Michael Furlong, Founder & CEO In an age where technology is changing the way consumers buy products; insurance agents cannot be middleman anymore, facilitating quotes. They need to add more value to the services they offer to their customers. They need to deliver a modern digital experience, which is the crucial factor for an agency’s success in the increasingly competitive insurance industry. However, as the agents still follow the antiquated process of collecting critical customer data through unruly PDF forms, spreadsheets, and emails, the customer often spends hours doing insurance paperwork, some of which involves providing the same information on multiple forms. Also, the agents need to review the forms and get back to the customers with any questions or comments – which mean that customers probably have to spend yet more time either fixing errors or clarifying answers. This is where San Francisco-based Indio Technologies makes a difference by offering a white-labeled platform that comes armed with 2,500+ digitally enhanced "smart" insurance forms, an auto-populated proposal tool, full e-signature solution, and secure document sharing. “We want agents to win more business and spend less time on redundant operational tasks,” says Michael Furlong, Founder and CEO, Indio Technologies.
Agents can send an easy, secure, sign-on link for customers to log into the platform and fill out the selected forms. The intelligent forms automatically map data across all policy applications, so the customer has not to answer any given question more than once. The platform also checks for accuracy of answers, making it less likely that the customer will leave out some crucial piece of information and have to come back to the same form again. Also, agents can upload existing schedule lists from Excel, and the platform will directly turn them into interactive online workbooks.
With the platform's Intelligent Activity Tracking and Renewal Verification technology, agents get an alert notification when customers sign in, complete information, sign forms, or submit data. “Moving to a digital application process won't just help you and your agency—it will save your customers a huge amount of time, making automation a tremendous customer attraction and retention tool,” remarks Furlong.
Explaining how Indio streamlines agents' process, Furlong states that the software gives agents digital “smart” forms to easily capture customer information in a centralized online location. The data captured is stored in a clean, structured format that both agents and customers can easily access. This enables the agents to offer a modern and online experience for customers concerning the application and renewal process. Once the data is collected from customers using Indio’s “smart” digital forms, it can then be repopulated back into the carrier’s original PDF. The customer data can then also be used to auto-generate professionally designed agency branded proposals.
We want agents to win more business and spend less time on redundant operational tasks
Delivered through Amazon’s AWS cloud, the Indio’s software platform is practically more secured than banking applications as it provides maximum reliability and scalability. The firm benefits from AWS’s cryptographic erasure processes so that repurposing storage does not end in exposing private customer data. “Everything is encrypted on our side, using industry best practices with AES-256. We also have a third party that tries to hack our system time-to-time, and then it produces a report telling us where the vulnerabilities are, and where we need to improve,” mentions Furlong.
Furlong says that Indio in the future will continue to improve the insurance customer experience. He adds that they will continue to upgrade and configure the company’s platform according to market trends, empowering insurance agents to deliver a fully digital experience to their customers. Indio is focused on leveraging the newest and most intelligent software to transform agents’ workflows into delightful experiences for them as well as their customers.
