Last year, 1 in 4 Gen Z policyholders switched insurers—not because of price, not because of coverage—but because the digital experience felt outdated. (source)
If you think this is just a ‘young people problem,’ think again: comprehensive studies show that across all demographics, the gap between client expectations and what agencies can deliver is widening every single day.
And if you’re using a client-portal from your AMS company, your clients are comparing you to 1995 every single time they log into your bundled client portal.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth most agency owners won’t admit: your clients don’t think your client portal is “a little outdated.” They think you’re incompetent. And every time they have to call you for an ID card, they’re wondering if you’re actually running a business—or just playing one.
This isn’t about technology. This is about status.
And right now? Your AMS’s bundled client portal is destroying yours.
The Positioning Signal You’re Sending (Whether You Know It or Not)
Your agency management system is a powerful tool. Applied Epic, AMS360, EZLynx—these are robust platforms designed to manage policies, commissions, workflows, and carrier integrations. They’re excellent at what they do.
But here’s where the problem starts:
Your AMS provider bundled in a client portal as an afterthought. And that client portal? It’s a positioning signal.
Every time a client logs into that bundled portal—the one that looks like it was designed during the Bush administration—they’re subconsciously downgrading their perception of your agency.
Every time they have to call you to get an ID card—something they could pull up in 30 seconds on literally any other app on their phone—they’re wondering if you’re actually running a modern business, or just pretending to.
Your clients live in a world where:
- Amazon delivers packages in two hours
- Airbnb lets them book a house in 30 seconds
- Apple Pay lets them tap their phone and walk out of a store
And then they log into your AMS’s client portal—and it feels like they’ve time-traveled back to 2006.
That’s not a “tech problem.” That’s a positioning crisis.
And here’s the part that keeps agency owners like you up at night: you feel it happening in real time.
You sense it in the awkward pauses when you explain why something should take 48 hours. You see it in the prospect meetings where you’re selling great coverage, but they’re mentally checking out because your “client portal” feels like a relic. You know it when a 28-year-old policyholder ghosts you after one interaction with your bundled portal.
The agencies winning right now aren’t the ones with the most carriers or the lowest premiums. They’re the ones who look and feel like they’re already successful. And the #1 thing killing that perception? The client experience your AMS’s bundled portal forces you to deliver.
The Problem Isn’t Your AMS. It’s the Bundled Client Portal.
Let’s be clear: your AMS is not the villain.
Applied Epic, AMS360, EZLynx—these are powerful internal tools. They were designed to help your team manage complex workflows, track commissions, handle carrier integrations, and run your back-office operations efficiently.
And they’re good at it.
But here’s what happened:
Your AMS provider decided to bundle in a client portal. Not because they wanted to revolutionize the client experience. But because it was a checkbox feature. Something they could add to the product sheet to stay competitive.
And here’s the problem: their entire R&D budget is focused on the AMS—the internal tool.
The client portal? It’s an afterthought. A feature that gets minimal investment, minimal innovation, and minimal attention.
Because your AMS provider is solving for your internal operations—not your client’s experience.
And that’s the gap.
Your AMS is an internal tool. It was never designed to be customer-facing. It was never built to compete with the apps your clients use every day.
That’s where the disconnect happens. That’s why adoption rates are abysmal. That’s why your clients still call you for ID cards instead of logging into the portal.
Not because your clients are “too old for technology.” Not because they don’t want self-service.
Because the bundled portal was never designed with them in mind.
The Numbers Don’t Lie: Bundled Portals Fail
Look at the data:
- Gaudette Insurance had CSR24 integrated into their AMS. Out of 18,000 clients, maybe 400 were enrolled. Of those 400? Only 10% were actively using it. (see case study)
- Trevor Justice at Finlan Insurance had a bundled AMS portal with 12 active users out of thousands of clients. (see case study)
- Agencies across the country report the same story: low adoption, low engagement, and frustrated clients who still pick up the phone for basic tasks.
This isn’t a training problem. This isn’t a marketing problem.
This is a design problem.
The bundled client portals in your AMS were never built to deliver a modern, customer-facing experience. They were built to check a box. To say “we have a portal.”
But having a portal and having a client experience platform are two completely different things.
The False Choice (That’s Keeping You Trapped)
The industry has sold you a lie:
“You already have a client portal bundled with your AMS. That’s good enough.”
This is the same logic that kept Blockbuster insisting their stores were “good enough” while Netflix was mailing DVDs to your door.
The same logic that kept taxi companies saying their dispatch system was “good enough” while Uber was letting you summon a car with one tap.
The same logic that kept Kodak insisting film was “good enough” while the world went digital.
This isn’t “good enough.” It’s a death sentence.
And every day you accept it, you’re falling further behind the agencies who’ve already figured out the truth:
Your AMS is powerful. But it was never designed to be the client-facing layer of your business.
What GloveBox Does Differently: All-In on Client Experience
Here’s what we believe:
Your AMS should stay where it’s powerful—managing your internal operations.
Policies, commissions, workflows, carrier integrations—that’s what your AMS was built for. And it’s good at it.
But when it comes to the client-facing experience? That’s where GloveBox comes in.
We didn’t try to build an AMS. We didn’t try to compete with Applied Epic or AMS360 or EZLynx in their lane.
We went all-in on the one thing they couldn’t: the client experience.
Every dollar of our R&D budget. Every feature we build. Every integration we design. It’s all focused on one question:
“How do we make this so seamless, so intuitive, so remarkably better than anything else in the insurance industry that clients actually want to use it?”
And the results speak for themselves:
- Gaudette Insurance went from 10% portal adoption to 30% in six months—and clients started paying bills through the portal at a rate of 200 per month.
- Trevor Justice at Finlan Insurance reclaimed his weekends. His CSRs handle bigger books than before. His clients stopped calling for routine tasks.
- Grant Weber at TruSummit Insurance went from $4.5 million in premium to $24 million in three years, with each CSR managing $5 million in premium—more than double the industry standard. (see case study)
- Brett Young at Erb & Young Insurance doubled his agency’s size in three years, with CSRs going from 600-700 households each to 1,300-1,400 households each. (see case study)
These agencies didn’t replace their AMS. They added a dedicated client experience platform.
And that’s the difference.
The Emotional Tax You’re Paying (That No One Talks About)
Let’s talk about what this is really costing you.
Not in dollars. In emotional weight.
Imagine never having to apologize for your client portal again.
Imagine a client calling you—not to complain, not to request something—but to say “That was so easy. I updated everything myself in under a minute.”
Imagine walking into a prospect meeting and watching their face light up when you show them your client experience platform—because for the first time, it actually looks like it belongs in 2026, not 1996.
Imagine your team coming to you and saying, “We have time to do renewal reviews now. We’re not drowning in service calls anymore.”
Imagine your agency being known—not just for great coverage—but for delivering an experience so seamless, so intuitive, so remarkably better than your competitors that clients actively refer their friends and family.
This isn’t theoretical.
This is what relief feels like.
This is what control feels like.
This is what being the modern agency feels like.
And the agencies already living this reality? They’re not looking back.
The Market Has Already Moved. The Question is: Are You Early or Late?
The agencies defining the next decade aren’t debating whether to add a dedicated client experience platform. They already did.
They’re not asking “will this work?”—they’re asking “how fast can we roll this out?”
Because they’ve seen what happens when you stop playing defense and start playing offense.
And the gap between them and the agencies still relying on bundled AMS portals?
It’s not closing. It’s widening.
Here’s the expectation arbitrage happening right now:
1 in 4 Gen Z policyholders have already switched insurers due to poor digital experiences. Not coverage. Not price. Digital experience.
Comprehensive studies of U.S. insurance digital experiences show that across all demographics, the gap between client expectations and what agencies can deliver is widening every single day.
Your clients are comparing you to every other service provider in their lives. And unless your client portal can compete with the apps they use for banking, shopping, and travel, you’re losing positioning by default.
The agencies who recognized this early aren’t just surviving. They’re defining the next decade.
The ones who wait? They’ll be the ones getting acquired by the agencies who moved first.
Your Defining Moment
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: while you’re reading this, one of your competitors just booked a demo with us. And in 90 days, they’re going to be the agency in your market that prospects compare you to.
The agency that makes you look outdated by default. The agency that wins the client before the conversation even starts, because their client experience signals ‘we’re already successful.’
You can continue relying on your AMS’s bundled client portal, training your clients to work around its limitations, apologizing for its shortcomings, and slowly watching your competitive position erode as client expectations continue to rise.
Or you can acknowledge that while your AMS is a powerful internal tool, it was never designed to deliver a modern client experience.
The gap is real. But the solution is here.
If you’re ready to see what’s possible when you pair your powerful AMS with a dedicated client experience platform, we’ve built something for you.
It’s called GloveBox, and it’s the first platform designed for agencies who refuse to apologize for their client portal.
We’ve helped agencies like Gaudette Insurance go from 10% portal adoption to 30% in six months. We’ve helped agencies like TruSummit and Erb & Young double in size without doubling their service staff. We’ve helped agency owners like Trevor Justice stop getting calls on weekends and start reclaiming their lives.
Click here to schedule a demo, and we’ll show you the exact 3-step rollout plan agencies like Gaudette, TruSummit, and Erb & Young used to double their client adoption rates in under six months—without replacing their AMS.
Or don’t, and keep explaining to prospects why your “modern agency” still relies on a bundled client portal that was never designed for them.
Your choice.
Because the agencies defining the future aren’t waiting for permission.
They’re already there.
Will you be early? Or will you be late?
