Will the steps following a car purchase soon be automated?

I recently bought a new car and because of the purchase, I have had to embark upon the journey to update my insurance policy in addition to registering the new vehicle with the State of Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles. Surprisingly, the BMV portion of the process has been the easiest of all. Kudos to the BMV Lawrence branch in Indianapolis for being so awesome. I was in and out within 30 minutes and there were 48 customers ahead of me. They have really figured out how to keep things moving along!

Side note: I wonder – how have you seen your BMV experience transform over the years? Are they getting faster? Tweet us @Optiform and share your thoughts.

Insurance Quoting Processes Are Still Really Inefficient

Buying a car has been a blessing in disguise. Not only did I upgrade vehicles, but it also opened my eyes to how much we have been overpaying for insurance. This was only discovered as I went through the process of getting auto policy quotes from three different agencies to be sure that I was getting the best rate.

The first one was pretty easy. I got my quote right away. The process was all handled online. The next two agencies were a much slower, more manual process.

Here we go…

Agency 1:

Agency 1’s process was pretty easy. I filled out my personal information, the auto details, hit submit and my quote was ready right away. The process was all handled online and I also had the option to buy on the spot. Awesome right?

Determined to get the best rate, I contacted a local agency representative from Agency 2, which was referred by the dealership where I purchased.

Agency 2:

I gave the Agency 2 representative a call while I was at the dealership and he told me to send him an email with the information required to create the quote. I did but then I didn’t hear back for a week or so. Odd… I followed up with him. With a slight nudge, he had the quotes back to me in a day or so after the follow-up. Pretty painless, but the quotes were higher than Agency 1, so I didn’t sign.

Agency 3:

I reached Agency 3’s representative at the phone number from his business card that a saleswoman at a dealership shared with me. He and I talked and I explained what I was looking for. He requested that I send VIN numbers, names of the drivers to be insured, dates of birth, Social Security Numbers, and Driver’s License numbers for all drivers on the vehicles. This information was all sent via email.

A day went by and I was asked to provide a little more information. I did. Another day passed and I then got my quotes. The quotes were incomplete so the agent had to revisit them and provide updated information. Anyhow, fast forward to about two weeks later and several calls and emails to collaborate, we have gotten our final quotes. To get started, I was asked to provide my billing information via email. I didn’t really like the thought of passing that info in an unsecured environment, so I opted for a phone call to share this with him.

You are probably tired of reading all these steps, but I felt it was important to share the number of steps that had to be taken to get what was necessary to switch from the company gouging us for auto insurance that “knock on wood” we have not had to use.

How can insurance agencies improve?

Fantastic question!

We offer a product called LiquidOffice. LiquidOffice is an electronic form and workflow automation software that allows businesses that collect information such as demographic and other complex lines of data as well as accepts uploads of documents or images to support application processes. Rather than sending information back and forth through unsecured means of transmission, software like LiquidOffice is fully secure, HIPAA and PII compliant, and very efficient when it comes to approving applications. 

In addition to the insurance quoting use case, we work with a large retailer who uses LiquidOffice to collect new employment applications and uses a custom integration with a background and credit check service to support fast decision making on a candidate. There are so many examples of how LiquidOffice can make business processes efficient.

Would you like to explore options to use this software? We would be glad to set up a demonstration for you.

Contact us today. Thanks for reading!