Transactional CRM: b atomic & Bell Insurance Solutions podcast recap

The Insurance Perspectives Podcast involves contributors outside of HawkSoft. The participants' views are entirely their own and may not reflect the views of HawkSoft.

This recap of the Insurance Perspectives Podcast summarizes highlights of the two episodes about HawkSoft API Partner b atomic, where HawkSoft host Kenny Hendricks interviews Set Zaremba of b atomic and JR Bell of Bell Insurance Solutions, who uses b atomic's Neon platform at his agency. 

JR and Seth discuss Neon's transactional approach to optimizing an agency's most common and repetitive processes, and how implementing Neon has helped the agency be more successful.

In this article:

• Part 1: b atomic / Neon (Seth Zaremba)

• • What is b atomic / Neon's reason for participating in the independent agency channel?
  • What one aspect of Neon draws agencies in and keeps them working with you?
  • How does Neon approach data ownership with regard to your customers?
  • What is the hardest part of working with insurance agencies?
  • What is the best part of working with insurance agencies?

• Part 2: Bell Insurance Solutions (JR Bell) 
  • Tell us about your agency
  • What was your agency looking for when you first encountered b atomic and Neon?
  • What is your agency able to do now with Neon that you couldn't do before?
  • What is one thing you would change about Neon if you could?
  • How would you describe the value that Neon brings to your agency?

Part 1: b atomic / Neon (Seth Zaremba)

Watch the video podcast - Part 1

Question 1: Why does b atomic exist? What is your reason for participating in the independent agency channel?

• Seth Zaremba started as a Farmer’s insurance agent and became the owner of an independent agency in Ohio in 2008. This paved the way for him to start an Insurtech company, b atomic, and develop the Neon platform in 2019.
  
  

• Neon is a platform focusing on automation for sales, service, and leads. It helps surface important data to the agency, and implement solutions based on that data to improve efficiency and lower transaction costs.
  
  
• Neon aims to connect disparate technologies and integrate with an agency’s existing tech stack.
  
  
• Neon was initially funded by a small group of independent agencies and agency associations, and has always been about solving problems for agencies.
  
  

• Seth emphasizes the importance of agencies adopting automation to stay competitive in the face of talent acquisition challenges, shrinking margins, and tough market conditions.

“I think the reason we're relevant going forward is that change is coming. And that change is going to put independent agents that are thinking the right way in an advantageous position and those who don't in an uncomfortable position.”

Question 2: If you had to pick one aspect of Neon that draws in and keeps agencies working with you, what would that be and why?

• Seth identifies a shared growth mindset as the key aspect that draws agencies to Neon.
  
  
• He discusses the importance of lead management, sales accountability, and enterprise-level customer experience for platforms like AMS and CRM, which are so focused on the customer relationship.
  
  
• Neon allows agencies to grow through mergers and acquisitions by being able to bring in data from multiple AMS platforms.
  
  
• JR Bell agrees that he appreciates Neon’s vision and feels b atomic allows his agency to customize workflows to be as simple or complex as needed as the agency grows and expands.
  
  
• Kenny Hendricks observes that HawkSoft supports Neon's approach of integrating with multiple AMS platforms, because the success of the agency should be more important to all parties than which AMS they choose.
  
  

“If you take a policy management system built over three decades like HawkSoft, and you you marry it with something that focuses on that lead, sales, service opportunity around that growth mindset, then I think you really have agents who are future focused.”

Question 3: How does Neon approach data ownership with regard to your customers?

• Seth asserts that agents own their data, and if they leave Neon they can take their data with them.
  
  
• He explains that Neon uses anonymized performance data to help agencies benchmark their performance and be more successful.
  
  
• Kenny notes that anonymizing data is relatively common, and can be beneficial when done with the agent’s awareness and for their success.
  
  
• JR feels HawkSoft and Neon complement each other’s functionality, and feels he can rest assured that his data remains in his hands.
  
  

“What makes Neon different is that you can see your own data. You own it. You can benchmark against others so you can understand, am I doing something right or wrong? And then we use that data to come up with services that can help all agencies scale results, with lower cost per transaction.”

 

Question 4: What is the hardest part of working with insurance agencies?

• Seth feels that because the industry has historically been so slow to change, there is a lack of change management skills and processes among agents, leading to difficulties in adopting new technologies.
  
  
• He also feels technology choices often drive the agency’s processes, when it should be agency processes driving technology choices. Agencies should choose technology that will work best for the processes they are already using.
  
  
• b atomic is adapting to these challenges by implementing a stewardship model where they contact their customers quarterly to get feedback and make improvements, and by using data to inform better decisions.
  
  
• JR agrees that agencies can spend too much time trying different technologies, admitting that he has used many different AMS and CRM products. He feels that Neon and HawkSoft have been his best technology decisions.

“What we encourage people to do is identify agency processes that are high volume, repetitious, and costly in terms of patience or skill or mindset. And then find the technology or build the process that complements that.”

Question 5: What is the best part of working with insurance agencies?

• Seth praises independent agents for being meaningful stakeholders in their communities. Independent agents are there for their clients during difficult times and contribute to their local communities.
  
  
• He feels delivering enterprise-level technology to small businesses is rewarding, and he’s excited to help independent agents compete effectively against captive and direct writers.
  
  

“I think independent agents have not been in a fair fight. They have to show up against director writers with a peashooter while they've got a machine gun. I think if you give independent agents comparable technology and data to other forms of distribution, we will win every time because we're the people that actually want to be there in the community.”

Part 2: Bell Insurance Solutions (JR Bell)

Watch the video podcast - Part 2

In this episode:

• Tell us about your agency
• What was your agency looking for when you first encountered Neon?
• What is your agency able to do now with Neon that you couldn't do before?
• What is one thing you would change about Neon if you could?
• How would you describe the value that Neon brings to your agency?

Question 1: Tell us about your agency. How long have you been in the business, and how did you get into the business? Do you have any specializations? What gets you excited about insurance?

• Kenny introduces JR Bell, who started with Farmers Insurance in 2008 and transitioned to the independent channel in 2016. He started using HawkSoft in 2019.
  
  
• JR discusses his agency, Bell Insurance Solutions, located in Illinois. The agency now has four employees and has a 50/50 split between personal and commercial lines, with a desire to move fully toward commercial.
  
  
• JR emphasizes his love for helping people and solving problems, which keeps him motivated in the insurance industry.
  
  

“To me, the core of our job is to help our neighbor. That's why we're here. When somebody comes into my office, it's not, ‘how cheap can you get this for me?’ It's ‘what does this do for me? And how can this help me?’ I love helping people. I love solving a problem. And I like having more than one way to solve a problem.”

Question 2: What was your agency looking for when you first encountered b atomic and Neon?

• JR had tried a number of tech solutions and was looking for a better CRM to improve efficiency and automate processes within his agency.
  
  
• He needed a platform that could integrate with his management system and allow for customization to fit his agency's specific needs.
  
  
• Neon stood out because it helped him categorize, standardize, and automate common agency processes, while allowing him to tailor it to his agency.
  
  
• The platform allows JR to make data-driven decisions quickly, such as evaluating the effectiveness of a virtual assistant and pivoting strategies when needed.
  
  
• Seth shares that Neon’s extensive research has found that 65% of an agency’s payroll goes toward only seven high-volume, repetitive processes. B atomic’s goal is to take those processes off the agency’s plate so they can focus on tasks requiring more expertise.
  
  
• Neon charges on a transactional basis for these tasks, rather than an hourly basis like VAs, allowing them to scale and lower the cost per transaction by 30-70%.
  
  
• Kenny observes that this is a great example of solution-focused technology, in a market that is saturated with technology that often has no clear value proposition.
  
  

“Being able to look at the data and see what my staff's doing is so valuable. A prime example is we hired a virtual assistant. After 90 days, I went back and looked at the data and realized this isn't working. But having that data available to me allowed me to make that decision so much faster as an agency owner.”

 

Question 3: What is your agency able to do now with Neon that you couldn't do before?

• JR love’s Neon’s automated renewal process, which allows staff to very quickly determine whether or not a policy needs to be remarketed, and then sends the appropriate communications to the client.
  
  
• He notes that a staff member recently left the agency, and because they were able to optimize so much work with Neon, they have not needed to rehire for the position.
  
  

“My favorite thing that we can do right now is a personalized renewal. In under three touches, we get the download from HawkSoft, my staff takes one look at it to determine if it meets our criteria to shop it, and they go to Neon. The renewal case is already in there. They click two buttons and set the process in motion. So it allows me to time everything perfectly.”

Question 4: What is one thing that you would change about Neon if you could?

• JR mentions that the way policies are mapped and pulled over to Neon can sometimes be challenging.
  
  
• He appreciates b atomic's responsiveness to his concerns and willingness to take feedback and make necessary adjustments.
  
  

Question 5: How would you describe the value that Neon brings to your agency?

• JR can’t overstate the value Neon brings to his agency, emphasizing its role in achieving his automation goals through technology rather than hiring.
  
  
• The platform allows him to touch clients more frequently without increasing his workload, enhancing customer service and satisfaction.
  
  
• JR appreciates the support and guidance from b atomic's team, which helps him continuously improve his agency's processes.
  
  
• Seth notes that he hates being asked what size of agency Neon is for, because an agency’s size or number of staff doesn’t determine their efficiency, need for processes, or ability to scale and service a huge number of clients.
  
  

“You've got to have a focus. What do I want to achieve? What are the three biggest obstacles in my way and how do I move them? Neon allows me to do it on my terms. And if there's something I can't do, I call them and say, how do we make it happen? There hasn't been anything we haven't been able to solve.”