Release Notes - 22.1.2

A comprehensive guide to our full release, including releases 22.1.1 and 22.1.2 for the month of January, 2022

A few important updates have been made in the last few weeks. 

In our effort to protect all users and make sure we are legally compliant, we began working with our legal team, technical teams, and experts in the area of TCPA compliance. 

We have made the following updates to SMS messaging and we think you’ll be just as excited as we are. 

  • You can manually text from a contact/company record, without opt-in permission. Since this is a manual message, sms opt-in is not required
  • When importing a list of contacts/companies, you can mass opt-in that list to receive sms messages (assuming you have permission to text) - and those numbers will be considered opted-in
  • When manually adding a “one-off” contact or company, you can check the box that you have permission to text - and that number will be considered opted-in
  • Contacts that come in via integration (Zapier, or other) will be considered opted-in, unless you specify otherwise
  • All contacts you have previously communicated with via text message, are already considered opted-in (unless they opted out)
  • You still have access to the sms opt-in campaign (recommended for anyone you don’t have permission to text yet) and the ability to automatically start an sms opt-in campaign when a contact enters a campaign (if, for example, you are not sure you have permission to text yet, you can error on the side of caution and start the sms opt-in campaign). 

One of the values we hold close is being able to listen to feedback, and rapidly iterate. So you will see these changes in your application the next time you log in, or within the next 24-48 hours. 

We take sms and TCPA compliance very seriously, which is why we’ve spent so much time working with experts over the last few months. The reason we have to be strict, sometimes more so than other sms providers, is because of how much content we provide out of the box. 

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to our support team or respond to this message/thread!

The other important update is that we have been behind the scenes working on some fundamental changes and updates to the core functionality behind our application. What that means, is that it will allow us to go faster, and further, with improving core functionality around the CRM, contacts, companies, pipelines, and automation. 

Usability improvements is a key metric for our team, so behind the scenes, we have been doing a lot of groundwork, and are now ready to start releasing some of that groundwork, as well as getting more intentional feedback of what would be most valuable to you (the user). 

You will see a lot of requests for feedback, and some large updates to those areas in the coming weeks and months. 

If you have any questions, feedback, or points regarding usability in Better Agency, please add them to this post (if reading the email version, check out my FB post in the user group) as we will use this as a point of reference. 

Thank you for trusting your agency with us, and we look forward to the best year yet on our mission to helping independent agencies generate $1Billion in new premium by 2024!

 

Release 22.1.2 Enhancements

  • Change From Address on Emails - We added the ability to change the from email address on a broadcast email. You can now choose from Relationship Routing, Agency, Currently Assigned User, or a specific Active User. You can view more HERE 
  • Assign Service Tickets To Service Team - We added the ability to assign a service ticket to the service team which then assigns it to one of the team members via round robin. You can view more HERE
  • Service Ticket Card Enhancements - We updated the UI for the Service Ticket cards to show the most important information. We added the Policy Type and Number, changed the label of the ticket to reflect the service type. We also added the ability to filter for only claims or service and another option to filter by service type.

Bugs:

  • Filtering by Sold Date on Commission Report - There was an issue where when filtering by sold date in the commissions report it was showing the effective date but not the sold date in the report. We added the Sold Date as a column in the report to fix this.

Release 22.1.1 Enhancements

  • Service Request Types - We added the ability to set what type of service request each ticket is. This will give users the ability to have a more clear picture of the types of service requests coming in. You can learn more HERE
  • Show Property Address on Homeowners Policy - We added the property address to the display on the homeowners' policy for policies downloaded from IVANS
  • Track Total Payout on Claims - We added the ability to track the total payout on a claim so that they can more accurately track their loss ratio. This data also shows up on the Claims Report. You can learn more HERE
  • Track Premium Change on Service Tickets - We added the ability to track premium change as it relates to a service request. You can learn more HERE 
  • Manage Campaigns from Renewal Pipeline - We added the ability for a user to start and stop campaigns for a contact from the renewal display.
  • Appointment Campaign Schedule - Previously, the appointment campaign steps were scheduled based on when the contact was added to the campaign. We have changed this to schedule the steps based on an appointment date and time. The Appointment campaign now requires an appointment date / time before it will start. This can be added from the Sales Pipeline when moving into Appointment Scheduled or from Zapier when a contact is added.
  • Start SMS Opt In Campaign - We added the option to start the SMS Opt In campaign from any of the New Lead campaigns. If the contact entering the campaign has already opted in, the campaign will not be sent to them. You can learn more HERE 
  • EZLynx Sync Policy Type Mapping - We were previously creating new Policy Types from the data coming across from the EZLynx Sync. This was creating a lot of messy data and duplicate records. We updated this to map the EZLynx Policy Types to a standard set of policy types in Better Agency.

Bugs:

  • Sidebar on Mobile - There was an issue where the sidebar would automatically display on some pages when viewing the app on a mobile device. The ui has been fixed to not show the sidebar automatically on mobile devices.
  • Canceled Policies Not Showing On Cancellation Report - there was an issue where canceled policies weren’t showing up on the cancellation report if the loss reason and/or loss carrier weren’t filled out. The report was fixed by adding an Unknown section to each of the pie charts. 
  • Duplicate Users Being Created - There was an issue where an admin user clicked the Continue button multiple times when adding a user it would create multiple user accounts for the same person. This was fixed by adding a graphic to the UI when processing the new user creation so the button cannot be pressed multiple times. In addition, a check was added when creating a user to make sure that user doesn’t already exist.