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Lliam Holmes:
I’m Lliam Holmes, CEO of MIS Solutions, and today we’re continuing our series on cyber insurance and the role of AI with insurance companies…how they’re using it and how do they see it from their perspective.
I want to go all the way back to 2023 for those who joined us with our Tech Exchange. We talked about AI way back then. And it was really this new emerging technology. Open AI had just come out with some of their models.
One of the things that we talked about as a takeaway in that Tech Exchange was trying to find something in your business that you could make better and you could use as a guinea pig, if you will, to create something that would be automated using AI. All of us have things in our businesses that we wish we could make better or faster or maybe have more insight.
And so, AI is really a tool. It’s helping us do that. I have Steve Harmon here with us and he is with Snellings Walters, a local insurance company. Steve is a principal and one of their risk managers. And I thought he would be a fantastic resource for us to start talking about AI and how that’s affecting the brokers as well as the carriers. Welcome Steve.
Steve Harmon:
Thank you for having me. We’ve appreciated our partnership with MIS and are excited about this topic because we see it being very important as we grow our firm.
Lliam:
Awesome. Okay. So let’s just jump right into it.
You and I have had a couple of conversations and one of the things that I think we’re seeing is that as we’re looking a little bit into the future and we’re saying, hey, AI is not really yet in that insurance broker space. We’re seeing it upstream a little bit with some of the carriers.
We’re anticipating that in 2025, maybe a bleed over into 2026, AI is going to make its space, not only in the insurance industry but in many other industries; you often hear companies talk about the year of the agent – the AI agent – these sort of AI assistants, if you will.
And so, we can look just a little bit into the future and really start to see that coming. I’d love to hear from you. How do you think insurance is playing into that? Where do you think that they’re really going to embrace that?
Steve:
If you think about our insurance industry, the independent insurance agency system, a lot of carriers use us as their sales force. So we’re going out, meeting with risks, getting data, sending it to the carrier. However, we’re also relying on our carriers for the data they have, the approaching storm, areas that have better fire prevention, and coding and zoning because you get better insurance rates in those areas.
So, it’s a two-way street, but there are carriers out there that are better at this than other carriers. That becomes important because we’re always trying to find an edge. That’s why we use MIS by the way, because they’ve been very helpful in that. But in the data accumulation, as well as claims, we’re seeing carriers have more advanced AI in both their assessment of storms, for example, or claims.
And then we’re also seeing a need on our side because we’re trying to find efficiency with getting that data and getting it to the carrier so that we, in turn, can show quotes, hopefully, improve quotes, to our clients.
Lliam:
When you think about an insurance carrier like the Hartford, these guys have tremendous amounts of data. And then you think about this from a company perspective, the rule of thumb is when it comes to risk, you do everything you can to treat the risk, to mitigate that risk, whether that’s people, process, technology, whatever it is.
But whatever that residual risk is, that risk that you can’t treat, you buy insurance for that, right? And cyber insurance is certainly one of those things. We all know that there’s not one technology, one thing, one process that you could put in place that would 100 percent make you safe. And so you’re buying insurance.
And then you go back to that thought about these insurance carriers that have all this data. They’re trying to quantify the amount of risk that you have. And I know that they have whole teams of people – and this is all they do – who look at this data and try to understand how much risk this company represents.
This is the underwriting process and it seems that from an insurance carrier perspective, this is an opportune place to use AI automation to try to understand that data analytics. Do you have any insight from a broker in terms of how these guys are using it in that way?
Steve:
Yeah, so, it’s a good question. Maybe if you’re a business owner, you probably already know this, but if you buy cyber insurance or find yourself exploring it, you’ll soon find that carriers are going to require you to have certain standards or procedures for login, third-party authorization. And so they’re going to actually be in the middle of helping you manage your business, like it or not, that’s what’s happening.
But the reason for that is because they have data on where the claims are coming from. That’s AI. They know who to insure and who they can’t. So what we’re seeing now that I think is something to observe and note in the future is carriers are going to be on the side of saying this is what we want to insure and this is what we don’t want to insure and to get the better rates you’re going to need to do A, B and C. And that’s coming from data.
So, it’s frustrating to us who are trying to do our job and all of a sudden have to stop and put in technology that we didn’t know we needed, but only so that we can prevent claims that we haven’t had, that’s what’s difficult. But I will say operating a business now and not having those types of coverages could cripple or end your business.
So, we’re trying to, just like you, buy it as well, and we’re trying to advise. We’re not trying to sell things people don’t need. We’re trying to sell things that allow businesses to continue to operate. That’s a great example of how AI and claims data are actually helping businesses and also dictating what is a better insurer.
Lliam:
Yeah, and I would guess that the amount of data that they have really gives them tremendous insight into these industries, this geography, these cities, this zip code. They know where those risks are coming from and then can back their way into what kinds of companies have more risk versus less risk.
I know that one of the things that we’ve seen in the IT industry is, because of all of this risk that we have in terms of our people helping our clients with passwords or resetting passwords or access to systems, it has made IT companies a much bigger target than they were, 7, 8, 10 years ago, right?
And you look at all that data, we know that our insurance tends to have become more expensive, like a doctor. A doctor’s insurance, their malpractice insurance, is actually really expensive. And the reason for that is because they know that’s where the risk comes from. And as these insurance companies are looking at this data and they’re able to really use AI to pinpoint that risk, they are becoming a lot more adept in that underwriting process of really understanding how much risk you have.
And I agree with you. I think that translates to these insurance companies coming to you and saying, we know that you are in a high-risk kind of business, and because of that, we may have some general or generic things that we want you to do. But there might be some other things that end up being targeted at you specifically because of the business that you’re in.
And it’s all about trying to manage that risk.
Steve:
Yeah, that’s a good segue to a philosophy that we like to use at our agency, which is a lot of people buy insurance where they’re not sure if they can afford it. We don’t like that philosophy. We think you have to manage it first and ensure it last.
Because if you’re not managing your drivers, you don’t know who’s driving your vehicles, your chance for loss goes up, not down. What I love about AI is it allows you to better manage your business so that you are on the side of a better risk for a carrier. And if you’re in a high-risk business, then you’ve got to figure out a way to separate yourself.
Because it is a game of trying to find better rates and having that data, not waiting for a carrier to tell you what to do like they do with third-party authentication, but showing a carrier that you’re separating yourself because you’re managing your risk, and you’re aware of your business, and you’re managing your threats.
It makes you more attractive to the marketplace, and that’s really most of what we do. We’re trying to convince a carrier that you are a better or best in business, compared to your competitors.
Lliam:
As a broker, you sit between the customer, the business owner, and these carriers that are trying to quantify how much risk you pose, and you are trying to present that customer to that carrier in the best light possible. And they’re using all of these analytics and technology to be able to take what you’re saying, that census that they give you, and really look at their entire database and saying, “Hey, we think that this guy represents this amount of risk.” And I imagine that sometimes you guys are having to go to these carriers on your customers’ behalf and say, “Here’s what it says, but here’s what you need to know to really fully understand that company because AI, as good as it is, one of the things I’ve always said is that, artificial intelligence is very good about structural awareness, things that you can quantify rules based kinds of things, but, it’s not as good with situational awareness.
Where you’re saying, “Hey, this company, this time, because I know this guy and I know their history of what happened. He may look like another manufacturing company or CPA but let me tell you why he’s different.” And I think that your insurance broker really is able to put that story together and to present that back to the carrier. Is that fair?
Steve:
That’s fair. It’s a good point. Oftentimes, if we go after an industry or if I’m calling on a particular company that’s in a particular industry, I’m going to rely on a carrier that has a niche in that and already knows the type of guys you want to write and the ones you don’t.
One of the challenges insurance agents faces is he is trying his best to establish a book and grow a book that he can serve and manage. But at the same time, he’s trying to make sure that he’s not having to have a guy change his whole business around just so he can get insurance.
And we’re at a time right now in Georgia where rates are such and coverages are such where it’s challenging. So, you’re trying to make not only a guy presentable, but you’re trying to help a guy manage his business, which is more and more difficult and requires more people. And so AI would be helpful to us because it does create efficiency that allows you to better manage your business so you are more presentable.
Lliam:
If you think about what’s happening upstream with these carriers and how they are starting to embrace AI, and then you look at an insurance broker, and you broaden that field a little bit and say, “Hey, our job is to really take care of our customers.”
And when something happens, if there’s a claim and they need to contact us to be able to find out who to call or to have a question, or sometimes maybe they need help or support, right? I think one of the conversations you and I got into when we were doing a pre-call was the fact that Snellings Walters will actually review some of your contracts to help you understand risk.
So, if you have an agreement with a client and you want to make sure before that agreement gets signed that you’re not carrying too much risk, that’s a role that you guys play to add value to that relationship, right? And so, if you roll that right into this whole AI conversation, it seems like you could totally see where an AI agent is going to come to these insurance brokers as a way of really being able to service these clients so that they can get what they need.
Because insurance brokerages tend to be very high or very heavy in customer service, right? People need reprints of insurance cards, or maybe they have questions about policies that they have, or maybe they don’t remember when their renewals are or their payment plans, or all of these different things that happen.
It seems like it would not only be great for you guys, as a broker, but, as a consumer, to have an interface where I could go in and ask these kinds of questions and get immediate feedback, whether it was two o’clock in the afternoon or two o’clock in the morning would be really a great benefit to me. And I think that many of our businesses have a customer service component to them.
And I think that this is why you often hear what they refer to as the year of the agent or Agentic AI. And agentic AI means it’s driven by an agent. It’s an agent that does this work for you to be able to service your clients or customers in a way that’s maybe either better, faster or extends your business hours in a way that you can’t do today.
Steve:
You make a really good point. In fact, two areas that retail insurance agencies run in are contract reviews and certificates of insurance or proofs of insurance. Carriers do not run in those areas.
So, they can be helpful. They can say this contract is unacceptable or we don’t like the terms. But they’re not, they’re going to ask my client to go see his lawyer. We’re in the business of trying to quickly analyze, “Hey, the limits we have on our policy are not high enough to what your landlord’s requiring or your general contractor, wherever you’re working for, whatever the contract requirement is.”
A need for us is training people to read contracts. Legalese is like another language. Not even a very standard language. And what we need is to focus on just two sections of a contract: insurance and indemnity. And there are terms in there.
What we love about AI is it simplifies that process. And what we can’t get from a carrier is, for example, you’re expanding your operation and you’re opening an office down in Texas. The language in Texas is quite different than Georgia. So, we’re looking for efficiencies on how we as a firm can be better in this arena because, and it’s not coming from the carriers, that’s something we have to be good at.
And we’re trying to separate ourselves, not just separate, a lot of good agencies do this. So sometimes it’s a separation of us and other agencies, but oftentimes it’s us trying to find efficiency because of the time consumption that’s required for us to serve our clients and that’s an area that I see AI really running in soon.
It’s already probably occurring where we’re gonna have a better turnaround time on that analyzation of contracts, especially if it’s multi-state, where we can have that turn and it’s easier for us to train in-house for that.
Lliam:
Yeah, I think that’s a really great point. If you would look to 2025 on into 2026, what do you think are areas that you guys could see really using AI?
And, I’ll give you a little bit of a, of a shout-out here. One of the things that Snellings Walters has done a tremendous job on is you guys are a very forward-thinking company in terms of your technology. And when we met you, gosh, years ago, one of the things that you guys were trying to embrace back then is how to allow employees to be able to work from home. And this wasn’t pandemic-related. This was before that. And you guys were already well set. And you guys were looking at phone systems, you were looking at cloud, you were looking at hosted desktops, to be able to provide that same experience.
You guys have done a tremendous job even of just being where you are today. I would say you’re further ahead than most. But looking at and now thinking about AI and having conversations like this, I think we’re now looking at what’s going to be that next thing in 2025, 2026, maybe even 2027.
Steve:
Yeah, it’s interesting. You played a large role in that. We didn’t know when we put in our Zoom rooms that we were going to need them for a pandemic. We just didn’t know. You were helpful and we were asking. How do we do this? How do we have meetings? And we, what drove this a lot for us is we were trying to figure out how to bring more aligned clients to our office because we tended to find a better client when we could go after that, when we could have them at our office.
And then we found in time, someone couldn’t come, so we needed a way to communicate. So, we were using more of the technology that you helped implement so that we could have Zoom calls and meetings with multiple people, especially some of our staff who work out of state. So, it became a need. And then, lo and behold, it became front and center with the pandemic because that’s how we did everything, and so it was great.
Recently, you and I had a discussion, and we were talking about what the future looked like, and you made this comment about how, voice, we’re going to be using a lot more voice, a whole lot less typing. If you look at our industry now, and I’m sure your business, your staff is typing a lot, of emails, we’re getting crushed. If it’s not on a keyboard, it’s on our phones. And to think that maybe we could be freed up to just have a conversation like this and to keep moving. I think about the time in the car that I’m spending on a phone, which is my preference in communication, but there’s got to be a way to capture that so that you can, not only have documentation for it, which our industry requires but also reminders of follow-ups and such and so I’m excited about where we’re going.
I also am a little overwhelmed. But I have to remind myself that five years ago, when we were talking with clients about cyber insurance, I remember my client saying, “Oh, I have a great antivirus; I don’t need cyber coverage.” And I remembered thinking wow, we’ve got a lot of education to do and now we’re way past that. We’re into how to better operate your business and then changing and putting in a lot of technology that you hadn’t had before because you have to get the insurance policy.
Lliam:
I’m curious, as I hear you talk, in your opinion, do you think that cyber insurance has forced companies to run a better business?
Steve:
Without a doubt. Reluctantly. It’s like everything that’s new – and I get amazed – we’ve had our share of controversies. Y2K, for example. And I wondered if cyber was a little bit like that: a manufactured problem that somebody had a silver bullet for or a program, only to learn that, now, where we thought our inbox was safe, we all know it isn’t.
And we’re worried about our parents who really didn’t grow up with the technology. We’re trying to tell my mother’s – she’s been a victim of crime – and I’m just like, don’t open your email. So, yeah, I see that. I see that problem. And to some degree, I would have to admit that even in our business, we’ve been dictated to on how we have to operate.
We didn’t want to. Because we didn’t have the time for it and because of so much we have going on around us. But we have to take the time. You have to anticipate that now and maybe you could comment more on this, I just feel like the world’s moving so much quicker than it’s ever been, and I feel like I have to stay on the edge, not only to find a competitive advantage, but just so I can be prepared and schedule what we have to do that I don’t even know we need to do
Lliam:
I don’t disagree.
When you look at technology and really, when you think about AI, you can see this thing in the future, and it’s day-by-day. Every time you wake up, you see it taking one step further. Can you see AI as being a real differentiator in the market space in terms of those companies that are starting to, for lack of a better word, dabble in how can they embrace that technology versus what I almost see on the other side is those companies that are taking the stance of, let’s let everyone else figure it out. And once someone else has figured it out they can just sell me a subscription then we’ll just buy it. Do you see a real difference there?
Steve:
So we actually had this past week one of our carriers was unwilling to download more targeted data to our server. We download a lot of data from our carriers so that we can give that to our clients. One of our carriers had no problem with that because it was coming into our server. But another carrier said, sorry, we’re only going to send it if it goes to a real person at a real email. And the problem with that is we aren’t about to empower that person to have that data.
So we’re limited.
So that, that carrier’s policy and procedure was put in place for probably good security reasons, but they’re going to get left behind, because other carriers have already graduated to a better level and they’re more helpful to us. Now, our job is to be objective and to find the best price and coverage, but it’s hard when one carrier is giving you data late because they don’t have the technology. And we’re seeing that even now.
If you think about it, I feel nimble and quick at our size firm, but I worry about some of the carriers who are so large and have such antiquated systems. It’s like steering a large ship to put in all these changes when they don’t have controls in place or people that understand it, I feel like that gives us an advantage. But also, we can’t wait on the carrier to get that. We have to be moving ourselves because we’ve got to demand efficiency and budget for efficiency.
Lliam:
It’s a really interesting dynamic, right? Because on one hand, as an insurance company, you have to be of a certain size that you have enough bandwidth to be looking at these new technologies, to be thinking about the future, and how you’re going to take advantage of that.
On the other hand, if you were too big, somehow you lose focus because the size of that company really stifles that innovation. It’s almost like those medium-sized companies, those that aren’t too small and those that aren’t too big, are really the companies that are best poised to have enough resources to really think about how to move the needle and how to become a much more mature company. Whereas these smaller companies, they’re just struggling to keep up. And these larger companies, it just takes so long to get anything done that, quite frankly, they’re struggling to keep up. And so that middle player is really in a great space.
Steve:
If you’re not staying ahead of things, then your IT department or consultant will be running your company because you won’t know what to do, and they do know what to do, or what they have to do. And that’s not where you want to be.
That’s too late. And I see this. We have new positions created in large entities because they have a problem. And they’re trying to push all these problems into that department because they don’t, it’s their new problems. And I’ve been amazed at new startup companies that have positions for IT – they could be in a manufacturing job – but they actually have an IT department that they would have never had five years ago. And that’s just an example of the need for AI and the need for constant education on what’s coming our way.
Lliam:
Do you guys feel that at Snellings and Walters, sorry to call you out directly, but do you feel like at Snelling and Walters the technology in your marketplace is really giving you guys a leg up?
Steve:
Yes, I remember the days when we were 17 employees, and we would hire somebody and Clay Snellings, a good friend and partner, would run to Dell and buy a computer just to hopefully have it set up by the time they showed up the next morning.
We all played a role in being the IT person. And we, so what I didn’t like is they’d show up and sometimes – it’s embarrassing – we had employees using an old keyboard and an old mouse because we were moving and growing too quickly and we weren’t anticipating our needs. So, we’ve learned the hard way, which is how not to do it.
We’ve gotten far enough ahead now where we anticipate what we’re going to have, and we have that stuff set up, of course, but it’s so much more in-depth now. It’s training, there’s meetings. And I didn’t know in 2007, when I started at Snellings Walters, that we would be having the number of meetings we have, but I can’t imagine running our business without the meetings, without the constant update in education and research that’s required because that’s what makes the job easier.
Lliam:
And I feel like with Snellings, there’s a, there’s really two parts to this success formula. I think one part is the technology component to it. I think it’s a fair statement to say that a lot of our companies – and it doesn’t even matter what you do – we are all technology companies. We’re all customer service-driven companies, and it doesn’t again really matter what it is you do. But I think the other thing and we’re going to do a whole series on this we haven’t even kicked it off yet, but watch out for it, but we’re going to do a whole series on a business framework called EOS or Entrepreneurial Operating System.
And I bring that up simply to say that I know that you guys are also an EOS company. And that’s really interesting to me because you take that sort of material that you had, where you guys have built the company to this certain level of expertise. And then you layer onto that, all of this IT and technology to give you a competitive advantage.
There are people like you who are standing at the crow’s nest on the ship with your periscope looking out into the future, saying, where do I think our industry is going? How do I really make sure that our customers are going to be best serviced? And by the way, we can service them better than anyone else because we’ve got a guy like Steve looking at what’s not here yet.
And we will be there before that wave comes. So I think you take all of that and then you layer on that last piece which is Oh, and by the way, we do all of this complicated stuff using a formal framework like EOS As a way to really drive value and I don’t know if you wanted to comment on this at all but it feels like you guys have really got a competitive advantage in some of the tool sets and in some of the things that you guys are doing, not only when it comes to technology, but AI and EOS. That’s the whole package, right?
Steve:
For those of you out there that are using Entrepreneurial Operating System, or Traction, you know that you’re capturing issues. What I think is interesting is so many of our issues can be tech-related and visionary-related where we’re not really seeing what’s coming.
And for a while we had really good vision, but at the same time that ends. It’s a constant process. And so analyzing what your issues and threats are to your business and then forming a game plan is what I like about this philosophy, which is available to everybody. I do recommend training on it because you’re going to have a hard time following it and you’re going to have a hard time getting everybody to follow it.
In fact, business owners are usually the hardest ones because we have a mindset of what we want to do and what we don’t want to do. But we have to do those things we don’t want to do. I feel like it forces you to think about and consider things, and then you get with other business owners. If you’re not in that type of group, I would recommend that.
Traction or Entrepreneurial Operating System offers those types of interactions with other business owners so you can compare notes. It’s been profound for us. I would love to take more credit for what we’ve done, but I think a lot of what we’ve done is listened to other people who had problems that were larger than us and told us you better watch out for this, and we listened and moved on that. So a lot of our learning, so to speak, was borrowed data from people that were just like, hey, you need to do this. And, some of that comes from you. You’ve been a great partner at pointing out things that we had to consider that we really didn’t want to consider.
But we’re thankful now that we did. And that’s an ongoing process, isn’t it?
Lliam:
Yeah, it really is. I appreciate that. As you guys are thinking about this early adoption for AI and you wrap this up with a nice bow, I’d love to know from your perspective as a business owner, as you guys are walking this path, just honestly, the rest of us, MIS too,
What advice would you give someone who was looking at AI and, trying to figure out how to reap some of the benefits you are looking to see, give us that from the crow’s nest; here’s what I see.
Steve:
Yeah. It’s maybe a bad analogy, but I’m an old-school guy. I used to keep prospects and clients in rolodex where I could see it and physically touch it, and I had data written down that I felt that I needed.
Well, that’s not enough. And what I love about AI is that It gives you a lot more data and a lot better actions. And so instead of just maybe you have a planning day, a Friday, that’s what I used to do and now it’s daily. So I have a process now that is much more intense.
And it’s a lot better data. And I’m not using the old systems. I’m actually finding efficiency. So, for about every dollar that I could spend on technology, I could be saving two to five dollars because I’m finding efficiencies. That means I’m doing the process better, sometimes with fewer people, sometimes with less time.
And I think time’s our greatest enemy, not necessarily overhead. But we also, remember, we’re growing, so we’re trying to keep the people we have healthy. We want a healthy culture which often gets left by the wayside when you’re in a business and you’re under the pressures of an owner of having a profitable business.
So, you gotta have a healthy culture because you will lose your clients. If you don’t, you lose your staff first, and then you lose your clients. And so, I think, there’s a lot of reasons why we have to be on this edge and why we have to invest in it. One is because we want to serve better. And two we want to have an office culture that attracts and retains the best talent.
And I think we’re doing that. It’s a challenge to stay there. I think we’ve had some success here recently, but it’s a constant challenge to stay on that edge.
Lliam:
I want to finish with this thought because we often get asked, honestly, because we’re IT people, how are we using AI? How are we looking at using AI? How do we think AI is going to impact our business, right? I feel like this is a fair question for everybody who owns a business, no matter who you are, right? And I am going to answer that because I know everybody is really curious to know. I can tell you one of the platforms that we are actually just about to come out with, that we’ve been working on it for the last couple of years, since we had Tech Exchange. We looked at all the data that we had around our service tickets.
Why do people call us? And we took that data and we split it up into two categories. What requires situational awareness, right? And again, that’s for this user, for this company, for this one time, you need to apply some discretion to do this one thing, right? Those are really hard. And then we looked at the structural awareness, like resetting your password. How you reset your password is the same every single time. So, there are things that are always very structurally aware.
We took a look at all of the data in our ticketing system, analyzed that data, and broke it out into what was structurally aware and what was situationally aware. And the insight that we walked away with is that 48 percent of all of our inbound service tickets were actually structurally aware.
And we then sat and we said, let’s put these things into categories. And we came up with 38 items that people call us for regularly that we could use AI to help automate. “I forgot my password.” “I’m getting a piece of spam.” “Add me to this distribution list.” “Take me off this distribution list.” “Add a new employee.” Remove an employee,” right? These are all very structurally aware tasks. And if we go to this whole concept that we were talking about a minute ago where we’re all in customer service and from an IT perspective we’re trying to figure out how do we service the customer better and faster?
Because it makes happier customers. So we have been spending the last couple of years developing some technology that will allow our people to be able to pick a customer, pick a task, and hit execute. That AI agent will go and execute that task, make notes as to what it’s done, update the documentation, add notes to the service ticket, and then close the service ticket, all within one or two seconds.
Which I think is a huge customer service gain for somebody who’s calling in and they’re wanting one of these 38 items. As an IT company, we eat our own dog food, so to speak, we said, “Hey, let’s think about what we said in 2023. What problems did we have that we would like to make better?
And just like you, we’re trying to figure out what are those strategic things that we can do to be better than our competitors? How can we leverage that technology? And I just wanted to throw that out there so that you guys have a sense of what MIS is doing and how we are embracing this in our business as well.
Steve:
Lliam, tell me a little bit more about some AI opportunities you see with an insurance agency like ours.
Lliam:
I think it goes back to that thought that at the end of the day, you guys are a customer service Industry, right? And so you’re trying to produce not only a good quality but a great quality service. An experience that is so far superior to what anyone else is doing. You’re really taking that customer journey. And I know one of the things that we’ve started doing is we take all of our calls that come into our support desk, and we translate them to text. Nothing particularly special there, but then what we’re doing is we’re using Open AI to go and read those calls, look for certain keywords, and come back with a score as to what was our customer service level – what we call a sentiment – one that ticket. And if we see there was a ticket where maybe it didn’t go as well as what we’d want, we’re notifying our service manager.
That means that we are listening to and reviewing every single call. I think that’s another great use of AI. At Snellings Walters, you guys have a distributed staff who are taking a lot of phone calls on a daily basis. There’s a lot of data there. You could take all of those call recordings and begin to understand why your customers calling. Do you also have a set of tasks that are structurally aware that you could build technology around to create a better customer experience?
I think that there’s a story there, not only for you, but I think that there’s a story there for all of us in our businesses.
Steve:
Yeah, it’d be interesting to run a research project on why people are calling and what are they calling about because we can find efficiency there and empower our staff to handle that quicker. Then we’re freed up to do things that are more profitable.
Lliam:
And I think that’s the name of the game, right? It’s about the maturity level, right? It’s how are you pushing that ball uphill so that you are really providing an experience that is phenomenal to your customers. Another insurance company said to me one time that there are really two interactions that a client has with their insurance company that make it or break it. And that is the underwriting process and the claims. If you really truly want to know if you have the right insurance, file a claim, right? Because that’s when you’ll get to really see if everything you bought is going to stand up to the thing that just happened. And I think that’s really true, right?
Steve:
Yeah, well said.
Lliam:
Awesome. Steve, I really appreciate you joining us today and sharing your insights. I think you guys run an amazing company and we certainly appreciate your partnership.
Thank you.
Take care. Thank you guys.
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