Alpha Direct Agency Gets Digital Payment Processing Right

Alpha Direct Agency doesn’t just embrace InsurTech—technology is one of their core values: “Driven to Win with Technology.”

The 17-year-old agency offers, among other specialty lines, technology services insurance and drone liability. Licensed in 17 states, Alpha Direct Agency has offices in New York City, Raleigh, and Miami, plus an international presence in the Dominican Republic and soon in Ecuador. Technology is critical to the agency’s revenue, as well as connecting its producers to each other and to the flagship office in upper Manhattan.

Principal Emmanuel Osuyah describes his agency as the earliest of adopters when it comes to InsurTech solutions. He notes, “People look to me before they buy new software. They know if I’ve used it and recommend it, it’s going to work.”

Alpha Direct Agency started offering digital payment processing in 2006. Despite the agency’s international footprint, Emmanuel describes it as locally focused: “Customers would literally take the elevator up with baby carriage in tow to find our suite.” Most paid in cash or by money order, but carrying large amounts of cash was a hassle. Emmanuel observes, “the cashless world has forced change on all of us.” About the decision to offer online payment, he notes: “There was a time when if you could process ACH (check) payments, you were king. We had to go there.” As for credit cards, Alpha Direct Agency is “all plastic all day long.”

Over the years, Emmanuel tried a series of payment processors before becoming an early adopter of ePayPolicy. As one of ePayPolicy’s first clients, Emmanuel is clear about why he made the move: batching and fees.

None of his previous vendors had the capability to separate transaction fees as ePayPolicy does. He had to reconcile their fees monthly, which was not batch-friendly.

Prior to insurance, Emmanuel worked as a banker, where he had to triple count cash for verification. When he founded his agency, he was no stranger to triple counting cash late into the night; that’s when he knew there had to be a better way. With other merchant services vendors, it would take a month-and-a-half to reconcile credit card payments. Some vendors have two separate portals for credit cards and ACH transactions, requiring two different logins. In contrast, with ePayPolicy, his bookkeeper can run reports mid-month and at the end of the month, and “the transactions are right there. Both credit cards and ACH in the same transaction summary. With another click you hop into the batches. It’s so smooth, with easily searchable fields, which gives us more time in the month to focus on other things.”

Agent Reaction to ePayPolicy

His agents like the payment portal as well. Emmanuel relies on his 15 employees for feedback, and they had been complaining about the old platform. Agents particularly appreciate that refunds to customers are easy with ePayPolicy. Confirmation of the refund can be sent to the customer from the platform within minutes of processing, saving agents from having to take follow-up calls about the refund’s status.

The ePayPolicy Experience

The transition from the previous payment processor vendor was smooth. ePayPolicy integrated easily with Alpha Direct Agency’s website. Emmanuel shares, “right off the bat, I was impressed with the seamlessness of it all. My logo was in the portal, access to reports was painless and payments were hitting my bank account in the expected time frames.”

Emmanuel also gives thumbs up for:

• ​Ease of payment (a big plus in redirecting customers away from cash payments)
• ​Speed of payment (frees up agents to spend more time on sales)
• ​Web 2.0 friendly (it offers a clean look without a lot of ‘gibberish’ on the screen)

Alpha Direct Agency hasn’t had to lean on ePayPolicy’s Customer Service often, but they’ve been very responsive when called or emailed. For example, when a customer contested a fee, ePayPolicy resolved the issue quickly once supporting documents were provided.

Emmanuel finds ePayPolicy’s flat fees for ACH transactions ($3 per) a major benefit. He recently had another vendor pitch him, but they charged a percentage of the ACH transaction. That company did not get his approval.

Next Steps for Alpha Direct

Alpha Direct does not currently use the invoicing function, but Emmanuel looks forward to implementing it. He’s also excited that ePayPolicy’s platform plans to integrate with his agency management system (Hawksoft).

Advice to Other Insurance Agencies

To any agencies researching digital payment processors or dissatisfied with their current vendor, Emmanuel Osuyah advises:

“Sign up with ePayPolicy. Go straight to where the future’s at.”