Compical (415) 489-0762

For independent insurance agencies

Before you buy an AI inbox for the agency, call me.

Every morning the shared inbox fills with requests that all look different, and your staff work out who the customer is, which policy it touches, and who should handle it before the work can start. Somebody will sell you an AI inbox that promises to sort it. Call me before you buy it and I will tell you whether it works and what your agency management system already does.

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Where I would start

The job I would look at first.

This is a guess based on businesses like yours, not a diagnosis of yours. On the call we find out whether it is actually your problem.

The job

Turning a service email into a job somebody can actually do

Where it usually goes wrong

Every message in that inbox looks different. Before anyone can do the work, somebody has to figure out who the customer is, which policy it touches, what is actually being asked, and who should handle it. Then they type it into your agency system and answer the customer. The ones that are missing something come back around a second time.

What I would ask on the phone

On the phone I ask where the handoffs are, what your mailbox rules, your agency system, your carrier downloads and your templates already cover, and which odd cases someone has to handle by hand. I do not assume you need a new system or something built for you, and nobody pays me if you buy it.

What stays with your people

Anything to do with coverage, whether a policy suits somebody, quoting, binding, cancelling, changing a policy or handling a claim stays with your licensed people. A test does not write into your agency system, send a message, or start any policy action unless you say so.

When a call is worth it

You get the most out of thirty minutes when a few things are true.

  • The shared inbox runs every day and more than one person works out of it, so even a small fix is worth real money to you.
  • You can tell me roughly what the mess costs: backlog, slow replies, the same thing typed in twice, work bouncing between people, staff overtime. Rough is fine, I am not auditing you.
  • You can get a licensed lead and whoever runs the inbox on the phone at some point, because they know things you do not.
  • You are open to the answer being that you already own the fix and somebody needs to turn it on. That is the answer more often than not.

What to call about

Four things worth picking up the phone for.

A question you need answered

Should I be using AI for this. My competitor says he automated his intake, is that real. My office manager wants a new system, do we actually need one. Or nobody is selling you anything at all and you read something about AI and want to know what it comes to for a business like yours. You ask, I answer. Some of these take five minutes.

A contract you are about to sign

Send me the proposal, the contract, the statement of work. I read it and tell you on the phone what it actually commits you to, what is missing from it, and which parts you are already paying for somewhere else.

Getting your people using the AI tools

ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, whichever one. I sit with the people who do the work and show them what it is genuinely good at for their job and what it will get wrong. Often that is the cheaper answer than buying anything, because you are probably already paying for one of these and nobody is using it.

A vendor call you want me on

I join the demo with you and ask the things you do not know to ask. Booked in advance rather than on the spot, because I need to read up first.

Who should be on the call

Have whoever runs service on the call if you can.

Agency owner, president, or whoever runs the place

Own the decision, agree where the job starts and stops, and decide whether what I find is worth acting on.

Whoever runs service, and one of your licensed producers

They say how the work actually runs, what happens to the odd ones, where the line sits that only a licensed person can cross, and what your carriers and your customers already expect.

Whoever handles the money and the agency system

At most agencies that is one person wearing several hats. Check my cost numbers, what you are already paying for, who can get at customer data, what your carriers and vendors will allow, how long records have to be kept, and what a fix would depend on.

Limits

Licensed activity and customer data remain controlled.

I tell you what the software will and will not do. Every professional, legal and safety call stays with you and your own advisers.

No sale, solicitation, negotiation, or policy action

It does not recommend coverage, say whether an option suits somebody, quote, bind, cancel, or change a policy. Anything only a licensed person is allowed to do stays with a licensed person.

No underwriting, pricing, or claims decisions

Nothing here works out who is a good risk, what somebody should pay, whether they qualify, or whether a claim is covered, and nothing here helps build a case for saying no to a customer.

Customer data stays under agency control

Anything I try gets tried on made-up records, not your customers. Before your real ones go anywhere near it, you sign off on where they go, who can see them, how long they are kept, what gets deleted, and what your carriers allow.

A person verifies every proposed action

One of your people checks who the customer is, which policy it touches, what is being asked, what is attached, who it is going to, and how it reads, against your own records and the carrier's, before anything is saved or sent.

Not a fit

When a phone call is not what you need.

  • You want a written report, a tool comparison, or a list of vendors to go and evaluate. Ask me anything you like on the phone, including what this AI business actually amounts to for a company like yours. What comes back is an answer and a few lines in writing, not a document.
  • You want the machine recommending coverage, comparing quotes for a customer, selling, binding, cancelling, changing a policy, underwriting, pricing, deciding who is eligible, or deciding a claim. That is licensed work and I will not help you hand it over.
  • You want your agency management system replaced, your carriers wired in, a lead machine built, all your data cleaned up, or a custom platform built.
  • Nobody can make the call, nobody owns the job day to day, no licensed lead is involved, or I cannot get at your numbers and nobody from IT or security will take part.
  • You want somebody to run the project and deal with the vendor for you. I will do a specific job you point me at, quoted in hours with a number it will not go past before I start. I will not run the project or manage your vendor.

Reference material

Where the limits above come from

These are the industry and government rules the limits above follow. I will walk you through any of it on the phone. What you actually have to do depends on your work, your state, your customers, your contracts, and your own advisers.

What I put at risk

Three things I will put in writing.

Compical is new and I am taking my first clients now. I would rather say that than have you work it out. I cannot point you at one company like yours that I have already done this for, never mind ten. What I can do instead is put something of mine at risk on every single call, which is what the three commitments below are.

Nobody pays me except you

No referral fees, no reseller margin, no commission from a vendor. Nobody pays me to point you at their product. If the answer is that you already own the fix and somebody needs to turn it on, that is the answer you get, and the call ends there.

If it was not worth it, I will not bill you

You hang up, you decide the call was not worth what I charge, you tell me. I do not send the invoice, and you do not have to argue about it. That is on every call, not once at the start. It is about calls. Work you have asked me to build is quoted and paid for before I start it, and that is a different arrangement.

If I read your contract wrong, I fix it on my time

If I tell you a contract is clean and you find out later that it commits you to something I missed, call me. I get on the phone with you and with the vendor as many times as it takes to sort it out, and none of that time is billed. That is not a refund of the call. That is me working the problem I caused.

Start here

Who do you call about this stuff?

The first call is free and takes thirty minutes. I use it to learn what you run and who does what, so the paid calls are short. I am not selling you anything on it, because there is nothing to sell you yet.

Already bought one and it is not doing what he said it would? That is a call too.

Book the free first call