In October 2009, 57 hard drives containing video and audio files related to coordination of care and eligibility telephone calls from providers and members were stolen from a leased facility in Chattanooga, Tenn. that formerly housed a BlueCross BlueShield call center. The video files were images from computer screens of BlueCross BlueShield customer service representatives and the audio files were recorded phone conversations from January 1, 2007, to October 2, 2009.

Almost immediately, BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee began communicating to brokers and employers and has provided periodic updates as more information becomes available. Additionally, BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee has been diligently reviewing and analyzing the backup files of the stolen hard drives.

As of February 5, 2010, a total 521,761 current and former members have been identified and 220,133 notifications have been sent to members indicating that their personal information was included on the stolen hard drives. The 220,133 members notified are in the Tier 3 category, meaning that name, address, BlueCross member ID number, diagnosis, Social Security number and/or date of birth was included in the stolen hard drives. Additionally, 301,628 current and former members are in the Tier 2 category. Members in the Tier 2 category (name, address, BlueCross member ID number, date of birth and/or diagnosis) began to receive their notifications and details about remediation services in mid-February.

The cost to date for this data breach is over $7 million.

In a previous post I stated the case for why an agency that wants to grow must have a comprehensive marketing system. I ended with this paragraph:

Technology is available to help you manage your marketing system. The first step is to understand the need for marketing. Then, create a marketing strategy for the agency, implement that strategy, and monitor its effectiveness. If you do all of these things, you can’t help but become more successful.

As a result of recent conversations I’ve had with various people within the insurance industry, I want to emphasize that creating an effective and engaging Web site is only 25% of what’s necessary to be successful in growing your agency. The questions I’m receiving now from agencies include, “Can you recommend a Web designer?” or, “Can you help me with search engine optimization?” The first question should be, “What marketing strategies can we implement that will help us grow a profitable book of business?”

Technology doesn’t market. A Web site doesn’t sell. These are simply tools that help an agency support a well thought out and developed marketing strategy. Strategy should always come before technology. Only after the strategy is created should you look for the technology tools that will help support and implement the strategy. When this process is reversed, the likelihood of failure is much higher.

Your Web site could have the best design and most compelling content and engaging video, but if you don’t have a strategy in place for what to do with the prospects who visit your site, you will fail to convert them to clients. What is the strategy that will bring prospects to the point when they finally make a buying decision? All the technology in the world is useless if it doesn’t result in a sale.

Opportunity awaits

I fully support industry initiatives like the new Personal Lines Growth Alliance. There is tremendous opportunity for an agency to build a high margin and profitable book of personal lines and small commercial business. And technology is playing a significant role in making this possible.

A successful personal lines and small commercial strategy needs to include at least four elements:

1. Keep: Keeping the business that you already have is the core of a profitable book.
2. Upgrade: Adding additional coverage to existing policies is the most profitable revenue you can generate. It also goes a long way to enhance your E&O protection.
3. Round Out: Adding new lines of coverage or policies cements your relationship with clients and helps you retain them longer.
4. Get More: New business generation is an important part of the overall process.

Notice that generating new businesses (#4) is only one-quarter of the overall strategy of building a profitable book. The other three items will generate more profit than just relying on obtaining new business.

Remember, make sure you have a strategy first. Then—and only then—look for the tools to implement your strategy.

An In-Stat survey asked 1,300 respondents, “What features are desired on your next phone?” The top three responses were better connectivity, better audio, and simplicity.

Here’s a rundown of what In-Stat found in its research:

• Survey respondents expressed interest in more mainstream features, not “exotic” bells and whistles such as wearables, dual-screen, e-paper, or roll-out displays.
• Digital cameras, speaker phones, and GPS were the top features on the “ideal phone.”
• Larger screens with touch sensitivity are already gaining momentum and will continue to gain popularity. Customization of home screens will improve usability, with personalization quickly becoming a must-have.
• Perhaps the most compelling advancement in user interfaces will be the integration of picoprojectors into phones. Picoprojectors overcome one of the most significant constraints inherent in mobile devices—small screens. The strongest interest was shown in the 25-34 age segment.

Wireless carriers need to get ready for the next data explosion. A report by Strategy Analytics says mobile phones will generate almost 2.2 exabytes of data traffic by 2013—and that is excluding wireless PC cards and other cellular-enabled devices. Such volume of data is equivalent to watching more than 120,000 years of DVD-quality video, the firm says. Eighty-four percent of the traffic will come from Web browsing.

In a session at the Consumer Electronics Show, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski vowed to explore every option available to help open more spectrum for wireless companies. Genachowski acknowledged during the session that there was a significant gap between future demand for mobile data services and the spectrum that would be available to meet that demand. However, he also said that the FCC wouldn’t only look into freeing up additional spectrum for use but at improving efficiencies in how spectrum is used—both at the device and software level.

Strategy Analytics analysts say consumer appetite for browsing, accessing applications, and consuming downloaded or streamed audio or video content has the potential to cripple mobile networks. Management of data traffic load is the biggest current priority for mobile operators, with compression of Web and video content to handsets an important element in any strategy.

Cell phone users in the United States contributed more than $10 million to Haitian earthquake relief through text messages in the first week after the earthquake hit. The Mobile Giving Foundation called it a “mobile-giving record” for funds raised for a single cause. Jim Manis, CEO of the foundation helping to manage cell phone donations, said it was receiving up to 10,000 text messages per second.

Cell phone users can donate $5 to Haiti-born hip-hop musician Wyclef Jean’s Yele Haiti Earthquake Fund by texting the word “Yele” to 501501, or they can donate $10 to other nonprofit organizations, such as the American Red Cross, by texting the word “Haiti” to a specified number, like 90999. The donation is charged to a user’s cell phone bill. The actual donation is made after the user pays the wireless bill.

The American Red Cross said that of the $37 million it has raised for Haitian relief efforts, more than $8 million has come via mobile phone users. “It’s unprecedented that we’ve received this amount,” said Nadia Pontif, a spokeswoman for the Red Cross.

Wireless carriers Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile have waived fees for customers wishing to send mobile donations. Carriers are also letting users know they are not taking a cut of the donations. “There are no text messaging fees and 100% of the $10 donation goes to the American Red Cross,” Verizon said in a statement.

Manis said Mobile Giving is working with wireless carriers to decrease the lag time between when a cell phone user makes a donation and when the funds arrive at a charity. Donations can take 90 days to be delivered to a charity.

Over the last few months, I’ve been working on a new marketing program for personal lines and small commercial business. (The personal lines program is scheduled to be released on May 1). As a result, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how important a successful marketing program is for an agency’s long-term health.

It seems as though agencies are beginning to understand how important marketing should be, based on the phone calls I’m receiving asking for help. The Internet really is changing how consumers research and purchase insurance. Yet even with the game-changing nature of the Internet, basic marketing principles still apply. Here are a few thoughts to help you begin strategizing about how you can develop a marketing program or enhance your existing programs.

1. Measure everything: Wasteful marketing can be a real drain on an agency’s budget. Before you start any type of marketing, establish a way for you to measure the success, or failure, of each marketing strategy and tactic.
   
2. Have a good lead generation system: Never in the history of marketing has there been so many ways to attract customers to a Web site or store front. The trick is to sort through the clutter to find what works for your agency and your customers. By knowing your customers, you’ll know exactly what medium your agency should use to attract new consumers.
3. Know your customers: A successful marketing system isn’t just about attracting new business. In fact, retention and account rounding can pay much bigger dividends to the bottom line than just concentrating on new business. Knowing what policies your customers have, and don’t have, allows you to create a marketing process to get additional business.
4. Compete on value, not price: Price is important, but too many agency owners think that consumers simply want the lowest priced product or service. Once you find what your customers value, you can charge a premium for it.
5. Speak about your customers’ problems, not your products: Often, agency owners build an entire marketing system around policy coverages. For instance, the Web site and brochure describe what is covered and what is not. Instead, your marketing message should describe customer problems and how you can solve them.
6. Create a follow-up system: I wrote an editorial about follow-up failure in August 2009. What I said then bears repeating: “The biggest reason agents don’t write more business is because they simply don’t follow up. If agencies fixed this one thing in their marketing process they would automatically increase the number of new clients…”

Technology is available to help you manage your marketing system. The first step is to understand the need for marketing. Then, create a marketing strategy for the agency, implement that strategy, and monitor its effectiveness. If you do all of these things, you can’t help but become more successful.

SilverPlume PL Rating, a part of the Verafore group of companies, has released Consumer Rate Quotes—an add-on module for its PL Rating multi-company quoting solution. This allows an agency to add the ability to provide multiple-carrier rate quotes for consumers directly from an agency’s Web site.

Consumer Rate Quotes enables agencies to:

• Accelerate the buying decision process—Consumer Rate Quotes gives agency Web site visitors the ability to quickly compare coverage options and carriers from the agency’s branded Web site.
• Reduce quote time turnaround—Web site visitors complete an interview and generate multiple rate quotes in real time. The information is integrated directly into PL Rating so agency personnel can discuss the quotes with prospects.
• Provide consumer choice—Web site visitors can see more than one price and one market, allowing an independent agency to compete more effectively with direct writers and captive agents.

FedEx has announced a new tracking device and Web service for packages that will be available later this year. Called SenseAware, it keeps tabs on temperature, location, and other vital signs of a package—including when it’s opened and whether it’s tampered with along the way.

FedEx is running a trial period for about a year with 50 health care and life science companies, for tracking delivery of surgery kits, medical equipment, and even live organs. It will be available for shipments within the United States (including Puerto Rico). It is Web-based, so there’s no costly software or infrastructure to invest in.

This type of technology could be used with insurance clients to help reduce theft claims by tracking the status of shipments. It’s a single, easy-to-use platform that consolidates and feeds you critical data about your shipment, in near real time.

According to a recent RingCentral survey of over 300 customers in late 2009, small offices perform much of their work away from a physical office.

Some interesting results:

• 45% conduct business away from the office more than three fourths of the time.
• 80% try to give the impression to clients they are in the office when making or receiving business calls.
• 57% report having some employees work from a virtual office. Only 15% said all employees work from a single location.

Running a business under a virtual office model reduces office-related rental expenses and allows companies to expand their talent pool beyond a limited geographical area. In other words, the virtual office model provides a win-win solution for all types of businesses.

I see agencies taking advantage of the virtual office options in greater numbers. This is especially true for new agencies started by younger owners. They are more comfortable working in a remote environment.

You know you need to move your agency online - not just a website - but an online business.

But you are overwhelmed. You don’t know what to do or how to do it.

Now there is a way for you to jump start your online presence. Duke Williams and I have created the Agency Internet Boot Camp. This is the most requested class I have ever worked with…

Hands-on Learning with Two of the Leaders in Agency Automation

Duke Williams and myself are teaching a day and a half class just outside of Nashville in Franklin, TN (my hometown) on Monday, February 8th and Tuesday, February 9th. The class will start at noon so you don’t have to come in a day early. We are ending at 4:00 PM on Tuesday so you don’t have to stay a day late.

The Focus of this Agency Internet Boot Camp:

1. Learn how Google and other search engines find you
2. Learn how to understand your online competition and exactly how to move above them in search results
3. List your agency in Google Local Business
4. Track your online reputation and your competition with Google Reader and Alerts
5. Create your own blog.
6. Learn to add pictures to a blog and add video to a blog.
7. Learn about Google Adwords and Adsense. Find out how and if you should use them for your agency.
8. Learn how to comment on other blogs to build your web presence and your business.
9. Create a Facebook profile.
10. Learn how to use Facebook advertising to attract prospects to your agency.
11. Create a Twitter account.
12. Learn exactly how to use Twitter to build your business.
13. Create a YouTube account.
14. Create and upload your first YouTube video.
15. Embed that video in your blog.
16. Learn exactly what functions need to be on your agency web site – what real customers want.
17. Learn how to create an online and offline business sales and marketing plan for your agency.
18. Learn how to measure and adjust to be sure you are reaching your goals.

Find out the details here…
http://agencybootcamp.blogspot.com/2010/01/insurance-agency-internet-boot-camp.html

Class size is limited to 20 so we can spend time individually working with each person that attends.

What Others Have Said

Attending the boot camp made me realize how many useful programs are out there on the web…..for free!

Jose L Miraya, CIC, LUTCF
Advantage Insurance Agency

I plan to attend the second Agency Boot Camp in Franklin, Tennessee and highly recommend it to everyone in the insurance industry! I hope to see y’all there.
Eddie K. Emmett, Editor / Publisher
FYI Express, AIANC’s STREET WISE

If your are not able to attend this Boot Camp but you would be interested in something near you, please let me know by sending me an email to Steve@SteveAnderson.com and let me know your are interested.