From Portal Ping-Pong to One-Click Quoting: Transforming Producer Productivity

Outdated insurance quoting software is a major thorn for many P&C agents. Clunky workflows, endless scrolling, and rigid interfaces that don’t adapt to the agent’s or customer’s needs slow you down right when speed is most critical. In short, they are a major frustration – but they also reduce your productivity, which will ultimately cost you business. As the world gets increasingly digital, the demand for speed and efficiency is only set to grow. It’s time for quoting experiences to evolve to match that expectation, and bolt is here to assist. 

The Insurance Agent Platform Challenges that Slow You Down

In business, time is money. So why do so many insurance agent workflows waste so much of it? There are a few reasons why quoting efficiency is tough with traditional approaches:

Productivity Killers: The Multiple Carrier Log-in

Every P&C agent is familiar with this friction point. Traditional quoting software for insurance wants agents to maintain separate logins (and even platforms) for each carrier they work with. This not only means switching software and log-in details, but also remembering how to navigate different interfaces and platform quirks.

This toggling, also known as context switching, is a proven productivity killer. The Harvard Business Review estimates employees in enterprise-sized businesses waste up to 5 weeks of their working year on context switching alone. This switch also breaks concentration, pushing up the likelihood of errors. When agents spend more time navigating systems than serving customers, everyone loses.

Legacy Systems: A UX Pain

Most traditional insurance agent workflows are what is known as “vertical scroll traps”. They’re seemingly endless forms where you scroll through rigid sequential fields, with no ability to jump to relevant sections. It’s a one-size-fits-all approach that ignores how experienced agents actually work, and quoting efficiency suffers. 

Add duplicate entries to compound the problem. Agents must re-enter the same customer information across different systems and forms, and even screens within a program. It’s redundancy that wastes time and increases the potential for error.

Poor Interface Design: A Hidden Cost

Clunky interface design does more than slow down agents. Quoting efficiency also suffers. Longer quote times mean fewer quotes a day and slower response times. In short, lost business and opportunities. When quoting systems are too time-consuming or complex, agents may even abandon the quote entirely, especially if they’re under time pressure or dealing with large accounts. For a high-performing agent, inefficient insurance agent workflows feel like a waste of their expertise and experience, and can quickly become a workplace frustration.

The Rise of the Digital Workplace

Today’s agents expect, and need, better. We’ve seen digital quoting interfaces streamline how we work across the board. Technology is meant to accelerate how we work, not hinder it. For insurance agents, speed-to-quote is rising as a competitive advantage. Agents need insurance quoting software that matches their pace, not forces them to slow down.

Solutions for Increased Quoting Efficiency

Modern insurance quoting software must offer ways to streamline the P&C quote process. Luckily, the right digital quoting interfaces are out there, pairing smart UX design with efficiency improvements that actually matter. 

Rethinking Agent-Facing Tools

The best quoting tools for insurance agents prioritize horizontal layouts over the vertical scroll marathon. Agents can see relevant information more easily, with less need to scroll back and forth between sections. Horizontal layouts also better match the insurance agent workflows used by experienced agents, who often need to reference multiple data points at the same time. 

Adaptive inputs are another booster for quoting efficiency. Instead of forcing a rigid sequence, adaptive systems such as bolt’s Dynamic Quoting Questionnaire, use the information already entered to adapt the form. Relevant fields are brought to the front, and irrelevant ones deprioritized. This helps agents focus on what directly affects the customer, and even lessens the stress and cognitive load they’re carrying. 

Lastly, look for smart defaults. These use historical data and set agent preferences to pre-populate common fields. Again, this reduces time spent on data entry – without sacrificing accuracy. As these tools can learn from agent patterns, they also get better over time, reducing the clicks needed in insurance quoting.

Why Design Matters for Productivity

Better digital quoting interfaces directly impact business outcomes through better throughput and accuracy. Agents see improved quote-to-bind conversion rates and Net Promoter scores. They can also work smarter, which directly improves agent retention and agent job satisfaction. And happy agents create happy customers. Reduced friction in the quoting process lets agents focus on building customer relationships and properly assessing risk, not just navigating systems. 

When agents can quote faster and with less frustration, their quote rates improve too. This increased capacity translates directly to revenue growth without adding additional staff headcount.

bolt: Changing Insurance Agent Workflows for the Better

bolt’s insurance agent platform is here to support you on your quest for digital quoting interfaces that augment, not reduce, your agents’ productivity. 

The bolt platform tackles the scroll tap problem through intuitive, left-hand navigation that reduces scrolling by up to 50%. Agents can jump between sections without losing their context or progress. Every click and scroll should serve a real purpose. By organizing information logically and providing quick access to key sections, bolt enables agents to work at their natural pace rather than the system’s imposed rhythm. One leading insurer using bolt saw an additional $4 billion in quoted premiums. They also expanded their agent base significantly using bolt’s insurance agent platform. 

Of course, no two agents work the same way. This is why bolt introduced flexible insurance agent workflows that adapt to agent preferences and customer needs. Move through sections in your preferred order, jump back easily to modify earlier entries, and access advanced features, all without navigating away from your current work. 

Your Key Takeaways for Smarter Insurance Agent Platforms

If you’re ready to embrace quoting efficiency with digital quoting interfaces that work with you, here’s how to get started:

• Audit your Current Quoting Flow: When you know what slows your agents down in your current workflows, you can choose solutions that address their biggest time sinks. Track the time agents are spending on different activities, and you will see the friction points that cost your agency the most time and money. 
• Prioritize Adaptive Workflows: Armed with the information you need to find the right insurance quoting software to address your pain points, now it’s time to look for solutions that support adaptive workflows rather than rigid, one-size-fits-all processes. The best platforms allow agents to work according to their expertise and customer needs, not arbitrary system constraints.
• Focus on Integration and Speed: Speed, simplicity, and freedom to work efficiently are the goals, not just process automation. Reducing unnecessary clicks in insurance quoting creates new levels of efficiency. Look for solutions that eliminate redundant steps, reduce context switching, and work with your agents’ natural flow.

Your quoting experience needs to work just as fast as your best agent does. The friction and slowed responses created by outdated interfaces aren’t just a minor inconvenience. They quickly add up to wasted time and efficiency, which can become a competitive disadvantage no one needs. It’s time to modernize. See how bolt’s smart quoting interface helps agents quote and bind faster, with less friction. Request a demo today.