March 19, 2025 • 36 mins
Technology is reshaping insurance placement, but the most powerful solutions don't just automate—they amplify human expertise. This fascinating conversation with Team CRC's ExecPro Broker Brian Benda and Director of Digital Distribution Erin Dyer reveals how CRC’s Quick Quotes platform delivers exactly that balance.
Quick Quotes began as an internal tool refined over five years before being extended to retail partners. What makes it revolutionary isn't just the instant quotes—it's the seamless connection to specialist brokers who remain ready to assist. This hybrid approach means retail agents can handle small accounts efficiently without sacrificing the specialized knowledge that complex placements demand. Combined with features like limit benchmarking reports and side-by-side coverage comparisons, Quick Quotes transforms the entire placement process from submission to proposal.
Currently supporting cyber liability, miscellaneous professional liability, and employment practices liability, the platform lets retail agents choose which markets to approach and offers multiple pathways for data collection based on client preferences. This flexibility acknowledges a fundamental truth: technology should adapt to how people work, not force people to adapt to technology.
Ready to experience a digital solution that enhances rather than replaces expertise? Visit crcqq.com or contact your CRC producer to explore how Quick Quotes can transform your insurance placement workflows while keeping you connected to the specialized knowledge that makes CRC a trusted wholesale partner.
Visit REDYIndex.com for critical pricing analysis and a snapshot of the marketplace.
Do you want to take your career to the next level? Join #TeamCRC to get access to best-in-class tools, data, exclusive programs, and more! Send your resume to resumes@crcgroup.com today!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Scott Gordon (00:00):
Hello and welcome to another episode of the
Placing you First podcast, wherewe explore the latest trends,
tools and innovations in theinsurance industry.
I'm Scott.
Amanda Knight (00:10):
And I'm Amanda, and today we're diving into how
CRC is leveraging technology totransform the insurance
placement process.
Specifically, we're going totalk about our Professional
Lines Ready Quick Quotesplatform and how it's helping
agents and brokers work moreefficiently while still getting
the support they need.
So joining us today in thestudio are Brian Benda,
(00:34):
professional Lines Broker, andErin Dyer, director of our
Digital Distribution for CRC.
This is the Placing you Firstpodcast from CRC Group.
Scott Gordon (00:44):
This podcast features news and insights from
a vast knowledge base of over5,100 associates who write more
than $35 billion in premiumannually.
Amanda Knight (00:53):
Plus, we give you the latest information on
what's happening at CRC.
This is the Placing you Firstpodcast, and now the hosts of
the podcast, amanda Knight andScott Gordon.
Welcome, brian and Aaron,excited to be here, yeah podcast
Amanda Knight and Scott.
Erin Dyer (01:07):
Gordon.
Welcome, Brian and AaronExcited to be here.
Yeah, Thanks.
Scott Gordon (01:09):
Amanda, thanks Scott.
Yeah, thank you both forjoining us today.
So let's start by talking abouthow CRC has found success
leveraging technology.
Aaron, can you give us someinsight into how technology fits
into the flow of business hereat CRC?
Erin Dyer (01:24):
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, technology touches somuch of what we do here at CRC
and serves as a differentiatorfor us in the marketplace.
And when I think about why,that is why there's a team
dedicated to considering how weuse technology today and where
we'll use it in the future.
It comes down to two areas offocus, the first and the most
(01:48):
important being driving betteroutcomes for our retail clients
and their insurance, of course,but also creating a better
employee or associate experiencein terms of how we manage our
day-to-day processes.
So what comes to mind?
There is our Ready platform,which is an application we've
built so that, rather than ourfolks logging into various
(02:12):
systems, some of which morecumbersome than others I think
the word, the nice word we usein the industry is legacy
systems they can do most oftheir day-to-day processes and
business inside of our readyenvironment and, by nature of
having a tool like that, we'realso able to capture a lot of
client data along the way.
(02:34):
Just given the size and scopeof CRC, we can take that client
data and drive real-timeinsights and analytics and hand
that information over to ourretail clients to hopefully
drive better insurance outcomes.
And I actually think onlinequoting falls right squarely in
(02:54):
between those two things.
So we've been in the onlinequoting game for a while now
here at CRC and we support manydigitized lines of business,
everything from personal lines,commercial lines, some property
products and professionalliability, which we'll talk
about largely today in thecontext of QuickQuotes.
(03:14):
So QuickQuotes is our onlineplacement tool that endeavors to
, of course, and maybe mostobviously, deliver speed and
efficiency in how we approachour markets, particularly with
small business placements, butalso helps us go further for our
retail clients and harness thatpower of CRC online.
(03:38):
And when I talk aboutQuickQuotes, for us it's been
largely an internal tool.
So over the last five or soyears we've perfected that
experience and in the last yearor so, some change we've invited
our retail clients to come inand use the tool, and that's
something that should really beappreciated, particularly on the
(03:59):
retail side.
As you're searching for apartner in online placements.
You're searching for a partnerin online placements.
The fact that we have spentmany years of R&D as a broker
building out the system isreally meaningful, but also the
fact that we're there for you onthe glass right that's the term
people in the industry use buton the other side of the
platform so that if the accountisn't the best fit for
(04:21):
self-service for you, or if youhave a question around, you know
a certain insuring agreementthat should or shouldn't be
presented to the client your crcproducer in this case.
We've invited brian to the chattalk about the value he brings
in that scenario, but your crcproducer is there for you on the
other side.
So that's a long-winded way ofsaying yes.
(04:41):
The first thing uh, for usthat's important is speed to
market, but also our expertiseand specialization in the lines
of business we support, and wewant that reflected in the
coverages too.
Just because a quote is onlinedoesn't mean it offered on the
(05:04):
platform comes with an expandedCRC amendatory endorsement or
form agreement, so you can restassured that what you're getting
with us online has the sameexperience as what you might get
if we email those terms to youin a more manual process.
And then, in a world whereyou're on quick quotes and you
(05:24):
receive 10 bindable quotes back,that's a lot of information to
consume.
So we've worked really hard tosimplify the information and
serve up the data points thatare most important to make that
insurance placement decision,and also make the rest of the
information available on requestin the system.
So that's probably the secondmost important area of focus for
(05:47):
us.
And then the third is taking allthat information and putting it
into a client-ready proposal inminutes, seconds, even not
hours.
Creating a side-by-sidecomparison is a lot of work, but
then also getting it into aproposal and presenting the
right information to your clientis really valuable.
(06:07):
And that's where the data andanalytics side of what we talked
about earlier comes into play.
So inside of your quick quotesproposal, not only are we
offering those instant terms andhelping explain what those
terms mean in a side-by-sidefashion, we're also supporting
the presentation of thatinformation in a way that makes
(06:28):
the coverage relevant to theinsured and helps them
understand how they can assigntheir risk to coverage.
So a real example of that is ourlimit benchmarking report.
That is a result of some of ourdata that comes out of Ready
and it's a report that'savailable on every some of our
data that comes out of Ready andit's a report that's available
on every line of business inquick quotes.
That helps an insured, on arelative scale, understand,
(06:53):
based on their industry and size, how much insurance their peers
are purchasing from CRC andwhat that risk landscape looks
like as they consider mosteffectively implementing a risk
management strategy withinsurance, and we'll talk about
this, I'm sure, throughout theconversation today.
But ultimately we're agnostic.
(07:14):
So if a retail agent isn'tdriven to use the platform,
that's okay, but this tool forus internally even to be able to
access and tap into theefficiencies for small business
placements is a really big deal.
So that is a long-winded way ofsaying yes, technology is used
across the board here at CRC,and particularly when it comes
(07:37):
to online quoting, we think wedrive a lot of value to our
internal folks and also ourretail clients.
Amanda Knight (07:42):
So I mean, all of that sounds amazing.
Aaron, of course we may be alittle biased because we are
Team CRC, but Brian, as aproducer, would you mind to sort
of jump in with us and maybetalk a little bit about how it
sort of changes the game for youas a broker?
Brian Benda (07:59):
Absolutely.
The name of the game here is toprovide faster response, better
recommendations for the clientand we're always having to
evaluate what is our valueproposition and to be able to
offer coverage analysis and anaggregated look across the
(08:21):
market.
To be able to provide this lookto our retail agents and to do
that with speed, is a big deal.
Amanda Knight (08:30):
So, aaron, that's sort of a great segue, right?
Brian is a professional linesbroker.
It sounds like you've got hisseal of approval.
Can you walk us through whatlines of business are currently
supported by QuickQuotes and theonline quoting platform, and
maybe what's on the horizon?
Yeah, absolutely currentlysupported by QuickQuotes and the
online quoting platform, andmaybe what's on the horizon.
Erin Dyer (08:47):
Yeah, absolutely so.
The QuickQuotes technologyinternally supports our
producers across numerous linesof business, both in the
professional space as well asproperty.
When we think about when it'stime to hand over a line of
business to our retailers,that's a consideration that
we're making reallyintentionally.
We want to make sure that thatexperience is friendly to a
(09:09):
retail end user and the productis familiar and we have enough
markets so that the user getswhat they're looking for, which
is multiple options.
So with that, in our currentstate today, we offer cyber
liability, miscellaneousprofessional liability and
employment practice liability toour retail clients.
Of course, we're always lookingfor more markets and more
(09:33):
products to bring online.
So I'd plug here if there'ssomething that's of interest to
a retail client, they shouldtell their producer, like Brian,
that they want to see that.
On Quick Quotes and we'realways endeavoring to bring more
options.
(10:00):
Another thing I'll mention interms of our roadmap, one of the
things that sets CRC apart andI carriers are delivering
instant terms on all lines ofbusiness that we support, but
not always the reality in themarket cycles we face.
We're able to notify our retailclients of that result once we
(10:27):
receive it back and also bringit back into the quick quote
system so that once it's backinto the quick quote system, you
can do all those lovely thingswe talked about earlier, such as
generating your proposal,reviewing a limit benchmark
summary, etc.
So for us it's always critical,when we're looking towards a
new carrier to bring online oreven a new product, to make sure
that that flexibility exists,because we realize, as a partner
(10:50):
to our retail clients, we'renot just there to provide
instant terms, but also look atthe complex stuff, and sometimes
that complex stuff has to bemanually reviewed and
underwritten by our carrierpartners.
Amanda Knight (11:01):
Erin with that focus on efficiency, right
access to fantastic tools, butalso the expertise that our
retail partners need and dependon.
How do our self-service quotingoptions actually help retail
agents place more business?
Erin Dyer (11:20):
Yeah, absolutely so.
One of the main advantages ofQuickQuotes is that you don't
have to be a specialist in aline of business provided on the
QuickQuotes platform.
That's why we're there.
So when you are using the tool,if you're in a hurry or it's a
client of a size or industrywhere you're comfortable
accessing those instant terms,absolutely present those to your
(11:43):
client without CRC intervention.
But we've worked really hard tomake it easy for you to refer
any account to your CRC producerso that if you're in the system
and you have a question aroundcoverage or potentially limit
that you should quote yourclient, you can ping Brian and
say hey, brian, come in here andhelp me and Brian will jump in
(12:03):
online and support you there.
So I think that's one of thethings that everyone should look
for when partnering with awholesaler.
You're not on an island.
When you're in the system, youwant your CRC producer to be
there for you, but also thoseefficiencies gained through a
self-service solution at yourfingertips.
Brian Benda (12:22):
Yeah, erin, I'll piggyback on what you're saying
there and full support of thisidea that our agents are not on
islands.
We don't ever want our agentsto be on islands.
If you ask brokers or agentswhat their opinion of portals
are, you're going to get mixedreviews and, frankly, I'm a huge
(12:43):
proponent of portals and thisis ultimately what Ready and
Quick Quotes is providing, bothto our CRC brokers as well as to
our retail agents is theopportunity to come in and to
access the data actionable datawhen you need it, but to also do
(13:04):
so in an environment whereyou're directly connected to a
CRC broker.
I mean, I am a cyber specialist.
That is what I see and do everysingle day, and I use our Ready
Portal all the time, and one ofthe things that I love about it
is that it is giving me accessto multiple carrier partners for
(13:28):
a given risk and it iscomparing this coverage side by
side in a variety of differentways.
And one of the things thatthose of us who do a lot of
cyber know is that when you'relooking and comparing quotes,
one carrier is going to useterms that are going to be
different than the next, andthere's just a lot of complexity
(13:48):
and a lot of confusion betweenthe language and then also in
the limits and the policy forms,and Ready does a really good
job of laying out at a highlevel how these policies compare
to one another.
Of course, we, as CRC brokers,step in to help facilitate those
comparisons as well for ouragents step in to help
(14:11):
facilitate those comparisons aswell for our agents, and we have
access to a number of othertools that enable the placement
process to be easier both forourselves as well as for our
agents.
One of those tools is CyberRite.
We have benchmarking tools aswell, and especially on the
cyber side.
Speaking to that, where myknowledge is, is that helps me
(14:34):
answer the question how muchlimit do I need to buy?
That's a question that an agentgets all the time, and more
often than not, we're relyingupon our past experience.
Well, someone who looks likeyou, we sold them X.
But the analogy that I use, Ithink, to kind of drive home the
(14:57):
importance of analytics thatare available to us through
CyberRite and other tools ofbenchmarking.
And ready is you know?
Our parents always said ifeveryone is jumping off a
building, are you going to jumpoff too?
Ready is you know?
Our parents always said ifeveryone is jumping off a
building, you know are you goingto jump off too, and that you
know.
So if we're just usingsomething purely like
(15:18):
benchmarking, that's one tool,but that's representative of
what everyone else is doing.
So we have access to CyberRite.
Cyberrite is analytics into agiven company.
It's going in and identifyingwhere all the security issues
are.
Also, it's doing calculationsto make a determination as to
(15:38):
what their average expectedfinancial loss is in a given
cyber scenario, cyber incident,and that allows us to then say,
okay, based upon what we knowabout you, based upon what is
out there in the world, the waythat a hacker would look at you,
we're able to use historicalloss data, combined with that,
(15:59):
to determine that an all-in lossfor you, which is ultimately
what we're trying to insureagainst, is going to be X
dollars.
And that begins theconversation of.
This is why we're recommendingthe limit that we are.
So the entire portal providesus the framework for being able
to handle any account, large orsmall.
Erin Dyer (16:21):
And I'll piggyback off of that.
Brian's talking about all theadvantages when you're at the
five yard line, right whenyou're towards the end of your
journey inside of QuickQuotes,reviewing the coverage results
and then building your proposalto tell the story of why your
client should purchase theproposed terms, assigning their
(16:42):
risk and exposure to insurance.
But I also want to talk alittle bit about the front end
and how we designed this tool tostart as a wholesale solution,
but how we're also thinkingabout our retail clients and
insurers in this journey as well.
So one of the awesome thingsthat QuickQuotes does is we
(17:02):
allow our retailers to choosewhich markets they want to
approach across all three of thelines of business we have
active today for self-service.
So that means maybe you haveapproached an admitted market
for CyberDirect and you're nowcoming to Brian for his
expertise and I should say Brianor your CRC producer that you
(17:22):
work with yeah, we have manyhere.
Brian Benda (17:25):
They can always come to me.
Erin Dyer (17:27):
They can always come to me.
So you want that opportunity toonly approach the markets
online that you haven't alreadyapproached in a direct capacity.
So we give all of our retailusers the ability to do that.
We also think about how thetransfer of data can be a little
(17:48):
bit cumbersome and clunky.
Not every retailer has a cyberapplication in their lap when
they're inquired by the clientabout the coverage.
So we've done a couple of thingsto make that a little bit
easier.
One of the things we have iscalled application link.
It's a very fancy name, but theapplication link is something a
(18:10):
retail user can send out totheir insured, to their customer
, to collect the informationthat we need in the QuickQuotes
environment to complete thesubmission.
Now the insured isn't going tobe presented with terms.
We don't take that control awayfrom our users.
It's simply just a link thatyou can send to the client that
ensures all the information asthey complete it is available to
(18:32):
you inside of QuickQuotesinstantly.
So it removes that requirementof duplicative data entry right,
taking data out of an email,putting it into the platform.
Application Link does that foryou and then you know, not every
insured is very savvy withtechnology and we totally get
that, so we've also built asolution called Application
(18:58):
Reader Another fancy name.
The names define exactly whatthey do in quick quotes.
And yeah, what ApplicationReader does is it allows a user
to send our CRC ready cyberapplication to an insured to
fill out.
So that's a PDF app and theinsured can use pen.
They can type in theinformation and send it back to
their retail contact.
(19:18):
From there we give the retailertwo options.
So they can come intoQuickQuotes, drop that
application in the QuickQuotestool and we're going to extract
all the data from that PDF appand pre-fill it in the Quick
Quotes tool and we're going toextract all the data from that
PDF app and pre-fill it in theQuick Quotes submission.
So what we're trying to do thereis remove the burden of looking
at a PDF on one screen andtyping in the Quick Quotes tool.
(19:42):
Yes, it totally is, and werecognize that.
So we want to make thatavailable to our retail clients.
We also recognize digital, andinstant terms is not what
everyone is looking for in awholesale partner.
So if you have that PDFapplication, you can always just
email it to us.
There's no requirement to usethe QuickQuotes platform and I
(20:05):
think that's an important pointto make.
At CRC, we're agnostic to howour clients want to engage with
us.
We think this tool has a lot ofadvantages and provides the
speed and expertise you get withCRC in an online setting, but,
of course, is not the only pathwith us.
But I think those are tworeally good examples of where we
(20:25):
are looking to remove thebarriers that sometimes surround
online quoting, so that ourusers can be effective with
their time and also communicatewith their CRC brokers, can be
effective with their time andalso communicate with their CRC
brokers so that, in turn, ourbrokers can be effective If,
let's say, you send a PDF appversus use the tool yourself.
Brian Benda (20:44):
I'll add to what Aaron just said there.
And you know, one of the largestroadblocks that I think I see
on a day-to-day basis withportals and I mentioned earlier
that if you ask enough people,you're going to get a difference
in opinion on portals the onecommon complaint you get on
(21:06):
portals is that there's a lot ofclicks, it's time-consuming.
They rather would just send itto someone, check it off the
list and keep going.
And so the positives, obviously,of a portal are that you have
direct, immediate access to theability to quote or to receive
(21:27):
an indication, and theapplication reader technology is
not something that I've seenwith any other portal that I
have access to, whether it's adirect carrier or some other
kind of third-party aggregator.
I've never seen it before and Iknow with the growth of AI, this
(21:49):
is what is enabling us to beable to do this.
But to me that's a game changerfor the agent to be able to say
okay, for us to be able to sayto them not only do you have
access to a portal to be able toreceive quotes or indications
when you need them're going totake what could be 20 clicks
down to two, and we're going tostreamline that process as much
(22:21):
as possible, and I mean againour goal here is to make this a
resource that makes our agentsmore efficient, because that's
how we use it internally is tomake ourselves, as brokers, do
our job more efficiently andmore effectively.
Ourselves, as brokers, do ourjob more efficiently and more
effectively, and so I'm reallyexcited about that feature that
(22:42):
Erin and her team are working on.
Erin Dyer (22:44):
Yeah, I think with AI in particular.
There's a lot of buzz in theindustry around what AI can do.
I mean you even hear about likeAI powered insurance agents.
Right, and for us, what'sreally important with the
technology is considering placeswhere we can apply practical
use case with AI that augmentsrepeatable processes, and taking
(23:10):
data off of a PDF applicationgetting it into the quick quote
system is a really great exampleof where we can do that
effectively.
So we're thrilled about theintroduction of this tool and we
hope our agents use it.
Our internal producers alreadyhave and we're really excited
about the feedback and where wecan go with it from here.
Scott Gordon (23:31):
Yeah, it sounds like a lot of thought has gone
into ease of use and just allthe angles that can be applied
to this thing.
Brian, what kind of feedbackhave you been hearing from
retail agents about the platform?
Positive, I assume.
Brian Benda (23:45):
Yeah, I mean, look, those who are willing to use it
are the ones who generally havea positive outlook on portals,
and I do think that they foundtheir experience to be positive
for a variety of reasons foreasy use, for one, but also just
for the fact that, whetherwe're talking about cyber, we're
(24:07):
talking about NPL or we'retalking about any other type of
line that will eventually bemade available through the Ready
platform, they're able to gainaccess to multiple markets in a
few clicks, and I used to workon the retail side, and the
process of marketing is muchmore laborious than that.
(24:28):
It's sending emails to everysingle contact that you have and
tracking each one individually,and so having all the
information aggregated in oneplace, having it be
user-friendly, is great.
And then again, not to overlookthe best feature of it, and
that is that you're not alone onthe platform, that, through a
(24:51):
few clicks, you're stillconnected to your CRC broker,
who you're utilizing for theirspecialist knowledge, and that
they're there assisting youthrough the entire placement
process, from beginning to end,even if it's you're the one
who's putting the data in andgetting the ball rolling,
because that's what works withyour timeline.
Erin Dyer (25:11):
Those are great points, brian, when I talk to
retail agents who are using thetool, even if you just consider
one small element.
So inside of the proposal,let's say you're creating a
cyber proposal and you've gotfive markets you want to present
to the client, even just theYBI proposal, where our practice
group leadership has puttogether a couple of statements
(25:32):
to help the insured understand,against the threat landscape
they're facing today and thecoverage we offer, why this
insurance is relevant to them.
I mean, think about how manyhours that alone takes for a
retail client to createthemselves if they don't have
something like that accessiblein their firm.
That small example, I think,speaks to the time savings plus
(25:54):
the insurance expertise thatyou're able to leverage through
the QuickQuotes platform in aself-service capacity.
And, like I mentioned earlier,technology is not everyone's
thing, but I think as the worldevolves and folks do get more
accustomed to the ability to dothings on their own instantly
online, we really like that.
(26:15):
That's an option too for thosewho want it own instantly online
.
Brian Benda (26:18):
We really like that .
That's an option too for thosewho want it.
Yeah, look, I know on theretail side it's not too
dissimilar from what we see, andthat is it seems like volume is
becoming more and more of anissue on a daily basis.
As we're doing good things atCRC, as our retailers are having
successes with their clients,they're seeing more
opportunities, and they want to,and need to, be able to, put
(26:43):
the appropriate amount of timeand focus into each individual
account, whether it is theirbiggest account or whether it's
their smallest account, andthere just aren't enough hours
in the day to do things the waythat they've always been done
and to do that, and so either wehave to turn away business or
we have to hand them off tosomeone else who may or may not
(27:06):
be directly associated with thatagent or ourselves, and you
don't always know the type ofservice you're going to get.
We always want to try to handlethat and our agents want to
handle that themselves.
To get we always want to try tohandle that and our agents want
to handle that themselves.
And so, utilizing technology,utilizing this portal,
developing the portal, the waythat we have to utilize the
(27:27):
efficiencies that come withtechnology and, as the industry
of artificial intelligence kindof takes hold as well, utilizing
that to the advantage ofefficiencies for our agents and
for our brokers.
That's enabling us to do more,to be more effective and to
provide better service to ourclients, and at the end of the
day, that's what it's all about.
Amanda Knight (27:49):
Erin and Brian, if I'm a retail agent and I'm
ready to start using theQuickQuotes platform, what is my
first step?
How do I get there Using theQuickQuotes platform.
Erin Dyer (27:58):
What is my first step ?
How do I get there?
Okay, so your first step is tohead to crcqqcom and we offer
the ability for agents to signup online instantly with their
CRC producer, which is importantto call out.
So you have to have a CRCproducer contact to partner with
on the submissions you sendthrough the QuickQuotes portal.
(28:19):
If you go to the QuickQuoteswebsite to sign up and you are
not registered as an agent withCRC, we will work with you
offline to discuss appointmentoptions and then we'll take it
from there.
And I would add a second stepwhen you think about your
brokerage and how you plan touse this tool, I think going in
(28:39):
with a game plan is reallyhelpful, so you can think about
quick quotes as an opportunityto attach cyber to your small
commercial book.
You have accounts within certainindustry segments or under a
certain revenue or premiumthreshold.
This tool allows you to do thateffectively.
Maybe it's a remarketingstrategy, where you have clients
(29:00):
who've purchased a endorsementand we want to move them to a
full policy and, with that, alsopartner with CRC for all the
great things our producersdeliver as well.
So certainly sign up, but alsoconsider how we can support you
and your agency goals with thistechnology and come to us with
those ideas.
So we're available.
(29:21):
Obviously, your producers arealways available to talk, but
our digital team also can jointhose conversations to better
articulate how this technologycan specifically meet your
agency needs, because while wetalked about a lot today, we
didn't quite get to everythingthe tool can do.
So we'd be happy to have aone-on-one conversation as well.
Brian Benda (29:40):
Yeah, to that last point that Aaron just made there
.
While they can go directly tocrcqqcom to register for the
platform, me as a broker I wantall of my agents to reach out to
me and let me know that that'sof interest to them.
I mean we're going to be.
You know, we have proactivelylet our agents know that this is
a resource that's available tothem.
(30:01):
But sometimes when you sendthat out they're not quite ready
to hop on.
It's just not the right time,right place.
They've got other things goingon and.
But I always want my agents toreach out.
Where they're a partner withthem, I want them to share that
interest with me.
We're a partner with them.
I want them to share thatinterest with me.
And if I don't, as a broker,know how to direct them, I know
(30:25):
I can get in touch with Aaronand Aaron's going to give me the
CRCQQcom website and we'llproperly direct them that way.
Scott Gordon (30:31):
Yeah, and I don't know whether our viewers at home
could hear it, but earlier inthe podcast, when Aaron said and
you can ping Brian any time, heactually got pinged while we
were on the air.
Guys, it's true, it's not a lie, it's a real thing.
Well, this was great.
Do you guys have anything elseto add before we get into the
fun part of our show?
Not that this wasn't fun.
Erin Dyer (30:51):
Let it rip, let's do it.
Scott Gordon (30:52):
Okay.
Well, we have a little thingthat we do at the end here that
Amanda and I like to call rapidfire, and it's just whatever
comes first to your head.
There's no wrong, there's noright, and here we go.
Our first question in rapidfire today is what item is worth
spending money on?
You'll splurge on this.
You'll get the name brand nocheapies, no generics.
Brian Benda (31:15):
You have to have it .
This is not rapid fire.
Scott Gordon (31:21):
There's way too many things to respond to here.
Brian Benda (31:26):
Brian's a man who enjoys the finer things in life.
Ladies and gentlemen, let's see, I love to travel, my wife and
I love to travel, and when wetravel, I like to travel in
style.
That doesn't mean that I'malways paying top dollar for
something, but I do want thebest experience.
So I'm all about, just likeyour typical broker, finding the
best coverage at the best price.
(31:47):
I want the best experience atthe best price, right, but I'm
willing to spend it for theexperience.
Amanda Knight (31:53):
Okay.
Brian Benda (31:53):
Absolutely.
Amanda Knight (31:55):
Experiences over stuff I can get behind.
That Sure For sure.
Erin Dyer (31:57):
Aaronaron, what about you?
This might be unexpected, butquality, quality tennis shoes
often.
So I'm always buying, yes, newexercise shoes, it's fun to have
fresh fly kicks, but also, Ithink, practically from a
support standpoint, it'simportant to buy new shoes every
, you know, four to six months.
Amanda Knight (32:19):
So I agree with that.
Yeah, I would also say like,like you protect your feet,
right, I agree with that.
But also, hand in hand withthat, aaron, your mattress, like
don't.
Scott Gordon (32:31):
I was gonna say the same thing.
Amanda Knight (32:33):
Your sleep's important.
Good shoes, good mattress.
Brian Benda (32:36):
I just got back from vacation and we slept on an
amazing mattress, and so Ifully support that as well.
Scott Gordon (32:42):
I had the world's best mattress salesman tell me
something that I never haveforgotten.
He said you don't want a cheaphot on a mattress.
You spend one third of yourlife on a mattress and I went oh
, yeah, yeah.
So when he put it that way, itdoes make total sense.
All right, our next questionYou're both very tech savvy, but
(33:03):
outside of work and ready.
What is your favorite app,piece of tech or something like
that that you'd like to give a?
Brian Benda (33:12):
shout out to.
I've been an Apple nerd for along time, so really anything
Apple.
I love the fact of how easyeverything connects in the Apple
environment, because I'm kindof seen as the go-to tech guy
(33:32):
for anybody who knows me, so thefather-in-law, the
mother-in-law, my dad they allcall me, and so if I just say,
hey look, just get the Appledevices.
It's very, it's very.
You know, they're plug and play, easy to use.
I love that, so that's mine.
Erin Dyer (33:47):
I think, as the the quick quotes gal on the podcast,
I should be honest and share myfavorite comparative Raider
outside of insurance.
So I love Zillow.
I spend a lot of my free timeon Zillow.
I'm trying to do less socialmedia these days and I think
Zillow is a fair compromise andit's fun.
(34:07):
I'll go to any city in the USat night after dinner and just
explore real estate.
So maybe a little embarrassing,but Zillow.
Amanda Knight (34:15):
No, I think there's actually now a reality
show about this.
I can't remember the name, butI swear, I saw a commercial for
it.
Scott Gordon (34:22):
And it's hosted by somebody like Jack.
Mcbrayer.
Amanda Knight (34:27):
Yeah, I think you're right.
Scott Gordon (34:28):
Is it him yeah?
Amanda Knight (34:29):
I think so.
Scott Gordon (34:30):
From 30 Rock, I think.
And it's called like ZillowGone Wild or something.
Yeah, something like that.
Amanda Knight (34:35):
So, erin when you're Zillow gone wild or
something, yeah, something likethat.
So, aaron, when you're you knowZillowing, you can watch the
Zillow show in the background.
Give it a shot, what?
Erin Dyer (34:40):
most of my Friday nights look like so you got it.
Amanda Knight (34:45):
Well, brian and Aaron, thank you so much for
joining us today and sharing howReady, quick Quotes is
transforming our placementprocess here at CRC.
We appreciate you coming on.
Scott Gordon (34:55):
Thanks for your time.
Amanda Knight (34:56):
Thanks y'all.
Scott Gordon (34:58):
Yeah, and thanks to all of our listeners for
tuning in to Placing you First.
If you're ready to exploreready quick quotes or learn more
, you can reach out to your CRCproducer, Brian included.
Providing current insights intothe marketplace is just one
more way that CRC Group isplacing you first.
We'll see you next time.
Hello and welcome to another episode of the
Placing you First podcast, wherewe explore the latest trends,
tools and innovations in theinsurance industry.
I'm Scott.
Amanda Knight (00:10):
And I'm Amanda, and today we're diving into how
CRC is leveraging technology totransform the insurance
placement process.
Specifically, we're going totalk about our Professional
Lines Ready Quick Quotesplatform and how it's helping
agents and brokers work moreefficiently while still getting
the support they need.
So joining us today in thestudio are Brian Benda,
(00:34):
professional Lines Broker, andErin Dyer, director of our
Digital Distribution for CRC.
This is the Placing you Firstpodcast from CRC Group.
Scott Gordon (00:44):
This podcast features news and insights from
a vast knowledge base of over5,100 associates who write more
than $35 billion in premiumannually.
Amanda Knight (00:53):
Plus, we give you the latest information on
what's happening at CRC.
This is the Placing you Firstpodcast, and now the hosts of
the podcast, amanda Knight andScott Gordon.
Welcome, brian and Aaron,excited to be here, yeah podcast
Amanda Knight and Scott.
Erin Dyer (01:07):
Gordon.
Welcome, Brian and AaronExcited to be here.
Yeah, Thanks.
Scott Gordon (01:09):
Amanda, thanks Scott.
Yeah, thank you both forjoining us today.
So let's start by talking abouthow CRC has found success
leveraging technology.
Aaron, can you give us someinsight into how technology fits
into the flow of business hereat CRC?
Erin Dyer (01:24):
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, technology touches somuch of what we do here at CRC
and serves as a differentiatorfor us in the marketplace.
And when I think about why,that is why there's a team
dedicated to considering how weuse technology today and where
we'll use it in the future.
It comes down to two areas offocus, the first and the most
(01:48):
important being driving betteroutcomes for our retail clients
and their insurance, of course,but also creating a better
employee or associate experiencein terms of how we manage our
day-to-day processes.
So what comes to mind?
There is our Ready platform,which is an application we've
built so that, rather than ourfolks logging into various
(02:12):
systems, some of which morecumbersome than others I think
the word, the nice word we usein the industry is legacy
systems they can do most oftheir day-to-day processes and
business inside of our readyenvironment and, by nature of
having a tool like that, we'realso able to capture a lot of
client data along the way.
(02:34):
Just given the size and scopeof CRC, we can take that client
data and drive real-timeinsights and analytics and hand
that information over to ourretail clients to hopefully
drive better insurance outcomes.
And I actually think onlinequoting falls right squarely in
(02:54):
between those two things.
So we've been in the onlinequoting game for a while now
here at CRC and we support manydigitized lines of business,
everything from personal lines,commercial lines, some property
products and professionalliability, which we'll talk
about largely today in thecontext of QuickQuotes.
(03:14):
So QuickQuotes is our onlineplacement tool that endeavors to
, of course, and maybe mostobviously, deliver speed and
efficiency in how we approachour markets, particularly with
small business placements, butalso helps us go further for our
retail clients and harness thatpower of CRC online.
(03:38):
And when I talk aboutQuickQuotes, for us it's been
largely an internal tool.
So over the last five or soyears we've perfected that
experience and in the last yearor so, some change we've invited
our retail clients to come inand use the tool, and that's
something that should really beappreciated, particularly on the
(03:59):
retail side.
As you're searching for apartner in online placements.
You're searching for a partnerin online placements.
The fact that we have spentmany years of R&D as a broker
building out the system isreally meaningful, but also the
fact that we're there for you onthe glass right that's the term
people in the industry use buton the other side of the
platform so that if the accountisn't the best fit for
(04:21):
self-service for you, or if youhave a question around, you know
a certain insuring agreementthat should or shouldn't be
presented to the client your crcproducer in this case.
We've invited brian to the chattalk about the value he brings
in that scenario, but your crcproducer is there for you on the
other side.
So that's a long-winded way ofsaying yes.
(04:41):
The first thing uh, for usthat's important is speed to
market, but also our expertiseand specialization in the lines
of business we support, and wewant that reflected in the
coverages too.
Just because a quote is onlinedoesn't mean it offered on the
(05:04):
platform comes with an expandedCRC amendatory endorsement or
form agreement, so you can restassured that what you're getting
with us online has the sameexperience as what you might get
if we email those terms to youin a more manual process.
And then, in a world whereyou're on quick quotes and you
(05:24):
receive 10 bindable quotes back,that's a lot of information to
consume.
So we've worked really hard tosimplify the information and
serve up the data points thatare most important to make that
insurance placement decision,and also make the rest of the
information available on requestin the system.
So that's probably the secondmost important area of focus for
(05:47):
us.
And then the third is taking allthat information and putting it
into a client-ready proposal inminutes, seconds, even not
hours.
Creating a side-by-sidecomparison is a lot of work, but
then also getting it into aproposal and presenting the
right information to your clientis really valuable.
(06:07):
And that's where the data andanalytics side of what we talked
about earlier comes into play.
So inside of your quick quotesproposal, not only are we
offering those instant terms andhelping explain what those
terms mean in a side-by-sidefashion, we're also supporting
the presentation of thatinformation in a way that makes
(06:28):
the coverage relevant to theinsured and helps them
understand how they can assigntheir risk to coverage.
So a real example of that is ourlimit benchmarking report.
That is a result of some of ourdata that comes out of Ready
and it's a report that'savailable on every some of our
data that comes out of Ready andit's a report that's available
on every line of business inquick quotes.
That helps an insured, on arelative scale, understand,
(06:53):
based on their industry and size, how much insurance their peers
are purchasing from CRC andwhat that risk landscape looks
like as they consider mosteffectively implementing a risk
management strategy withinsurance, and we'll talk about
this, I'm sure, throughout theconversation today.
But ultimately we're agnostic.
(07:14):
So if a retail agent isn'tdriven to use the platform,
that's okay, but this tool forus internally even to be able to
access and tap into theefficiencies for small business
placements is a really big deal.
So that is a long-winded way ofsaying yes, technology is used
across the board here at CRC,and particularly when it comes
(07:37):
to online quoting, we think wedrive a lot of value to our
internal folks and also ourretail clients.
Amanda Knight (07:42):
So I mean, all of that sounds amazing.
Aaron, of course we may be alittle biased because we are
Team CRC, but Brian, as aproducer, would you mind to sort
of jump in with us and maybetalk a little bit about how it
sort of changes the game for youas a broker?
Brian Benda (07:59):
Absolutely.
The name of the game here is toprovide faster response, better
recommendations for the clientand we're always having to
evaluate what is our valueproposition and to be able to
offer coverage analysis and anaggregated look across the
(08:21):
market.
To be able to provide this lookto our retail agents and to do
that with speed, is a big deal.
Amanda Knight (08:30):
So, aaron, that's sort of a great segue, right?
Brian is a professional linesbroker.
It sounds like you've got hisseal of approval.
Can you walk us through whatlines of business are currently
supported by QuickQuotes and theonline quoting platform, and
maybe what's on the horizon?
Yeah, absolutely currentlysupported by QuickQuotes and the
online quoting platform, andmaybe what's on the horizon.
Erin Dyer (08:47):
Yeah, absolutely so.
The QuickQuotes technologyinternally supports our
producers across numerous linesof business, both in the
professional space as well asproperty.
When we think about when it'stime to hand over a line of
business to our retailers,that's a consideration that
we're making reallyintentionally.
We want to make sure that thatexperience is friendly to a
(09:09):
retail end user and the productis familiar and we have enough
markets so that the user getswhat they're looking for, which
is multiple options.
So with that, in our currentstate today, we offer cyber
liability, miscellaneousprofessional liability and
employment practice liability toour retail clients.
Of course, we're always lookingfor more markets and more
(09:33):
products to bring online.
So I'd plug here if there'ssomething that's of interest to
a retail client, they shouldtell their producer, like Brian,
that they want to see that.
On Quick Quotes and we'realways endeavoring to bring more
options.
(10:00):
Another thing I'll mention interms of our roadmap, one of the
things that sets CRC apart andI carriers are delivering
instant terms on all lines ofbusiness that we support, but
not always the reality in themarket cycles we face.
We're able to notify our retailclients of that result once we
(10:27):
receive it back and also bringit back into the quick quote
system so that once it's backinto the quick quote system, you
can do all those lovely thingswe talked about earlier, such as
generating your proposal,reviewing a limit benchmark
summary, etc.
So for us it's always critical,when we're looking towards a
new carrier to bring online oreven a new product, to make sure
that that flexibility exists,because we realize, as a partner
(10:50):
to our retail clients, we'renot just there to provide
instant terms, but also look atthe complex stuff, and sometimes
that complex stuff has to bemanually reviewed and
underwritten by our carrierpartners.
Amanda Knight (11:01):
Erin with that focus on efficiency, right
access to fantastic tools, butalso the expertise that our
retail partners need and dependon.
How do our self-service quotingoptions actually help retail
agents place more business?
Erin Dyer (11:20):
Yeah, absolutely so.
One of the main advantages ofQuickQuotes is that you don't
have to be a specialist in aline of business provided on the
QuickQuotes platform.
That's why we're there.
So when you are using the tool,if you're in a hurry or it's a
client of a size or industrywhere you're comfortable
accessing those instant terms,absolutely present those to your
(11:43):
client without CRC intervention.
But we've worked really hard tomake it easy for you to refer
any account to your CRC producerso that if you're in the system
and you have a question aroundcoverage or potentially limit
that you should quote yourclient, you can ping Brian and
say hey, brian, come in here andhelp me and Brian will jump in
(12:03):
online and support you there.
So I think that's one of thethings that everyone should look
for when partnering with awholesaler.
You're not on an island.
When you're in the system, youwant your CRC producer to be
there for you, but also thoseefficiencies gained through a
self-service solution at yourfingertips.
Brian Benda (12:22):
Yeah, erin, I'll piggyback on what you're saying
there and full support of thisidea that our agents are not on
islands.
We don't ever want our agentsto be on islands.
If you ask brokers or agentswhat their opinion of portals
are, you're going to get mixedreviews and, frankly, I'm a huge
(12:43):
proponent of portals and thisis ultimately what Ready and
Quick Quotes is providing, bothto our CRC brokers as well as to
our retail agents is theopportunity to come in and to
access the data actionable datawhen you need it, but to also do
(13:04):
so in an environment whereyou're directly connected to a
CRC broker.
I mean, I am a cyber specialist.
That is what I see and do everysingle day, and I use our Ready
Portal all the time, and one ofthe things that I love about it
is that it is giving me accessto multiple carrier partners for
(13:28):
a given risk and it iscomparing this coverage side by
side in a variety of differentways.
And one of the things thatthose of us who do a lot of
cyber know is that when you'relooking and comparing quotes,
one carrier is going to useterms that are going to be
different than the next, andthere's just a lot of complexity
(13:48):
and a lot of confusion betweenthe language and then also in
the limits and the policy forms,and Ready does a really good
job of laying out at a highlevel how these policies compare
to one another.
Of course, we, as CRC brokers,step in to help facilitate those
comparisons as well for ouragents step in to help
(14:11):
facilitate those comparisons aswell for our agents, and we have
access to a number of othertools that enable the placement
process to be easier both forourselves as well as for our
agents.
One of those tools is CyberRite.
We have benchmarking tools aswell, and especially on the
cyber side.
Speaking to that, where myknowledge is, is that helps me
(14:34):
answer the question how muchlimit do I need to buy?
That's a question that an agentgets all the time, and more
often than not, we're relyingupon our past experience.
Well, someone who looks likeyou, we sold them X.
But the analogy that I use, Ithink, to kind of drive home the
(14:57):
importance of analytics thatare available to us through
CyberRite and other tools ofbenchmarking.
And ready is you know?
Our parents always said ifeveryone is jumping off a
building, are you going to jumpoff too?
Ready is you know?
Our parents always said ifeveryone is jumping off a
building, you know are you goingto jump off too, and that you
know.
So if we're just usingsomething purely like
(15:18):
benchmarking, that's one tool,but that's representative of
what everyone else is doing.
So we have access to CyberRite.
Cyberrite is analytics into agiven company.
It's going in and identifyingwhere all the security issues
are.
Also, it's doing calculationsto make a determination as to
(15:38):
what their average expectedfinancial loss is in a given
cyber scenario, cyber incident,and that allows us to then say,
okay, based upon what we knowabout you, based upon what is
out there in the world, the waythat a hacker would look at you,
we're able to use historicalloss data, combined with that,
(15:59):
to determine that an all-in lossfor you, which is ultimately
what we're trying to insureagainst, is going to be X
dollars.
And that begins theconversation of.
This is why we're recommendingthe limit that we are.
So the entire portal providesus the framework for being able
to handle any account, large orsmall.
Erin Dyer (16:21):
And I'll piggyback off of that.
Brian's talking about all theadvantages when you're at the
five yard line, right whenyou're towards the end of your
journey inside of QuickQuotes,reviewing the coverage results
and then building your proposalto tell the story of why your
client should purchase theproposed terms, assigning their
(16:42):
risk and exposure to insurance.
But I also want to talk alittle bit about the front end
and how we designed this tool tostart as a wholesale solution,
but how we're also thinkingabout our retail clients and
insurers in this journey as well.
So one of the awesome thingsthat QuickQuotes does is we
(17:02):
allow our retailers to choosewhich markets they want to
approach across all three of thelines of business we have
active today for self-service.
So that means maybe you haveapproached an admitted market
for CyberDirect and you're nowcoming to Brian for his
expertise and I should say Brianor your CRC producer that you
(17:22):
work with yeah, we have manyhere.
Brian Benda (17:25):
They can always come to me.
Erin Dyer (17:27):
They can always come to me.
So you want that opportunity toonly approach the markets
online that you haven't alreadyapproached in a direct capacity.
So we give all of our retailusers the ability to do that.
We also think about how thetransfer of data can be a little
(17:48):
bit cumbersome and clunky.
Not every retailer has a cyberapplication in their lap when
they're inquired by the clientabout the coverage.
So we've done a couple of thingsto make that a little bit
easier.
One of the things we have iscalled application link.
It's a very fancy name, but theapplication link is something a
(18:10):
retail user can send out totheir insured, to their customer
, to collect the informationthat we need in the QuickQuotes
environment to complete thesubmission.
Now the insured isn't going tobe presented with terms.
We don't take that control awayfrom our users.
It's simply just a link thatyou can send to the client that
ensures all the information asthey complete it is available to
(18:32):
you inside of QuickQuotesinstantly.
So it removes that requirementof duplicative data entry right,
taking data out of an email,putting it into the platform.
Application Link does that foryou and then you know, not every
insured is very savvy withtechnology and we totally get
that, so we've also built asolution called Application
(18:58):
Reader Another fancy name.
The names define exactly whatthey do in quick quotes.
And yeah, what ApplicationReader does is it allows a user
to send our CRC ready cyberapplication to an insured to
fill out.
So that's a PDF app and theinsured can use pen.
They can type in theinformation and send it back to
their retail contact.
(19:18):
From there we give the retailertwo options.
So they can come intoQuickQuotes, drop that
application in the QuickQuotestool and we're going to extract
all the data from that PDF appand pre-fill it in the Quick
Quotes tool and we're going toextract all the data from that
PDF app and pre-fill it in theQuick Quotes submission.
So what we're trying to do thereis remove the burden of looking
at a PDF on one screen andtyping in the Quick Quotes tool.
(19:42):
Yes, it totally is, and werecognize that.
So we want to make thatavailable to our retail clients.
We also recognize digital, andinstant terms is not what
everyone is looking for in awholesale partner.
So if you have that PDFapplication, you can always just
email it to us.
There's no requirement to usethe QuickQuotes platform and I
(20:05):
think that's an important pointto make.
At CRC, we're agnostic to howour clients want to engage with
us.
We think this tool has a lot ofadvantages and provides the
speed and expertise you get withCRC in an online setting, but,
of course, is not the only pathwith us.
But I think those are tworeally good examples of where we
(20:25):
are looking to remove thebarriers that sometimes surround
online quoting, so that ourusers can be effective with
their time and also communicatewith their CRC brokers, can be
effective with their time andalso communicate with their CRC
brokers so that, in turn, ourbrokers can be effective If,
let's say, you send a PDF appversus use the tool yourself.
Brian Benda (20:44):
I'll add to what Aaron just said there.
And you know, one of the largestroadblocks that I think I see
on a day-to-day basis withportals and I mentioned earlier
that if you ask enough people,you're going to get a difference
in opinion on portals the onecommon complaint you get on
(21:06):
portals is that there's a lot ofclicks, it's time-consuming.
They rather would just send itto someone, check it off the
list and keep going.
And so the positives, obviously,of a portal are that you have
direct, immediate access to theability to quote or to receive
(21:27):
an indication, and theapplication reader technology is
not something that I've seenwith any other portal that I
have access to, whether it's adirect carrier or some other
kind of third-party aggregator.
I've never seen it before and Iknow with the growth of AI, this
(21:49):
is what is enabling us to beable to do this.
But to me that's a game changerfor the agent to be able to say
okay, for us to be able to sayto them not only do you have
access to a portal to be able toreceive quotes or indications
when you need them're going totake what could be 20 clicks
down to two, and we're going tostreamline that process as much
(22:21):
as possible, and I mean againour goal here is to make this a
resource that makes our agentsmore efficient, because that's
how we use it internally is tomake ourselves, as brokers, do
our job more efficiently andmore effectively.
Ourselves, as brokers, do ourjob more efficiently and more
effectively, and so I'm reallyexcited about that feature that
(22:42):
Erin and her team are working on.
Erin Dyer (22:44):
Yeah, I think with AI in particular.
There's a lot of buzz in theindustry around what AI can do.
I mean you even hear about likeAI powered insurance agents.
Right, and for us, what'sreally important with the
technology is considering placeswhere we can apply practical
use case with AI that augmentsrepeatable processes, and taking
(23:10):
data off of a PDF applicationgetting it into the quick quote
system is a really great exampleof where we can do that
effectively.
So we're thrilled about theintroduction of this tool and we
hope our agents use it.
Our internal producers alreadyhave and we're really excited
about the feedback and where wecan go with it from here.
Scott Gordon (23:31):
Yeah, it sounds like a lot of thought has gone
into ease of use and just allthe angles that can be applied
to this thing.
Brian, what kind of feedbackhave you been hearing from
retail agents about the platform?
Positive, I assume.
Brian Benda (23:45):
Yeah, I mean, look, those who are willing to use it
are the ones who generally havea positive outlook on portals,
and I do think that they foundtheir experience to be positive
for a variety of reasons foreasy use, for one, but also just
for the fact that, whetherwe're talking about cyber, we're
(24:07):
talking about NPL or we'retalking about any other type of
line that will eventually bemade available through the Ready
platform, they're able to gainaccess to multiple markets in a
few clicks, and I used to workon the retail side, and the
process of marketing is muchmore laborious than that.
(24:28):
It's sending emails to everysingle contact that you have and
tracking each one individually,and so having all the
information aggregated in oneplace, having it be
user-friendly, is great.
And then again, not to overlookthe best feature of it, and
that is that you're not alone onthe platform, that, through a
(24:51):
few clicks, you're stillconnected to your CRC broker,
who you're utilizing for theirspecialist knowledge, and that
they're there assisting youthrough the entire placement
process, from beginning to end,even if it's you're the one
who's putting the data in andgetting the ball rolling,
because that's what works withyour timeline.
Erin Dyer (25:11):
Those are great points, brian, when I talk to
retail agents who are using thetool, even if you just consider
one small element.
So inside of the proposal,let's say you're creating a
cyber proposal and you've gotfive markets you want to present
to the client, even just theYBI proposal, where our practice
group leadership has puttogether a couple of statements
(25:32):
to help the insured understand,against the threat landscape
they're facing today and thecoverage we offer, why this
insurance is relevant to them.
I mean, think about how manyhours that alone takes for a
retail client to createthemselves if they don't have
something like that accessiblein their firm.
That small example, I think,speaks to the time savings plus
(25:54):
the insurance expertise thatyou're able to leverage through
the QuickQuotes platform in aself-service capacity.
And, like I mentioned earlier,technology is not everyone's
thing, but I think as the worldevolves and folks do get more
accustomed to the ability to dothings on their own instantly
online, we really like that.
(26:15):
That's an option too for thosewho want it own instantly online
.
Brian Benda (26:18):
We really like that .
That's an option too for thosewho want it.
Yeah, look, I know on theretail side it's not too
dissimilar from what we see, andthat is it seems like volume is
becoming more and more of anissue on a daily basis.
As we're doing good things atCRC, as our retailers are having
successes with their clients,they're seeing more
opportunities, and they want to,and need to, be able to, put
(26:43):
the appropriate amount of timeand focus into each individual
account, whether it is theirbiggest account or whether it's
their smallest account, andthere just aren't enough hours
in the day to do things the waythat they've always been done
and to do that, and so either wehave to turn away business or
we have to hand them off tosomeone else who may or may not
(27:06):
be directly associated with thatagent or ourselves, and you
don't always know the type ofservice you're going to get.
We always want to try to handlethat and our agents want to
handle that themselves.
To get we always want to try tohandle that and our agents want
to handle that themselves.
And so, utilizing technology,utilizing this portal,
developing the portal, the waythat we have to utilize the
(27:27):
efficiencies that come withtechnology and, as the industry
of artificial intelligence kindof takes hold as well, utilizing
that to the advantage ofefficiencies for our agents and
for our brokers.
That's enabling us to do more,to be more effective and to
provide better service to ourclients, and at the end of the
day, that's what it's all about.
Amanda Knight (27:49):
Erin and Brian, if I'm a retail agent and I'm
ready to start using theQuickQuotes platform, what is my
first step?
How do I get there Using theQuickQuotes platform.
Erin Dyer (27:58):
What is my first step ?
How do I get there?
Okay, so your first step is tohead to crcqqcom and we offer
the ability for agents to signup online instantly with their
CRC producer, which is importantto call out.
So you have to have a CRCproducer contact to partner with
on the submissions you sendthrough the QuickQuotes portal.
(28:19):
If you go to the QuickQuoteswebsite to sign up and you are
not registered as an agent withCRC, we will work with you
offline to discuss appointmentoptions and then we'll take it
from there.
And I would add a second stepwhen you think about your
brokerage and how you plan touse this tool, I think going in
(28:39):
with a game plan is reallyhelpful, so you can think about
quick quotes as an opportunityto attach cyber to your small
commercial book.
You have accounts within certainindustry segments or under a
certain revenue or premiumthreshold.
This tool allows you to do thateffectively.
Maybe it's a remarketingstrategy, where you have clients
(29:00):
who've purchased a endorsementand we want to move them to a
full policy and, with that, alsopartner with CRC for all the
great things our producersdeliver as well.
So certainly sign up, but alsoconsider how we can support you
and your agency goals with thistechnology and come to us with
those ideas.
So we're available.
(29:21):
Obviously, your producers arealways available to talk, but
our digital team also can jointhose conversations to better
articulate how this technologycan specifically meet your
agency needs, because while wetalked about a lot today, we
didn't quite get to everythingthe tool can do.
So we'd be happy to have aone-on-one conversation as well.
Brian Benda (29:40):
Yeah, to that last point that Aaron just made there
.
While they can go directly tocrcqqcom to register for the
platform, me as a broker I wantall of my agents to reach out to
me and let me know that that'sof interest to them.
I mean we're going to be.
You know, we have proactivelylet our agents know that this is
a resource that's available tothem.
(30:01):
But sometimes when you sendthat out they're not quite ready
to hop on.
It's just not the right time,right place.
They've got other things goingon and.
But I always want my agents toreach out.
Where they're a partner withthem, I want them to share that
interest with me.
We're a partner with them.
I want them to share thatinterest with me.
And if I don't, as a broker,know how to direct them, I know
(30:25):
I can get in touch with Aaronand Aaron's going to give me the
CRCQQcom website and we'llproperly direct them that way.
Scott Gordon (30:31):
Yeah, and I don't know whether our viewers at home
could hear it, but earlier inthe podcast, when Aaron said and
you can ping Brian any time, heactually got pinged while we
were on the air.
Guys, it's true, it's not a lie, it's a real thing.
Well, this was great.
Do you guys have anything elseto add before we get into the
fun part of our show?
Not that this wasn't fun.
Erin Dyer (30:51):
Let it rip, let's do it.
Scott Gordon (30:52):
Okay.
Well, we have a little thingthat we do at the end here that
Amanda and I like to call rapidfire, and it's just whatever
comes first to your head.
There's no wrong, there's noright, and here we go.
Our first question in rapidfire today is what item is worth
spending money on?
You'll splurge on this.
You'll get the name brand nocheapies, no generics.
Brian Benda (31:15):
You have to have it .
This is not rapid fire.
Scott Gordon (31:21):
There's way too many things to respond to here.
Brian Benda (31:26):
Brian's a man who enjoys the finer things in life.
Ladies and gentlemen, let's see, I love to travel, my wife and
I love to travel, and when wetravel, I like to travel in
style.
That doesn't mean that I'malways paying top dollar for
something, but I do want thebest experience.
So I'm all about, just likeyour typical broker, finding the
best coverage at the best price.
(31:47):
I want the best experience atthe best price, right, but I'm
willing to spend it for theexperience.
Amanda Knight (31:53):
Okay.
Brian Benda (31:53):
Absolutely.
Amanda Knight (31:55):
Experiences over stuff I can get behind.
That Sure For sure.
Erin Dyer (31:57):
Aaronaron, what about you?
This might be unexpected, butquality, quality tennis shoes
often.
So I'm always buying, yes, newexercise shoes, it's fun to have
fresh fly kicks, but also, Ithink, practically from a
support standpoint, it'simportant to buy new shoes every
, you know, four to six months.
Amanda Knight (32:19):
So I agree with that.
Yeah, I would also say like,like you protect your feet,
right, I agree with that.
But also, hand in hand withthat, aaron, your mattress, like
don't.
Scott Gordon (32:31):
I was gonna say the same thing.
Amanda Knight (32:33):
Your sleep's important.
Good shoes, good mattress.
Brian Benda (32:36):
I just got back from vacation and we slept on an
amazing mattress, and so Ifully support that as well.
Scott Gordon (32:42):
I had the world's best mattress salesman tell me
something that I never haveforgotten.
He said you don't want a cheaphot on a mattress.
You spend one third of yourlife on a mattress and I went oh
, yeah, yeah.
So when he put it that way, itdoes make total sense.
All right, our next questionYou're both very tech savvy, but
(33:03):
outside of work and ready.
What is your favorite app,piece of tech or something like
that that you'd like to give a?
Brian Benda (33:12):
shout out to.
I've been an Apple nerd for along time, so really anything
Apple.
I love the fact of how easyeverything connects in the Apple
environment, because I'm kindof seen as the go-to tech guy
(33:32):
for anybody who knows me, so thefather-in-law, the
mother-in-law, my dad they allcall me, and so if I just say,
hey look, just get the Appledevices.
It's very, it's very.
You know, they're plug and play, easy to use.
I love that, so that's mine.
Erin Dyer (33:47):
I think, as the the quick quotes gal on the podcast,
I should be honest and share myfavorite comparative Raider
outside of insurance.
So I love Zillow.
I spend a lot of my free timeon Zillow.
I'm trying to do less socialmedia these days and I think
Zillow is a fair compromise andit's fun.
(34:07):
I'll go to any city in the USat night after dinner and just
explore real estate.
So maybe a little embarrassing,but Zillow.
Amanda Knight (34:15):
No, I think there's actually now a reality
show about this.
I can't remember the name, butI swear, I saw a commercial for
it.
Scott Gordon (34:22):
And it's hosted by somebody like Jack.
Mcbrayer.
Amanda Knight (34:27):
Yeah, I think you're right.
Scott Gordon (34:28):
Is it him yeah?
Amanda Knight (34:29):
I think so.
Scott Gordon (34:30):
From 30 Rock, I think.
And it's called like ZillowGone Wild or something.
Yeah, something like that.
Amanda Knight (34:35):
So, erin when you're Zillow gone wild or
something, yeah, something likethat.
So, aaron, when you're you knowZillowing, you can watch the
Zillow show in the background.
Give it a shot, what?
Erin Dyer (34:40):
most of my Friday nights look like so you got it.
Amanda Knight (34:45):
Well, brian and Aaron, thank you so much for
joining us today and sharing howReady, quick Quotes is
transforming our placementprocess here at CRC.
We appreciate you coming on.
Scott Gordon (34:55):
Thanks for your time.
Amanda Knight (34:56):
Thanks y'all.
Scott Gordon (34:58):
Yeah, and thanks to all of our listeners for
tuning in to Placing you First.
If you're ready to exploreready quick quotes or learn more
, you can reach out to your CRCproducer, Brian included.
Providing current insights intothe marketplace is just one
more way that CRC Group isplacing you first.
We'll see you next time.
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