Are you making the most of e-mail’

I’ve been using e-mail for almost nine years now and it’s come a long way since I was hooking into a VM100 green screen and using command lines. I would have never guessed the many different ways I would use e-mail in my daily business and office work.

In the last five years, the role of e-mail has grown enormously in the insurance industry. From office desktops to office workflows to external clients, effective use of e-mail can increase customer retention and minimize downtime as well as reduce office costs. All it takes is some creative thinking and planning, understanding your e-mail application capabilities, and knowing how to mix e-mail with other media.

Let’s start with your desktop.

All sorts of rules
One of the most under-used functions of your e-mail application is its ability to act as your own personal post office. Think about the post office and how they collect, sort and track the mail-you can set up your e-mail application to do all of the above.

If you utilize a number of different e-mail accounts, set your e-mail application to pull the mail from these multiple accounts into a single “Inbox.” So if you receive e-mail as bob@agency.com, as well as the e-mails generated by the contact@agency.com address on your agency’s web site, consolidate it by having both accounts deliver to your inbox. Then get to sorting.

On an average day, I receive almost 80 e-mails. These range from listservs and e-newsletters to personal correspondence and work contacts to junk mail and spam. By setting up rules to sort my mail, I can sift through the chaff.

Use send and delivery rules in a number of ways. You can have them sort your mail by the e-mail account it was delivered to. Rules can sort by addressee so that e-mails from certain clients automatically go into that client’s e-mail folder. Rules can also be used to track correspondence by setting up copies of sent messages to be sorted in certain folders.

If you set up the rules to filter your e-mail, then all of your important e-mails are delivered into specific folders or “sub-mailboxes,” and the “Lose weight now” and “Forward this to all of your friends” e-mails are left in the inbox. Rules have made my e-mail life a lot easier as now I can easily sort through the inbox, knowing that all of my important e-mail is in the right place.

E-mail applications also provide a number of ways to track your messages. For some applications like Microsoft Outlook and Novell Groupwise, you can attach delivery, read, and even delete receipts so you know when your e-mail was delivered, opened and if it was deleted. This is a handy feature to combat those who say, “I didn’t get that e-mail.”

In the e-office
Try to use e-mail as much as you can in your office to replace paper. An agent friend of mine said he uses e-mail because “then the people in my office can’t say they didn’t get it as can happen with paper files.” Now when information on company rates, changes or other important news comes in, a single person is responsible for e-mailing the information to the entire office.

To further prevent accidental deletion, give information a specific title and stick with the same title for subsequent e-mails so that recipients understand this is the latest news for that particular company/line. This also makes it easier for a rule/filter to sort.

It’s important to know how to use e-mail when it comes to collaborating on projects. If you’ve got a project in which you just want people’s feedback, then e-mailing an attachment is just fine. However, if you are working with several people, then consider adding the file location on your network instead of the attachment. This way each person is able to work on the document instead of sending you multiple versions. Also, keep e-collaborations of the same thread on a single e-mail by continuing to use the “reply” function and including the previous messages. When the collaboration is done, you’ve created a single “transcript” for your archives.

E-mail can be very helpful as a delivery mechanism for attachments that in turn improve communication. One agent told me that with underwriters in the excess and surplus markets, he’ll attach a digital photo of what he needs a quote on. “Then when I call, she can see the risk rather than me try to describe it over the phone,” he added.

E-mails also work really well as routing tickets. Once the order is set and process confirmed, each person adds on to the e-mail that is forwarded around. Then at the end, all of the necessary information is in a single e-mail for processing, signing or approving. This way a CSR can start an “e-mail ticket” for a client’s claim and when the e-mail comes back to the CSR’s inbox, they are ready to take care of that customer with all the necessary “paperwork.”

One final note for e-mails in the office: whether in a personal e-mail address book or your network address book, make use of distribution lists. This way all necessary parties are ensured of receiving the e-mail.

E-mail and your customers
For customers, clients and prospects, e-mail serves two purposes: service and marketing. In either case a little e-mail can go a long way.

When it comes to service, e-mail becomes an inexpensive way for customers outside of the area code or traditional agency boundaries to communicate. This is especially true for those without toll-free numbers as these agents push e-mail as the primary, quickest and most responsive form of contact.

For e-mails that are sent to you, consider setting up your program to automatically respond. By modifying the “automatic reply” function in your e-mail application, you can assure the sender that their e-mail has reached a person and will be answered.

Customer service can be periodically sent to customers to remind them that you are taking care of them and have their welfare in mind. You can send e-mails to remind them that they will soon be receiving renewal notices in the mail.

Another possibility is the “I ran across this web site and thought you might find this interesting” e-mail. This might go into an e-mail newsletter as well, but to grow your accounts, consider other arenas for which you might be able to provide insurance services. If the client has a teenager you might provide links to reputable auto dealers or insurance companies that offer information on young drivers. If a business is moving into a new location, you might provide information and links pertinent to issues they may or may not have thought about.

Periodic surveys can be e-mailed out as well. These allow customers to give feedback while providing you with all sorts of demographic and prospective information at the same time. With web programming and database integration where it is, a simple explanation and link to the survey on your web site can lead to automatic data entry into a database.

Market by e-mail
And then there’s marketing. One of the best ways to market your business is by e-mail. According to a Forrester Research report, e-mail was the number two way to get people to visit your web site, behind search engines. Those who click through on a link in an e-mail are more likely to be a customer or a serious prospect than just the average web surfer.

That is why a periodic newsletter is a good investment with articles that tease the reader into clicking through, either to your site or a site that enhances your offerings.

Target specialized e-mails to new audiences. Work with your local auto dealerships for e-mail lists on recent car buyers, real estate agents for homeowners or local chamber of commerce for new businesses. Mass e-mailings are cheap and can be effective.

E-mail is a powerful tool. If used to its fullest, it reduces electronic and paper clutter and serves as a record of all that goes on in an agency.

According to Gartner Group, 25 percent of a business’ contact with customers will be via e-mail and the web by next year. Knowing the limits and capabilities of your e-mail system as a communications tool, an information conduit, a documentation resource and a customer application is necessary for successful interaction with today’s e-consumer.