Power Hour: What Could You Do With an Extra Hour a Day?

• August 1, 2025

By Vijay Muniswamy

What could you do with a free hour in your workday?

I have spent the past two years asking that question of insurance agency customer service representatives (CSRs) and account managers across the U.S. Servicing teams are at the heart of every agency, and in speaking to more than 100 of them, I’ve seen firsthand how their everyday technology experience enhances—or muddles—their work.

Overall, technology has made insurance simpler, smarter and faster. But there’s still room for improvement.

Service teams and account managers power every agency’s success because when service works better, everything works better. It is in the industry’s best interest to focus on these important employees, ease their workload and make their technology more efficient. That’s why forward-thinking InsurTechs are taking the time to truly understand how these professionals work and where their everyday tools cause friction.

While watching how agency account managers and their teams work, I’ve seen tasks that take five clicks but could take two, or places where a simple data intake process means juggling multiple tabs and applications. In other agencies, I’ve seen CSRs manage tasks from their systems by jotting information from the phone calls into notebooks or entering data into Excel spreadsheets.

“When operations are more efficient, employees and clients benefit.”

Those observations echo across independent agencies. In Vertafore’s 2024 survey of nearly 2,000 agency professionals, respondents noted that technology was essential to managing their work and navigating challenges like the hard market. But at the same time, more than half said they want their solutions to provide more streamlined workflows and more automation of routine tasks and data entry.

When I ask teams what they would do with an hour or more back in their day, they rarely answer, “Spend more time on my computer completing tasks.” Instead, they want the bandwidth to be creative, find new ways to support and expand the business, invest in their careers and connect with their clients to provide exceptional service.

There are hundreds of clever ways that independent agency professionals across the country are investing the regained time. Across them all, one thing is clear: The extra hour is always time well spent.

Building Client Relationships

Service professionals often want to use more time to find new ways to support client relationships and create a better client experience. Here are six ways I see service teams make the most of an extra hour or two in their days:

1) Personalize client communications. Spending an extra hour communicating with clients is probably the best way to turn the time saved into boosted business. Small, personalized messages are powerful, and they can be completed in short bursts of time.

My favorite example of small-time and large-reward communications is recording short, personalized birthday or renewal anniversary videos that address clients by name. These take seconds to make and can brighten a client’s day.

Many agencies send handwritten “just checking in” notes with a tip or an article relevant to the client’s interest. Some send personalized “Thanks for your loyalty” messages, sometimes with unexpected gifts—like a local coffee shop gift card. These gestures are especially powerful before a policy renewal conversation.

One agency calls clients outside the normal business cadence and asks them, “What is one thing I could do to improve the service you receive?” These calls translate quickly into client-service improvements.

2) Design segment-specific outreach. Focus on a client segment, like small business owners or families with teen drivers, and find opportunities to help with common services, issues and pain points. Once you have a list, create a file with helpful, proactive tips, reminders or checklists related to the group’s needs. The result is information that’s ready to go when clients need it.

3) Create social media content. No one knows an agency’s story better than account managers and CSRs, so it makes sense for these employees to help create social media content. With time to be creative, they can build stories, videos, infographics and posts that tell the agency’s story. Their authentic voices and firsthand client experiences resonate on social media, making the agency’s online presence more relatable, trustworthy and engaging.

4) Make a referral kit. Create a sleek, digital or printable “referral starter kit” highlighting the agency’s commitment to excellent service. The kit can be used internally for every agent to expand their business. Consider including sample text messages, printable referral cards, a digital shareable for social media, client success stories, or a QR code that links directly to your contact page. The information should be friendly, aspirational and never intended for sales purposes. Instead, it becomes an engine for existing clients to spread the good word about your agency and the services you provide.

5) Build a client-empowerment library. Be proactive and prepare a one-pager portfolio for policy renewal conversations. Providing these ready-made resources ensures that renewal conversations are not just about price but about providing genuine value and clarity to your clients. What does your agency offer that your client won’t be able to find elsewhere?

6) Prepare coverage one-pagers. Create a portfolio of succinct, one-page guides with specific, actionable information that agents can use in policy conversations. For example, a guide titled “When Disaster Strikes: Understanding Catastrophe Mitigation Strategies” could clarify how homeowners can reduce the cost of their coverage by preparing their property for weather-related disasters. Having these ready-made resources available ensures that renewal conversations focus on understanding and ensuring comprehensive protection.

Building Up the Back End

In addition to client engagement and relationship-building, service staff members are key to addressing agency updates and improvements. When operations are more efficient, employees and clients benefit.

Here are three ways service professionals are putting the time they get back from their tech into their agency.

1) Improving agency processes. I recommend this activity for agencies that need to modernize processes and workflows. Identify one inefficiency and launch short, team-based “sprints” to investigate ways to improve it. This could be anything from streamlining new client onboarding to perfecting the claims submission workflow. Then, test the solution and implement the positive results.

2) Onboarding new technology. Finding and onboarding new technology is a time-consuming process, and one that many agencies put aside for a later day. Account managers with an extra hour can address technology-avoidance by investing in new tech such as automated client communication or marketing tools, client portals and data analytics solutions. And, with extra time, they can onboard and learn the new system.

3) Augmenting servicing efforts with artificial intelligence (AI). While the AI hype is everywhere, the use case scenarios are real. AI solutions can reduce repetitive tasks servicers face every day. Research and understand what AI tools can do from a servicer perspective. Compare platforms, find out what works best for your agency, and identify a path forward.

Building the Talent Pipeline

Finally, supporting and developing talent is one of the best ways to spin recovered time into gold. Whether an agency has a headcount of five or 500, employees benefit from the resources that make them more productive and comfortable in their roles.

For account managers and CSRs, investing time supporting talent results in well-trained, confident employees who understand agency operations and customer service. Here are two ways to set the next generation of insurance professionals up for success:

1) Build an onboarding video library. Record a series of onboarding videos explaining complex insurance topics to new talent. This activity has a dual benefit: Novice employees learn more about their roles, the agency and the industry, while account managers can share their expertise and wisdom.

2) Share their experience. For account managers, teaching about their day-to-day tasks and responsibilities results in a few benefits: A staff of versatile, engaged professionals with multiple career paths and a portfolio of skills; a new, staff-wide understanding of the hard work that fuels agency operations, and a lineup of employees who can step in and lighten the load.

The time I’ve spent working with agency professionals reinforces the need for agency tech solutions to be more efficient. But I’ve discovered even more—providing efficiencies isn’t just about shaving seconds from tasks. It’s about giving time back so agencies can become more human, connected and competitive.

The benefits are clear, from helping account managers deepen client bonds to building a competent and well-trained agency staff. With improved technology, agencies can turn the hours saved into tangible wins. And it’s up to responsible InsurTech providers to make this happen.

Vijay Muniswamy, senior director of product management at Vertafore, brings over 25 years of experience in the IT industry and 18 years in the insurance sector. He leads Vertafore’s Project Impact, focused on simplifying agency workflows and improving operational efficiency for service persona with the goal of saving up to two hours a day.