5 Simple Ways Your Insurance Agency Can Improve Customer Retention

When it comes to your agency, the customers you bring in play a vital role in your success. Of course, bringing in new customers is always the goal, but retaining current customers should be just as important to your business. Returning customers are the ones who’ll leave you glowing reviews, bring in referrals, and on average it costs 5x less to keep an existing customer rather than find a new one to replace that business.

 
 
 

What it really comes down to is your customer’s experience with you. Here’re a few simple ways to ensure that experience is the best it can be and that your customers will keep coming back year after year.

 
 
 

1. Get Your Onboarding Process Rock Solid

 
 
 

When you take on a new customer the onboarding process is the first real experience they’ll have with you. The interaction they have with you and your agency during this time can set the initial and lasting impression that your customer has of you overall.

 
 
 

If you haven’t systematized your onboarding process, It’s imperative that you work on getting it rock solid.

 
 
 

Your customer should feel like it was a smooth and easy process. When everything is easy for them and clearly taken care of they can feel confident that they made the right decision in choosing your agency.

 
 
 

2. Keep in Regular Contact

 
 
 

The more you keep in contact with your clients the more often they’ll see your name and think of your business. This doesn’t mean monthly calls, boring weekly newsletters, or harassing your customer, but there are a lot of creative ways to keep your face in your client’s mind and continue to build the customer connection.

 
 
 

Some things you can do include:

 

  • Sending quarterly emails with something that will educate or provide value to your customers. This can be a blog post, an article, information about your services, etc.

  • Sending out birthday and/or holiday cards to build a personal relationship without selling.

  • Sending out a customer survey

  • Hosting a customer appreciation day and giving out a small gift, or giving a small “anniversary” gift for every year they’ve been with you

  • Clear communication like pre-renewal phone calls or calling before a premium goes up

  • Or, Calling for an annual coverage review

 
 
 

3. Provide Quality Annual Coverage Reviews

 
 
 

Each year check in for an annual coverage review. Ask questions and make sure your client still has adequate coverage. Has anything changed that would require an update in coverage? Is there a new way to cross sell them on additional coverage?

 
 
 

Checking in to make sure your client is properly covered will ensure that you haven’t missed anything and that they can feel confident in their coverage. If the time does come for a claim, they’ll know that they’re taken care of.

 
 
 

4. Make Sure Automatic Payments Are Available

 
 
 

This seems simple – but a number of businesses still don’t have automatic payments available or easily accessible to clients.

 
 
 

Statistically customers set up with automatic payments are much more likely to renew. Not only do people prefer something that’s made easier for them, but when the payment process is already set up it becomes more of an effort for them to make the switch to someone new.

 
 
 

5. Be Diligent About Following Up On Claims

 
 
 

Customers with recent claims are amongst the most likely to not renew. Primarily because claims can be frustrating, but, it often has to do with the way they felt the claim was handled.

 
 
 

As an agent, you can play a huge role in your clients experience with claims. To do this it’s important to make sure you have a process in place to contact customers with claims and more importantly follow up consistently until everything is complete.

 
 
 

Make sure that your client isn’t frustrated or isn’t having a bad experience that they aren’t telling you about which could lead to them cancelling their policy with you.

 
 
 
 
 

Ultimately customer retention comes down to your clients overall feeling towards you. Make customer service your top priority and find creative ways to connect and you’ll see an automatic increase in customer longevity.

 
 

7 Ways New Insurance Agents Can Build Trust With Customers

Whether you focus on commercial or personal lines, your job as an agent means finding your customers solutions to risk management aimed at limiting their financial risk.

 

Bringing in new customers and maintaining long-lasting relationships with existing customers both require a certain level of trust.  Clients need to be able to trust that you are the right person to come to to protect them and their assets.

 

To be successful, your customers need to see you as capable, dependable, and as someone with integrity.

 

Here are 10 tips to foster a more valuable long-lasting relationship with your customer base

 

  1. Be their go-to expert

 

Most people don’t know exactly what they need for insurance or how to pick the best plan for themselves – that’s why they come to you.  It’s important that you truly understand the coverage options and benefits you offer. You need to be able to speak confidently and be able to articulate a good working knowledge of what you’re selling.  If customers can easily tell you know what you’re doing and that you’re an expert in your field they’ll feel more comfortable working with you.

 

You need to be able to do this anyways to answer client questions but you can also use your knowledge to advertise yourself by offering value to potential customers via Linkedin, Blogs linked back to your website and other means of advertising.

 

  1.  Don’t oversell

 

As an insurance sales professional, it’s natural to want to write as much new business as possible.  But, you will not build long-lasting customers if all you’re after is the quick sale. Down the road, if your customers find the insurance they have is not a good fit, that’s a good way to lose them quickly along with the referrals they would have brought if they were satisfied.

 

Be sure you’re clear on your customers’ needs so you can offer the products and services that suit their needs best.

 

  1.  Leave your competition out of it

 

Too often sales professionals will trash talk their competition in order to make themselves look better, and therefore make the sale.  To your customers who don’t know the ins and outs of the industry, this can come off as petty. As a result, they may feel unsure about trusting you.  

 

Instead, focus on your strengths.  Highlighting why the services you’re offering are a better fit for the customer.  

 

  1.  Be a problem solver

 

In handling a large book of business, it’s inevitable that mistakes or problems may come up.  When they do, the way you respond is crucial to your relationship with your customers moving forward.  When it comes to issues that arise, don’t waste time making excuses. Be gracious, and solve the problem as quickly as possible, then move on.

 

  1. Don’t make promises you can’t keep

 

Like many sales professionals, insurance agencies often wind up trying to offer to much either to make a sale or out of over generosity.  Do your best not to over promise.

 

Only offer your customers things you know you can actually deliver, in the long run, they’ll appreciate this more.

 

  1.  Remember that your customers’ time is valuable too

 

Your day is busy, but so is your customers’.  Being respectful of that can go along way in maintaining trust with your clients.  It doesn’t take much, It’s as simple as calling right back when you say you will or being at meetings on time.  

 

  1.  Communicate, communicate, communicate

 

Communication is a key element for any relationship, including the customer-agent relationship.  It is important in being both proactive in communicating directly with your customers as well as responsive when they communicate with you.  

 

First, contacting your customers periodically puts your name and face in front of them, reminding them you’re there.

 

Second, the more you communicate the more your customers will trust you.  This will keep them with you longer but may also help you to uncover their additional insurance needs for future sales.  

 

In a nutshell:

 

If you’ve established a meaningful relationship with a customer, they’ll more likely keep coming to you for future insurance needs.  They’re also more likely to bring their family, friends, and other acquaintances to you for their insurance needs as well. As a result, you’re customers are satisfied and your pipeline is full.  It’s a win-win.