Ten questions every agency leader and CFO should ask themselves in 2024

The following article was supplied by Ascend.

Insurance industry leaders and CFOs have a long list of challenges to manage, especially as the year begins: capital, regulation, economic impact, technology, and operating costs, to name a few. These are all in parallel with the industry trying to find hiring solutions to an aging workforce, preparing for how AI will impact the way we do business, the growing digitization of payments and data to improve processes and decision making, and the volatile market with carrier market exits. 

With all these responsibilities, updating legacy, highly manual processes like agency billing can see immediate impacts to operations and cash flow and allow executive teams to focus on important priorities to ensure agencies continue to stay in-front of the evolving landscape.

Here are 10 key questions CFOs and agency leaders should ask when evaluating their current agency bill system or process:

1. What are the pain points in our current agency bill processes?

Identifying the challenges and bottlenecks is crucial in understanding where improvements are needed.

2. How much time and resources are being allocated to manual processes?

Assess the manual work involved in your agency bill processes and determine if automation can streamline operations and free up valuable resources.

3. What is the impact of errors and delays on our bottom line?

Evaluate how mistakes and delays in agency bill processes affect revenue, customer satisfaction, and overall business growth.

4. How secure are our current billing systems?

With increasing concerns about data breaches and fraud, ensuring the security of sensitive financial information is essential.

5. Are we maximizing the potential of technology?

Explore how leveraging advanced technology and automation solutions can improve agency bill process accuracy, speed, and efficiency.

6. How can we enhance transparency and visibility?

Evaluate the level of transparency in your agency bill processes and determine if additional measures are needed to provide better insights and tracking.

7. What are the benefits of migrating to electronic payments?

Consider the advantages of digital payment methods, such as faster payment processing, reduced costs, and improved customer satisfaction.

8. How will improving agency bill processes align with our long-term business goals?

Analyze how streamlining agency bill processes can contribute to business growth, profitability, and customer retention.

9. What are the best practices in the industry?

Research and benchmark against industry leaders to gain insights into their successful agency bill processes and identify areas for improvement.

10. What solutions are available in the market?

Explore reputable automation providers like Ascend that offer tailored solutions for insurance agencies, ensuring seamless and efficient agency bill processes.

Ensure you are asking the right questions to understand how to improve your payment process for long-term sustainability and profitability. By addressing the questions above, executive teams will best set their businesses up for success by ensuring the processes and technology partners not only are actually saving time and energy spent dealing with these administrative burdens but are also providing a great customer experience as well as empowering agency team members to get back to doing what they love.