Who says insurance agents aren’t cool? A Texas-based independent insurance agency has proven they know what’s up with a new iPhone application that gives their customers access to important account information when they need it.
Recognizing that losses don’t always occur during business hours, Texas Associates Insurors (TAI) has developed an iPhone application that allows clients real time access to important documents — as well as to their agent — when claims happen, or even when they don’t.
Blame the popularity of the iPhone.
William Harrison Jr, president of Texas Associates, San Antonio, who spearheaded the development of TIA’s application, said he came up with the idea one day while in a client meeting in the boardroom of one of his commercial customers. “I looked around the room and realized almost everybody had an iPhone,” he explained.
Recognizing, too, that many insurance companies now had iPhone apps for communicating with policyholders, Harrison figured that developing an app for TAI was a “natural next step” for the agency as a method to communicate and provide services to its own customers. The company already has an online portal on its Web site through which clients can access account information.
“We knew that customers want to talk to their broker or agent at the time of loss and I didn’t think any other brokers or agents had anything like this,” he said.
After writing out what he wanted to achieve with an application, Harrison met with his business partners, a few clients and the application developer, to look “at a number of things we could do to help clients at the point of loss to gather necessary information to help them through the claims process.”
In addition to access to information for claims purposes, Harrison thought it would helpful to be able to provide customers with access to things like their automobile insurance ID cards and health insurance ID cards. He credited his wife with the inspiration for that idea after she called him one day from the doctor’s office and asked that he fax a copy of their insurance card so she could get immunizations for their children.
Harrison said while the iPhone app will be useful in communicating with the next generation of insurance customers it is really aimed at current clients, giving them the ability to access the agency on their own terms. TAI is letting those customers know about the availability of the application through e-mail releases and quarterly client visits.
“It’s a value added service we are able to give to our clients,” Harrison said. “We’re not using it at this time to provide quotes, just to reinforce the services that we offer.”
Texas Associates Insurors was founded in 1954, and offers insurance, employee benefits and risk management services. Texas Associates Insurors has offices in Austin, San Antonio, and Smithville, and its affiliate NewFirst Insurors operates in El Campo and Rosenberg. Texas Associates Insurors is one of the founding members of the Insurors Group, a group of 11 agencies located throughout the state ranked by the Insurance Journal as one of the Top 100 privately-held brokerage firms in the United States.
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