Insurance Agent Forum

[norcalinsurance]

Originally Posted by theinsurancelady

What about guaranteed replacement cost coverage?

A thing of the past Guaranteed Replacement cost is. No longer, since the CA Oakland fires, as someone in this thread said.

[BRIS]

We still have the guaranteed replacement with a few companies in VA, but not all. I remember when, as an Oregon agent with Allstate they stopped offering it, some mention of CA being the cause!

As for retention, offer two pay plans, EFT and paid in full. You'll be amazed how much calmer your office becomes and fewer problems. But you lose some first, then the numbers will come back. Fees fo payments in the office, but EFT being totally free with many companies can save them an easy $10 a month (5 from company, 5 from you). Just an idea, worked for us!

[Insurance Phoenix]

Ok, here is an idea I am in the process of implementing. So it's not a tried and true idea but sounds plausible to me.

I am accumulating email addresses for my clients. I am going to send one or two emails per month with a very short email on an insurance topic. The purpose is NOT sales related but sharing information. The idea is to keep your name in front of them - real and perceived value, and to give them helpful and (hopefully) valuable tips and advice.

[1manshow]

I love your idea ! Of course we do the email in conjunction w/newsletter. Every once in a while we include a trivia question with a prize for the first responder to ***@agent.com We actually had a contest announced through our newsletter to win a $500 shopping spree, only thing you had to do to enter was send us an email saying "enter me" That got us a pile of email addresses with minimal work. Good luck

[Mr. Bill]

That is a BRILLIANT idea!!!

[xrac]

There is good advice in this thread.

[DenverINS]

Its mostly been covered and I agree with the others.
EFT helps prevent lapses.

Just a simple phone call and asking them if anything has changed, or would they like to do a review. Send out a birthday card. We call it "touching" your client (its good touch I assure you!). Basically remind them 4-6 times per year that you exist.

Finally, clients stay longer if they carry more products with you. This is a bit harder with substandard because they'd rather buy a new TV then make sure their family has life insurance. Try to get them into HO, renters, life; even if its a small policy.

Substandard folks always think they are getting screwed. If you show them respect and make them feel important that can go a long ways.

Though, some clients are just hopeless. If you do all of the above and they leave you to save $5 a month then be glad they are gone. Those are the ones making claims, complaining about their billing etc...

[RayGroupInsurance]

Don't stop with birthday cards, I like to send Christmas cards too. You need to "touch" them 10 times a year. That could be calling them on their birthday, birthday card, Christmas card, annual review, x-sell letter, life insurance letter, get creative with it but you want to be in front of them every 30-45 days.

I don't think you need to do much more than you're already doing though, 73% is pretty good for non-standard.

[1manshow]

Not sure I agree with 10 touches/year.
10 times/year x 3500 clients x.42 each = $14,700 annually in postage alone for me. Wow, I love my clients but I'm drawing the line at 4 quarterly newsletters/year and a bday letter ! ROI on touching them 10 times a year seems like it might get tight unless you are generating craploads of referrals and spin offs. I'd actually be afraid my clients might start wondering who the hell is financing all the mailings ?

[Beach Broker]

The ten touches per year is excellent advice. You just have to be creative in how you do it to make it affordable.

There are at least 5 ways to touch clients and they don't all have to be through the mail.

1. Staff member calls them 2 times per year.
2. Voice broadcast 2-3 times per year on major holidays. Voice broadcasting is THE cheapest mass media available on the market offline. The best way to use this is to make it go to their voice mail, not a live answer. That way you just leave a message on their machine and wish them a merry Christmas.
CAUTION: Don't sell on these messages, use them as a touch, a relationship builder, and a friendly reminder that you are never too busy for referrals. (Let me know if you want a lead on a service that does this, or just google "voice broadcasting" you'll find plenty).
3. Email them at least 1 time per month with relevant, interesting content.
Never sell through email, just provide value, and don't bore people to tears with insurance jargon. Make your emails personal and interesting. Share case studies from clients who had the right coverage, and were glad they did.
4. Cross sell letters at least 3 times per year. The customer list is where the money is.
5. Monthly newsletter. I've heard some people dis newsletters, saying only do them once or twice per year. I have to tell you in my experience... that's bad advice.

Sure if you send a boring, stuffy, insurance focused newsletter, it's not going to get read. But make your newsletters interesting, fun to read, and full of human interest and clients look forward to them each month.

PLUS, they more than pay for themselves with increased retention (substantially in some cases) and increased referrals. This is a tool that self perpetuates when it's done right, because people like the newsletter, and they share it with friends and neighbors. Plus you can always remind people of your referral program within the newsletter.

Make the newsletter PERSONAL. This is the most important part. Creating a relationship with the clients happens by them feeling like they know and like you, and this is what you can accomplish with good personal newsletters.

Beach Broker

P.S. This may seem horribly self serving, but there's there's a copy of a great newsletter, and an explanation of how to create a great one, check out http://www.insurancemaverick.com and opt in on the right side, no strings, no sales pitch, just free info. The videos have some content, but once you opt in, you can download the newsletter and the instructions.

[OnTheFrontLines]

There are some really good ideas here.

The idea of not being stuffy is absolutely 'dead on target!' because the reality is a "break from the crowd" approach can create affinity as well as "rememberence". If you don't believe this then recall what Johnny Carson said about the American public and I'm paraphrasing...but it was along the lines of ...'if want to know what the American public values the most between entertainment and education just look at my salary compared to the the head of Harvard's salary and then you'd have your answer'...So to provide education to clients (reviews, coverages, policies, even a newsletter) is important, but delievering the information with some flare from TheInsuranceLady could provide some added glue to make the customers stick. You could come up with an easy to remember marketing message like "When Lady Luck Is Not With You, Then You Better Be With The Insurance Lady"

It is actually very important to put personality into your agency. Be different WITH a purpose. Be different ON purpose.

And the easy way is via the paper newsletter as some other saavy agents have stated.

Now it may be controversial, and that's fine, but the 'save to stay' philosophy is only going to further deteriate you lapse/cancellations because you know as well as everybody else, that if they stay with you for price then they will leave you for price...and you'll NEVER always have the lowest price.

The newsletter on a monthly basis that does NOT try to sell all the time, but rather provides Value and good info in such a manner that makes them look forward to reading it will go along way.

One more thing, 'Kudos' to the the wise agents who are spot lighting customers as well as featuring 'business of the month' type of exposures...this is truly a great way to foster stronger bonds and another great 'in road' to referrals from those clients at some time in the future. One more thing to add is depending on the product that your business spot light provides -Smart agents could get that business to provide some kind of valuable service to your clients and to get the service they simply have to take a coupon in that came from your newsletter. This helps your business clients to grow their business and it also adds value to your agency becasue you were able to get this arranged for your book of business.

The ideas are limitless, but information and knowledge without implementation is equal to ignorance.

So I hope you act on these great ideas

[saieddie]

I don't know what everyone else on here does, but when I get unsolicited mail/email, I skim it and chuck it.
Automated voicemails are just irksome and take up space on my answering machine.
B'day cards are a nice touch, but Christmas cards get lost in the holiday shuffle. (I do like the Labor Day card my realtor sends, he's the only one who does that)

Our retention takes care of itself w/us. We don't do anything special.
We mail a letter at renewal to send us any changes or questions. Then call 30 days from renewal to verify and see if we need to shop their rate.
We always try to answer the phone by the 2nd ring, and call back msgs w/in the hour.
Take care of claims, endorsements, and billing promptly and with a personal touch.
The customers that leave for price will never have good retention and don't value good service. We don't want them anyway.

[Insurance Phoenix]

It's been said the more you keep in contact with clients throughout the year the better the retention is. I do a bad job of that like many others. But one agent told me he sends letter before every renewal and that helped greatly.

[Peter Ryan]

The best thing I've ever done for increased retention is a monthly newsletter.

Most agents on this forum will say "It's too expensive." But how much does it cost you to lose business? To buy leads, to advertise, to cut prices just to keep clients?

Of course it's not "too expensive" is a client worth 2 bucks per month to you? If not then we're all in trouble.

Anyway, use an engaging, personal interest story, don't just spew out insurance jargon.

A good newsletter has a good intro article written by you, (keep the whole thing very personality driven), then some tips, some celebrity gossip, it'd be really cool to talk about the celebrity insurance gossip.

Who's house burned down, who got in a car accident, what insurance carrier paid for angelina's baby delivery, etc.

Keep it interesting, and informative, and don't sell too hard.

[Zachery]

I send a monthly newsletter to all my clients. It is NOT about insurance, but about human interest stories...has a contest in it to get them to act...has fun and interesting facts...and a section where I highlight the client of the month...lastly, I have a section where I write about what is going on in my life.

It is increased my retention to over 90%

Yes, it takes a bit of work to get it together and in the mail each month, but definitely worth it for the increased retention and the guaranteed. continuity income.

Zach

[saieddie]

How long have you been doing your newsletter?

[1manshow]

Among other new marketing activities, my newsletter has been going out quarterly for one year now and my persistency has climbed over 3% !!! Freakin awesome! That equates to around 20K in commission I "WILL NOT" lose out the backdoor this year. Currently at 93.4% and shooting for 95% by 2009

Added bonus is the PIF growth bonuses we will be getting