Transforming A Brokerage to Serve Today’s Customers

A 2021 ICTA nomination

Toronto, ON (Apr. 9, 2021) – With a deep commitment to premium customer service, Lepelco was determined to digitally transform in order to scale the business. Their previous technology limited their ability to manage workflows, grow their commercial lines book of business and communicate with clients in their preferred way. In 2017, Lepelco selected Applied Epic as their foundational system and Applied CSR24 and Applied MobileInsured to enable the digital customer experience and a path to paperless service.

Implementation and Deployment

To meet their sales and service objectives, the entire organization participated in a detailed change management process that began with data. Reports conducted manually in excel were done directly within Applied Epic and distributed to department heads, enabling team empowerment as each group championed the implementation process and captured the greatest results for their objectives. This allowed flexibility and helped teams embrace technology to build new business models, unified team processes and results while ensuring quality data through standardized workflows to ensure longevity of critical business information as the business continues to scale.

Today

After four years as a Digital Brokerage, the team has seen significant business gains in their operational workflows, commercial lines growth, digital customer self-service, enhanced insurer connectivity and tracking across the organization.

Operational Efficiency

Lepelco operates more efficiently by taking advantage of the business process management workflows to automate, adapt and reassign tasks to ensure consistency across all users and locations. Applied Epic has eliminated time-consuming tasks required to run the business, ultimately, driving profitability by allowing the brokerage to spend more hours of the day focused on revenue generating activities.

Growth

With the Applied Digital Brokerage solution, Lepelco has the ability to measure opportunities across different geographic territories and lines of business and offer targeted marketing or service campaigns to increase revenue mix and drive profitability.

The commercial lines team can generate submissions faster, receive faster quotes due to standardized inputs and create branded proposals to win more business. Standardized commercial lines workflows eliminate individual methods of processing new business or managing in-force policies, reducing inefficiencies and potential E&O. The commercial team analyzes their book of business to identify trends that can be leveraged for growth on a regular basis through automatically generated reports which form the basis of their marketing campaigns.

Omnichannel and Self-Service

Lepelco has always understood the importance of omnichannel engagement with the insured. By extending critical information in Applied Epic via Applied CSR24 and Applied MobileInsured, their brokerage branded portal and mobile app. This integration creates flexibility to enable Lepelco to serve their customers when and how they want.

The Lepelco team and their customers quickly adopted Applied CSR24 and Applied MobileInsured. From the beginning, the employee workflows in Applied Epic included scripts and communications to seek permission to receive email correspondence about the policy. Once customers provided consent, Lepelco offered onboarding tools to sign-up for the Lepelco Customer Portal (CSR24) and App (MobileInsured). The team even created a customer tutorial video to assist customers in moving to self-service. The Lepelco team regularly review key performance indicators to review access and membership of the portal. To date, Lepelco has captured critical mass of customer emails, driving communication that is more effective to customers with 84% of personal contact email data in Applied Epic and 94% in Commercial Lines.

When the pandemic struck, the value of a Digital Brokerage solution (Applied Epic, CSR24 and MobileInsured) was more important than ever. Differentiating the brokerage brand vs the insurer brand through technology in a paperless manner became essential. During the immediate COVID crisis, Lepelco was able to send over 30,000 communications directly to clients via email where they could log into the Lepelco Customer Portal (CSR24) and securely access insurance documents. Most importantly, because these communications triggered from Applied Epic, Lepelco could be precise and personal in their outreach to customers. For example, when Intact offered a credit to auto clients in April, Lepelco could notify eligible customers under the brokerage brand. Later, when Northbridge offered a credit to Commercial Lines customers, Lepelco sent targeted brokerage branded letters/emails directly from the Applied Epic to communicate with customers based on line of business and eligibility. As brokerages navigate the path to paperless, Lepelco’s early adoption of digital proves that brokers can avoid disintermediation and scale for future growth.

Insurer Connectivity

With greater insurer connectivity in Applied Epic, Lepelco can trigger a brokerage branded letter or email. For example, a property renewal with a specific insurer can be set to send automatically at a pre-authorized time. The end-to-end communications between Lepelco and their insurer partners within Applied Epic enables the team to serve clients regardless of location and drive operational efficiency, particularly when mail is not an option. Policy data can be uploaded to insurer systems with a single click in Applied Epic’s eServicing saving time, reducing E&O.

Tracking

Leadership can quickly gain a holistic view of their business and sales teams can identify and compare their hit ratio for each line of business in a given territory so they can target specific geographies for marketing campaigns or markets with specific insurers. These metrics enable the brokerage to make better business decisions so they can ultimately drive profitability.

Lepelco is dedicated to ongoing tracking to improve operations and continue to scale. Through the tracking of activities in Applied Epic, management can measure productivity and renewals and reassign resources quickly. Each team manages a dashboard for email acquisition, which is directly tied to Lepleco’s workflows for each transaction including endorsements, renewals, new business and claims.

Benefits:

In 2017 Lepelco Group launched Applied Epic with 66 employees and $20M in premium. Today, the brokerage operates with 75 employees and exceeds $50M in premium.

Lepelco’s use of Applied Epic, Applied CSR24 and Applied Mobile Insured prove that brokerages can manage a paperless policy lifecycle within their brand and avoid disintermediation.

Data is key, and Lepelco has adopted Applied Epic workflows to capture critical contact data (84% of PL email data in BMS, 94% in CL). Ongoing KPI’s ensures continuous adoption of the Customer Portal and Mobile App. Since March, Personal Lines adoption has increased by 19% and Commercial Lines by 36%.

During the immediate COVID crisis, Lepelco was able to send over 30,000 communications directly to clients via email where they could log into the Lepelco Customer Portal (CSR24) and securely access insurance documents.

About Lepelco Assurance

Founded 65 years ago, Lepelco is the prime example of a family business, passed down from generation to generation. Focused on customer needs first, they embarked on a digital transformation for their entire business to enhance their ability to meet the needs of the modern consumer. The strategy focused on driving significant business value and extending their brand presence in both personal and commercial lines through technology. With their digital brokerage solution in place before the pandemic, it has enabled their team and customers to adapt to changes and events.. For more information, please visit assurancelepelco.com.

About Applied Systems

Applied Systems is the leading global provider of cloud-based software that powers the business of insurance. Recognized as a pioneer in insurance automation and the innovation leader, Applied is the world’s largest provider of agency and brokerage management systems, serving customers throughout the United States, Canada, the Republic of Ireland, and the United Kingdom. By automating the insurance lifecycle, Applied’s people and products enable millions of people around the world to safeguard and protect what matters most. For more information, please visit appliedsystems.com.

Source: Lepelco Assurance