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Customer Story

Skogman Insurance runs like a larger agency on Applied Epic

Email summaries save one staff member up to two hours a day, and clients pay premiums through agency-branded emails.

Challenge

A small team with a lot on its plate

Skogman Insurance is a sixth-generation, family-owned agency that prides itself on lasting client relationships and the level of service only a small independent agency can offer. Being small also brings its own challenges. With fewer people, producers juggle multiple clients and all the tedious tasks that come with them, such as summarizing emails and conversations.

The time squeeze reaches every role. Operations staff needed faster ways to handle day-to-day reporting, and accounting needed a faster way to handle billing.

“Agency bill has been a particularly sore spot at our agency because we have one accountant that handles the insurance arm of our business, as well as the other entities, so she doesn’t have time to create and send invoices for every client. We also didn’t have a payment portal, so we had to direct customers to a different website. She asked us to find a better way to handle the agency bill process,” said Lisa Anthofer, Operations Manager.

Cedar Rapids, IA

Headquarters

4 Years

As an Applied Customer

Additional Info

Employees: 20+
Offices: 1

“I love [Applied Epic] and have had a very enjoyable experience with our Applied platforms. Being able to integrate these platforms has created a level of connectivity that saves us time and makes our staff more efficient so that our small but mighty team can operate with the efficiency of a larger agency.”

Lisa Anthofer

Operations Manager, Skogman Insurance

Solution

Service, billing and reporting in one browser-based system

Skogman chose to run Applied Epic fully in the browser, and added digital payments and built-in dashboards to cut manual work and give staff time back.
“I think [Applied Epic in the browser] stands out because it is easier to use and provides features not available in the desktop version. You can easily access it from your browser without needing to close out of other programs,” she said.

Spell check and email summaries have been the staff favorites. One team member no longer opens individual emails to summarize the content, and she saves up to two hours a day. “It's hard to put into words how much it does help our agency save time. What once took 2 or 3 minutes now takes a single click,” Anthofer added.

Running in the browser also opened up payments. “One of the bigger benefits of [Applied Epic in the browser] is being able to integrate [Applied Epic Payments]. You cannot access the full capability of [Applied Epic Payments] from the desktop version of Applied Epic, so it was important that our agency was on [Applied Epic in the browser],” Anthofer said. Clients now pay premiums through a payment platform branded to the agency, without sorting through multiple websites or emails from the accountant.

Reporting moved into Applied Epic as well. Applied Epic organizes the agency’s data into dashboards that show trends across the book of business, employee workload balance and preferred carriers, tailored to leaders and team members alike.

How Applied Epic helps

Service, billing and reporting share one system, so a small team covers more ground each day.

Payments in the agency’s name

Payment requests come from the agency, and clients on direct bill go straight to their carrier’s site.

Prospect profiles on demand

Any inbound or referred prospect can get a profile by email, with risk attributes and coverage gaps ready before the first call. 

Reports in one dashboard

Production and retention reports sit in a personalized view that’s ready to check each day.

Results

More time back across the agency

The first gain shows up in the inbox. Tasks that took two or three minutes take a click, and one team member gets up to two hours of her day back from email summaries alone.

Billing is clearer for clients and lighter for the accountant. “The payment email comes from our agency, rather than our accountant. It gives our clients peace of mind because it’s clear who they are communicating with to make their payments. The payment portal works seamlessly for our clients who are not on agency bill because it takes them directly to their carrier website to make the payment. No extra URLs or explanations needed,” Anthofer said. With full-cycle accounts receivable and automated payment reconciliation in Applied Epic, the agency bill process takes less manual effort.

Reporting is faster, too. “My experience with [Applied Epic Dashboards] has been wonderful! I can go into the platform on a daily basis to look at production reports to make sure everyone is doing what they are supposed to be doing. I can easily pull monthly retention reports without having to navigate through complicated templates. Everything is right there in my personalized dashboard,” Anthofer said.

Additional Resources

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