy on a new home construction. Why not remind yourself to check back with the builder to get the buyer's name. Then remind yourself to see if the new homeowner needs insurance. Can you think of other such ideas?
Queries: Getting information from your client data has never been this easy. There are over 60 pre-defined queries that can be selected with a click of your mouse. Each of these queries can be viewed on the screen, and each account can be auto-dialed directly from that query. In addition to seeing the results on the screen, each query can be printed as a report, can be turned into mailing labels, can result in a mail merge letter, or can be exported to a computer file that is suitable for turning over to a mailing company (think Christmas cards or calendars). Click here to see the Pre-Defined Query screen. Click the back button on your web browser to return here.
Marketing Campaigns: Some people call this wave mailing. ABS Agency Builder allows you to define an endless number of Campaigns with an endless number of letters. You can print a Solicitation List for each campaign so it's easy to make the follow-up phone calls. If you stagger the mailing dates, you can be running any number of Campaigns concurrently. Think of all the money you're going to make.
Any Insurance Carrier: ABS Agency Builder lets you enter the names of all carriers with which you have appointments. Then, on the policy screen, these company names drop-down in a list when you assign the company to the policy. The advantage is; perhaps you have the autos for a household, but they also drive a motorcycle that Farmers won't insure. If you have an appointment with a company that will, it is simple to keep your records straight. This is really great when you have their fire, but because of driving records, all their autos are non-Farmers. The advantage here is, the household won't show up when you ask for a Pre-Defined Query that lists "Fire but no Auto".
Surplus lines: We even have a generic policy screen that can be used for policy types that don't fit anywhere else. For example; screen writers, novelists, actors, and the like, require a unique liability policy known as Media Insurance. Something like this would be perfect for the Surplus Lines screen.
Agency Producers: Just like Carriers, you can list agency producers. This feature lets you assign policies, as well as accounts to a particular producer. This is great because you can product reports and graphs that break down sales production by producer codes. You can even see the premium volume for each producer, and there are even tools to help you with a compensation plan.
Split/Merge households: This may be one of the neatest features of ABS Agency Builder. When a family member leaves a household (divorce, child moves out, etc), we have a great utility that not only saves you time, it preserves the integrity of your data. The process is to select the person who is moving out, enter the new address, and click the OK button. That simple process does some great things. 1) it moves the auto policies on which the person was the rated driver, 2) it moves life policies on that person, 3) it moves all Activity Log entries for that person, leaving all the other policies and log activities where they were. We don't think there is anything like this in any other program of this nature. By the way, this is a great tool for cleaning up FAME or Client Vision data.
Business Reports and Graphs: There are a number of business reports and graphs that help tell how you are doing. Download a copy of our demo for a better picture of what we mean. Imagine being able to click your mouse and see a sales trend graph that shows your actual sales performance superimposed on the average (trend). Extrapolate this trend to predict your income based on real production figures, not what-if numbers.
Account Reviews: A query will list everyone due for an Account Review. Use that list and the Friendly Review Worksheet to conduct an FFR in record time. FFR's are also automatically logged in the Account Activity Log.
Separate Mailing list: For the sake of Mass Mailing, you can include Prospects, or even Inactive households in your mailings. You can even exclude Active households if you want. This is great when you want to include a Prospect, or an account you lost, in your quarterly newsletter. In other words, you aren't just limited to Account Status for your mailing list.
Auto Dialer: If your computer is equipped with a modem, ABS Agency Builder can auto-dial the Account number, the work or pager number of any family member, the business DBA number for commercial accounts, as well as the results of a Pre-Defined Query.
Faxing: All Business Forms (Binders, certs, etc.), and Business Letters can be Faxed, if your computer is equipped with a working Fax Modem.
Policy Rating: The integrated rating packages, ISS for Personal Lines, and FRP for Commercial, are great efficiency tools (where available). The advantage is that when you rate with either of these, they automatically update the policy information in ABS Agency Builder. We are sure you can see the advantages, so enough said. If you want more information on these programs, check out Other Sites of Interest.
Freedom from Farmers Network Outage: We don't need to dwell on this. You simply stay productive. No more saying, "The network's down, I'll be on the golf course."