4 Simple Things to Do to Maintain Clean Data at Your Insurance Agency

Best Practices for Maintaining a Clean Book of Business

Last year when my family moved to a new home, we spent the month before closing cleaning through our house trying to get rid of as much stuff as possible to make the move easier and our lives after smoother and more organized. 

The same process can and should be applied to your book of business data, whether you’re switching systems or just looking to do some spring cleaning. 

After all, when you’re more organized, you’re more effective and productive. 

So, what are the best practices for cleaning and organizing your data? I went straight to the experts, our AgencyBloc Data Specialists who help insurance agencies do this every day.

PRO TIP: Before beginning the process, make a copy and save the original file of the data somewhere secure, just in case.

No matter where you are storing your data make sure to take the time to clean it up before exporting or moving it to our templates. 

Here are some great things to look for:

1. Combine Duplicate records
2. Remove Bad Data
3. Look for Inconsistencies
4. Fill in Missing Data

1. Combine Duplicate Records

With multiple people at your agency creating and editing records, duplicates are bound to happen. Be sure to combine these records to ensure all important information is tied to the right individual, group, agent, etc. 

If you ARE considering a switch, look for a system like AgencyBloc that has duplicate detection and merge. With this, as you’re creating new agents, groups, and individuals, AgencyBloc is looking through your book of business for matching data values to help prevent duplicate content.

2. Remove Bad Data

It’s inevitable that as your book of business grows, some data will become outdated or will be no longer useful to you. It’s best practice to regularly clean through your book of business to identify these and remove them.

If you’re someone who’s a little wary of getting rid of data, try this process:

1. Identify records or data that you are no longer using
2. Pull those records out into a separate space (spreadsheet, etc.)
3. If you haven’t thought of or needed those records in 6-12 months, retire them

3. Look for Inconsistencies

Are all of your carrier names, products, types, and statuses uniform? How about the way you enter information on clients and prospects? Does everyone follow the same process to ensure consistent formatting across records?

These are just a few questions to ask yourself as you comb through your data. When you see inconsistencies, it very well could be because someone on your team isn’t aware of the correct way to be gathering and entering information.

Once you correct inconsistencies, put together a guide for your team on how to avoid these and set expectations for following the correct procedures.

4. Fill in Missing Data

This one goes with inconsistencies in how your team is gathering and entering information. When your team is working quickly to follow-up with prospects or service clients, of course there are going to be times where records don’t get filled in completely. 

However, all of this information is crucial to your ongoing relationship with prospects and clients and, thus, missing data should be identified and corrected as quickly as possible.

This is another piece to include in your guide for your team. Make it clear exactly which fields are required to be filled in, which ones are preferred, and which ones aren’t as important. Consult with different teams across your agency because each one will have different information that’s important for them to do their job.

Doing these four things regularly, you’ll be able to ensure your book of business stays clean and organized, meaning your team is always working with accurate, up-to-date information.

To learn more about organizing your book of business, check out: [Guide] Running an Organized, Efficient Insurance Agency: Using an agency management system to improve business operations.

Posted by Kelsey Rosauer on Friday, April 2, 2021 in Insurance Agency Management System

1. data management
2. productivity