Why Do We Keep Using Email If We Hate It So Much?

Let’s be honest for a moment: Email leaves a lot to be desired.

It overwhelms us. It crashes. It lets spam through. The messages constantly fill our inboxes (and half are probably irrelevant ads, if your inbox is anything like mine). And yet, we can’t seem to stop using it. No matter how much we complain about it, we can’t break our dependence on it.

In our personal lives, it can be irritating when your mom forwards you a chain email from 2008. In a business context, though, it’s more than just an irritation — it’s a security risk, especially in industries like insurance, where providers handle private information. Consider this: How often have you used email to share a photo of your driver’s license or a PDF containing sensitive details? Every time you (or your clients and prospects) click “send,” you put personal information at risk.

We all know that relying on email to share sensitive data is a bad idea, but we continue to do it. Why? Because it’s convenient and familiar, and breaking old habits is hard. However, we must confront an uncomfortable reality: If we are truly committed to protecting private data, we need to move away from email to more secure solutions.

My Own (Bad) Experience With Email

 I have co-founded two startups in the insurance space and have been a consultant to many others. I learned early on that among the first things a startup does is get a domain name (likely several) and set up an email account!

It feels so good. It’s like you are making progress on building your business! It feels like a real company when we are all sending emails to each other, sometimes in the middle of the night — “Hey, look at this article I found on Medium. We should replicate this.”

It feels good until it doesn’t. And, for us, that day was the day we could NOT find a file. Who sent it? Which version was the latest? Did you download it? <gulp> Was it sent to the wrong person???? Yeah, that happened!

Fortunately, we found it. But we didn’t learn our lesson.

I have consulted with many insurtechs, and I always say the same thing: Do NOT use email as your primary communication tool.

Too many things can go wrong:

– Email is NOT safe.
– You can hit Reply All and send a message intended for one person to many (Here is a short list of unintentional Reply All sends)
– You can forward and allow Autotype to fill in Nick’s personal email address (which is still on your machine) instead of his work email.
– Your email can be hacked.
– And on and on.

Email is a great communication tool, but when it comes to sharing and collaboration, it can be dangerous.

So If Not Email, Then What??

 This isn’t just an email problem. After all, a lot of email solutions encrypt messages. This is really a workflow problem. In a prior article, I talked about how Insurance Nerds is now using ShareFile. Why? We, too, have fallen into the email trap. Files stored on local drives and cloud drives (multiple ones, at that). And I kept hearing the same things I was hearing years ago — ”Where is the latest file??”

What we need now is a collaborative technology that does it all and makes it easy: securely storing files, collecting signatures, keeping conversations organized, and acting like a digital bodyguard protecting sensitive information. Specific to our case, we also needed something that could connect to our CRM … securely.

With robust data protection, customizable access management, comprehensive monitoring, compliance support, and more, technology like ShareFile helps you to keep your sensitive information and workflows secure.

If I leave you with two things today, let it be this:

1: Don’t fall into the free storage, free email trap … it’s not worth it to save a little money at the risk of the security of your client data.

2: Start building the muscle early and often. If you are a brokerage or agency, take a page from accountants and lawyers. Secure everything … your E&O insurance will love you for it.

Learn more about how ShareFile can help you enhance data security and simplify your workflows through collaborative technology.