Starting an agency in 60 days. I need CRM advise !

[MichaelQ]

I will be opening an IA P&C(residential & commercial), Life & Health by the end of this year, at the beginning it will be myself only, I need advice on a decent CRM, accounting software and maybe a virtual office phone & fax. If you were to start today as a new agent, while trying to keep cost way down. what would you choose.

Yes there are threads about this, but quite old and the information changes often, a little about myself. 2-20 and 2-15 licensed, over 6 years with a captive agent as a producer, 1 year as a CSR. and Finally breaking free, Oh and yes I'm in The Fort Myers, Cape Coral area. (SW Florida). As always I appreciate all honest answers and remember you were in my shoes starting out.

Please Experience IA.. I need your expert advice.

Thank you.

Michael Q.

 

[fearsback]

I will be opening an IA P&C(residential & commercial), Life & Health by the end of this year, at the beginning it will be myself only, I need advice on a decent CRM, accounting software and maybe a virtual office phone & fax. If you were to start today as a new agent, while trying to keep cost way down. what would you choose.

Yes there are threads about this, but quite old and the information changes often, a little about myself. 2-20 and 2-15 licensed, over 6 years with a captive agent as a producer, 1 year as a CSR. and Finally breaking free, Oh and yes I'm in The Fort Myers, Cape Coral area. (SW Florida). As always I appreciate all honest answers and remember you were in my shoes starting out.

Please Experience IA.. I need your expert advice.

Thank you.

Michael Q.

What appointments are you starting your office with. For the rater I use ez lynx for auto and quote rush for home. My management system is TAM but I it is confusing. I was in your exact position a few years ago so if you have any additional questions email me at [email protected]. Good luck

 

[jpickett]

Michael, I am the owner / developer of Impress Leads, and we have a CRM we have been developing. We have been looking for people to try it out. It is free, and has quite a few features. It can be buggy, but we address any problems in a timely manner. I would like for you to check it out to see if it fits your needs, or if you have any suggestions for us. Other great ones that are of course radiusbob (which has a free version), and salesforce.

A cheap virtual phone system is callture. They are 9.99 a month, but they are located outside the US so you will get a 1.25 bank fee or so, but I have had great luck with them in the past, but as as you can tell, they are cheap.

If you have any questions, or would like to talk, just PM me.

 

[Mattie]

Hey Michael,

I don't know if by CRM you were looking for something like Salesforce, but if you need an Agency Management System, one to consider looking at is Newton by Agency Systems. They are pretty reasonably priced and do everything you need to track your clients and policies. We also use Nextiva for our phone system. They are a VOIP company that saved us a ton of money when we switched from our landlines.

Hope I understood your questions and that helped a little bit!

Good luck,

Mattie

 

[bobson]

I will be opening an IA P&C(residential & commercial), Life & Health by the end of this year, at the beginning it will be myself only, I need advice on a decent CRM, accounting software and maybe a virtual office phone & fax. If you were to start today as a new agent, while trying to keep cost way down. what would you choose.

Yes there are threads about this, but quite old and the information changes often, a little about myself. 2-20 and 2-15 licensed, over 6 years with a captive agent as a producer, 1 year as a CSR. and Finally breaking free, Oh and yes I'm in The Fort Myers, Cape Coral area. (SW Florida). As always I appreciate all honest answers and remember you were in my shoes starting out.

Please Experience IA.. I need your expert advice.

Thank you.

Michael Q.

AMS 360 is a great CRM and does all the accounting for an insurance agency, besides payroll. Hire payroll out. AMS360 isn't cheap.

 

[wins4more]

Our agency has used AMS360 for years and I've always found it cumbersome and not intuitive. It does handle a heavy load of work but unless you've got some decent computer skills there is a big learning curve on its functionality. And it is expensive. I've heard there are great alternatives out there but can't speak from experience.

Constant contact is super easy and affordable solution for virtual desk/phone, etc.

Overall, AMS360 isn't an out of the box CRM. But if you've got some skills or a savvy IT guy you can do some decent automation reports for production, retention and so on, client summaries, renewal lists, COI's, etc.

Our agency used Salesforce for CRM. I handled all the interface, data capturing, reporting and implementation. I was 1 of 11 sales guys, a moderately sized firm, and it was sort of overkill, and expensive. Highly customizable but cumbersome and not easily tailored to the agency's vision for relevant data and my desire for ease of use.

Again, I can't recommend an alternative but I know they're out there with some specializing in insurance.

No AMS or CRM is one size fits all. With most offering free trials or free versions I'd test whatever time allows. Everything imports/exports in CSV so if you find something better you can always switch...just like an insurance agent. B

 

[ProntoWA]

I will be opening an IA P&C(residential & commercial), Life & Health by the end of this year, at the beginning it will be myself only, I need advice on a decent CRM, accounting software and maybe a virtual office phone & fax. If you were to start today as a new agent, while trying to keep cost way down. what would you choose. Yes there are threads about this, but quite old and the information changes often, a little about myself. 2-20 and 2-15 licensed, over 6 years with a captive agent as a producer, 1 year as a CSR. and Finally breaking free, Oh and yes I'm in The Fort Myers, Cape Coral area. (SW Florida). As always I appreciate all honest answers and remember you were in my shoes starting out. Please Experience IA.. I need your expert advice. Thank you. Michael Q.

- Michael,

Not sure if still looking, but my advice would be ezlynx for both rater and management system, i just recently switch to ams360, total disappointment! and its not even that it will take time - few month for sure to start using it, but the fact that its not user/agent friendly. I made a mistake going with ams360, after reading reviews and watching presentation of all other systems I guess i just got tired of shopping around, and decided not to be cheap and go with most expensive, with an idea you get what you pay for. Anyways look at ezlynx! Their rater by it self can do more then some management system will have trouble doing. Im not saying it because it cheaper. It just better that ams360

I also looked at hawksoft, agencyadvantage, agency matrix, quomation.

Need more on ams360 PM me,

 

[MichaelQ]

I have not decided on a CRM yet, SugarCrm caught my eye, I will download the free version and try it, I'm also gonna research Ezlynx and maybe one more. Are any of you using any Virtual office Fax and phone kind of like a VOIP? I need a fax line and maybe an extra line that forwards to my cell phone, what are you using for your office? I'm having some difficulty getting some P&C companies to assign me because I don't have an "active" agency with a book of business.

Thanks everyone.

Michael Q.

 

[newindy]

Michael,

For phones I use vocalocity (VoIP) and an internet fax (Efax). The Efax helps a lot with cutting down on paper as we are a paperless agency. I haven't had any real issues with the phone system and it is nice because it has a user friendly interface, which allows you to forward your phones to your cell.... among other things.

 

[Aram Fingal]

For phones I recommend phone.com. It's easy to use, inexpensive, and incredibly flexible and expandable.

If you're having trouble getting appointments, I would recommend contacting your local SIAA rep and talking to them. They should be able to help you get appointments, and even help you complete the paperwork correctly. It's not cheap to work with them though, so it might not fit if you're on a limited budget. But it would sure make your life a lot easier if you could.

I have not decided on a CRM yet, SugarCrm caught my eye, I will download the free version and try it, I'm also gonna research Ezlynx and maybe one more. Are any of you using any Virtual office Fax and phone kind of like a VOIP? I need a fax line and maybe an extra line that forwards to my cell phone, what are you using for your office? I'm having some difficulty getting some P&C companies to assign me because I don't have an "active" agency with a book of business.

Thanks everyone.

Michael Q.