Creating Competitive Advantage with Certificates of Insurance

Creating a competitive advantage in any business is always a challenge and creating one in the insurance broker space is no different. In fact, it is a challenge that every insurance brokerage faces. With so many options out there for clients to choose from, standing out in a crowded marketplace is getting harder and harder. The question one must answer is how do you truly differentiate your business in a meaningful and measurable way?

First, you must understand the specific goals of your customers and the unique way that they measure value.  Are your customers looking to simply increase their revenue? Are your customers looking for creative ways to lower their cost? Or are your customers looking for a service that helps them be more efficient and effective thus improving productivity?  Once you better understand these goals, you can start developing service solutions that help your clients achieve their goals.

One way that insurance brokers can address the goals of their customers while also differentiating themselves is with Certificates of Insurance. Yes, you heard right, we said Certificates of Insurance. Something as simple as transmitting someone’s proof of insurance across the internet can not only increase your team’s productivity, but also lower costs and increase revenue. There are many different types of automation tools out there that have revolutionized the way that brokers can produce and distribute COIs for their clients. Let’s look at the different ways this happens.

Distributing COIs is extremely labor intensive and time consuming. Most brokers will have a team of people simply taking requests and sending out Certificates of Insurance one at a time to clients. There are software services out there that can streamline and automate this process significantly. Through an automated distribution process, your team can not only send more COIs out more quickly, but also send out more COIs simultaneously with mass COI distribution. Companies like Certificate Exchange have created a proprietary COI distribution product that safely and securely allows your team to send out multiple COIs to multiple locations simultaneously. A process like this will free up your team’s time to focus on activities that can truly grow your business. It will also help differentiate your brokerage from the competition.

Another competitive advantage of using an automated process for distributing COIs is that some providers offer you the ability to allow your customers to print and transmit their own COIs safely and securely.  For example, Certificate Exchange creates custom branded COI portals for each of its customers so that they can give their customers the ability to transmit COIs on their own. These branded portals empower customers to be more effective and self-sufficient as they can print and distribute certificates whenever and wherever they need. That is a valuable tool for any organization needing to have quick access to COIs.

Lastly, in today’s cyber world, there are always concerns about security and authenticity. These concerns might prohibit some companies from taking advantage of these automation technologies and in turn taking advantage of opportunities to differentiate themselves. Certificate Exchange has addressed this concern through the industry’s only Certificate of Insurance distribution patent. Certificate Exchange’s system is able to guarantee the safety, security and authenticity of your COI transmission process giving your management team the unfettered confidence they need to embrace the full value and capabilities of the COI automation process.

So as differentiation in the insurance broker space becomes more difficult, remember to look in an area that you might not have thought about before, like COI distribution. With companies like Certificate Exchange, you have tools available that can not only help you better operate your business, but more importantly, provide an immense amount of value to your customers in ways you never thought possible.  And that is truly differentiating.