If you’re like me, you are thinking about a little Spring cleaning. We are currently rebuilding a new bathroom at home, which is only slightly less stressful than a kitchen. We have also been thinking about a little Spring cleaning at APP, our insurance consulting firm. Even though it doesn’t feel like Spring, it’s here and it’s a great time to clean up a few nagging things in your agency.
We will be posting 10 Agency Spring Cleaning Tips over the next few weeks. Follow along with your team and take a new challenge each week. By the end you will be ready for a great Summer!
Tip 1: You Should NOT have 1000’s of Emails in Your Inbox
Why is the entire insurance industry a bunch of email hoarders? Seriously, agency after agency that I go to I find thousands of emails in their inboxes. It’s like no one has ever seen a folder never mind the MANAGEMENT SYSTEM they should be in.
There are several reasons we believe managing your email will help you better manage clients:
- Everyone is busy and stressed, having 3654 emails looking at you every day is not helping
- A lot of emails mean that you look busy, but you’re just disorganized
- You will drop balls and miss vital follow ups and service requests
- Email hoarders are often finger pointers rather than doers
- You have a management system that documents your to-do list and documents. You can use Outlook for it!
It’s time to move tasks, follow ups and documentation to Outlook. Too many account managers are using Email as their task management system rather than the actual management system the agency has in place. It’s time to break bad habits and make it an agency standard that there are no more than 50 emails (and that’s being generous) in your email at any given time.
So how do you begin? Start with a Spring Email Clean Up Week!
- Have a team meeting and ask everyone how many emails are in their inbox (you may be shocked)
- Set a goal to clean out 100 emails per day until it’s reasonable
- Make a rule that if you can do something in 2 minutes, then just do it and document it. If not, add it as a task in your management system
- Unsubscribe. We all get pointless emails, now is the time to get rid of them permanently
- Make sure the right people are getting the right emails. For example, E&S Markets often send updates to the person who bound coverage not the person who may be doing the work. Let everyone know the person who should be getting the work, don’t continue to forward it.
- Create folders. This helps keep you organized on internal matters. Client matters should go into the management system.
- Hold a weekly meeting to see if you can decrease the emails and make people update you on their progress.
- Once everyone is at 50 emails in their inbox, celebrate!
“Rule of thumb: If you can do a task in 2 minutes or under, just do it and then document it in the management system. If it will take longer, add it in as an activity to do and get it out of your inbox!”
If you need help with a little agency Spring cleaning, we love helping agencies get organized. Call us today!
