How McFarlan Rowlands Automated the Work Equivalent of 10 Full-Time Employees
McFarlan Rowlands Insurance Brokers has a rich 120-year business legacy in southwestern Ontario, serving clients from 19 different offices. They are committed to strategically leveraging technology in order to continue delivering their top-tier customer service and retaining the best talent by creating a healthy place to work. As a result of a large merger and some recent acquisitions, there were new challenges presented by the rapid growth. Support teams facing increasing client and policy counts would eventually be overwhelmed, so to scale efficiently McFarlan Rowlands sought to leverage technology to ease administrative tasks and help their front lines meet changing client expectations. McFarlan Rowlands’ pride in their exceptional customer service compelled them to reevaluate their renewal review process. The current process was labor-intensive and the increasing volume of work was straining the team. Enter Quandri – the solution that automated their renewal review process, delivering benefits to both employees and clients.
Usually, it takes multiple years to see a return on investment from new technology but our team is already experiencing that within months. That’s truly remarkable.
Scaling Challenges and Overwhelming Manual Work
McFarlan Rowlands’ best-in-class renewal review process involved six full-time employees. However, to continue to scale would require expanding the renewal review team to ten full-time employees in order to maintain their current production levels. McFarlan Rowlands’ also wanted to ensure they could deliver a proactive service to their clients at scale to prevent the risk of them shopping around. It was now a critical time to utilize technology to level-up.
The Operational Transformation
McFarlan Rowlands’ team said that they do not fall into the early adopter stage of new technologies, but instead seek out solutions with proven ROI that align with their business needs. The team unanimously recognized Quandri as the ideal solution for their organization and team challenges, driving them forward. The implementation of Quandri led to a transformative shift within the company.
Client Services
Triggering the renewal process on the download date was a game-changer for McFarlan Rowlands. Clients receive a higher level of service and are promptly contacted with renewal options when increases in premiums or gaps in coverage are identified. In the event that a client calls the same day as the download, brokers have a comprehensive policy renewal comparison at their fingertips.
McFarlan Rowlands personal lines clients receive an improved and consistent renewal experience. Rebecca Reed, Director of Personal Lines, described the transition: “It’s not even a nice to have anymore, it's a need to have. If you are not looking at your clients’ renewals, someone else will.”
Employee Retention
With Quandri’s AI automation diligently processing renewal reviews behind the scenes, Rachel Speijer, Operations Manager of Personal Lines said; “We’ve officially redeployed five of the six individuals from the renewal review team. This has expanded our support to brokers, allowing them to shift their focus towards providing a proactive client experience rather than administrative work.” McFarlan Rowlands strategically redeployed two licensed brokers to assist with rewrites and created new positions focused on verifying minimum standards, cross-selling and upselling, and remarketing.
It's essential to assign experienced experts to tasks that demand their level of expertise and experience, leveraging them to mentor new brokers, and engage in meaningful conversations with clients.
With Quandri handling an administrative workload equivalent to an estimated ten full-time employees, their skilled team members can now focus on more valuable knowledge-driven initiatives. They have timely access to the information necessary for engaging with clients more meaningfully and personally. This transition is not only increasing job satisfaction but is also paving the way for career growth and mentorship opportunities within the company. “From an employee engagement perspective,” said Rebecca, “Quandri is making everyone's days much better.”
Results that Speak Volumes
McFarlan Rowlands’ expectations were exceeded when they started seeing a rapid return on their investment from Quandri in months. “From a business perspective, it’s been an absolute success,” said Christa O’Neil.
Quandri's Impact
350%
Return on Quandri Investment
18,000+
renewal reviews processed by Quandri in 6 months
5.5
Full-time employees repurposed to drive more value to the business
Quandri automated the time-consuming tasks for McFarlan Rowlands that are estimated to have required 10 full-time employees and allowed them to repurpose five of their experienced employees to revenue-generating work.