Channel > Independent Agents

New technology and software applications for agencies include a host of leading-edge features designed to improve pricing, strengthen relationships and serve customers better. For example, agencies will be able to better identify and target customers with important life events, such as newlyweds or teenagers approaching driving age, in order to sell them appropriate insurance coverage. New household databases will provide agencies with more information about their customers and a broader, more complete view of their lifetime economic value, to better strengthen relationships with their most valuable customers. New underwriting methods and pricing models, together with marketing campaigns designed around them, will enable agencies to target the most potentially profitable consumer segments. All these tools are designed to help agencies better serve and retain more profitable customers, as well as add to their existing book of business.

"I have a lot of business with Wes [my Allstate agent], including several autos, my home, life insurance and my business. I¹m convinced the technology he uses helps him keep track of all my needs in order to serve me better," says Ken Ferdinand [seated], a 15-year customer of Allstate agent Wesley White [standing]. Ferdinand owns four PJ's coffee shops in New Orleans. White runs a large agency with four full-time staff members. "The new computer software technology helps me organize my office better and provides lots of features to continually add more value and strengthen my relationships with customers," he says.

Allstate is making one of the most significant commitments to agency technology in the insurance industry. The company's 15,500-plus agents and tens of thousands of their support staff will be outfitted by the end of 2001 with state-of-the-art desktop hardware and software, designed to help them prospect for new customers and serve existing customers faster and better. Agents' desktops will be fully integrated with the company's new Client Information Centers and the Internet as well as the Allstate claim organization, so every customer transaction is seamlessly and immediately available. Allstate is building the communications infrastructure that's designed to service customers when, where and how they want to be served.