Page 63 - The UnCaptive Agent

36 THE UNCAPTIVE AGENT

I pulled up to a pump with a sign on it saying that the
credit card reader did not work, and I would have to pay
inside. I drove to another service station instead! What
had been annoying in the beginning became imperative
over time. Being served by someone else became less
convenient and desirable, and I found that I preferred
serving myself. That same thing is happening in our
industry.
Agency automation providers have risen to this
challenge by providing increasing levels of self-service
capability in their automation systems. Smart agents
are putting self-service capabilities on their websites
to satisfy this consumer demand. As you create your
agency from scratch, I recommend that you do this
from the very beginning. It will be easier and cheaper
and will get you off to a faster start.
Whether you start with your employees, service
centers, or a combination of the two, be open and pay
attention to new and rapid developments in technology
that will make client service easier, faster, cheaper, and
better. There is, as of this writing, much development
of services that were traditionally performed by people
that are being automated by software. Due to the rise
of a new business type called Software as a Service,
these services will be increasingly targeted at tradi-
tional, smaller companies who will pay for their use on
a variable cost basis.
In addition, the increasing sophistication (and
decreasing cost) of software technology based on arti-
ficial intelligence and machine learning will rapidly
make humans replaceable for many agency tasks. For
example, in 2018, a New Zealand company called Soul
Machines demonstrated that their incredibly lifelike
“digital humans” (AI and machine learning enabled ava-
tars) could handle the routine customer service requests