Survey: Agents and brokers prefer tablet devices

All of the insurance agents and brokers who participated in a recent survey released Wednesday about mobile technology reported using a smartphone and the majority said they used tablets.

The survey, which was conducted by Bedford, Mass.-based FirstBest Systems Inc. at the Entrepreneurial Insurance Symposium in Dallas in September, found that 52% of the nearly 50 agents and brokers who participated in the survey use a tablet device. Forty-two percent of the respondents said they would prefer a tablet as their one mobile device for business, 24% a smartphone and only 18% a laptop.

In addition, 80% of the respondents say they would benefit from mobile access. Of those, 95% feel mobile devices would help provide faster responses; 81% would resolve issues immediately and provide better service to their customers; 65% would obtain faster responses from their company and/or carrier.

When asked “When would you be most likely to use a mobile device to do these tasks, while away from your desk?” 87% of agents said while traveling for business, 61% while at home or visiting a client - and 74% would use a mobile device while on vacation. When asked “What kinds of tasks would you like to be able to do a mobile device?,” data access, such as looking up customer information, cited by 80% and sharing information with clients, cited by 66%, were popular. But 66% would also like to be able to start a new insurance application, and 57% would reserve the market/perform clearance.

FirstBest provides modular insurance software applications for commercial and specialty lines insurers.