Effective Current Client Retention

[farmerslane23]

I am working on retention in our office. We've started a gentle email campaign (2 emails over three months) to remind them we are here, and we've been contacting clients about appointments via office or phone to review their account gaps. We're sending handwritten new client, birthday, and holiday cards. I'm wondering if we can do more.

What surprising thing has been effective for you to retain clients? Has there been anything big or small that made a client comment about your good service, aside from providing them basic good service and taking care of their claims?

 

[NinjaNic]

Try text messaging them thru a service like message-media.com. Always text a question to prompt a reply.

 

[DHK]

Newsletters. There are various services to write and/or distribute them.

IPS will write them, but distribution is up to you. ($60/month for personalized ones)
The most effective and affordable client newsletters for insurance agents and financial advisors

e-relationship: - $150 setup, $74.95/month and you can add Liberty Newsletters for an additional $30/month
e-Relationship®

Virtual Sales Assistant ($23.95/month) is better than nothing... but they are so sterile. Personally, I want my newsetters to reflect me and my professionalism... and these one just don't do it for me.
Newsletters

Forefield $469/year OR $995/year in a bundled package with website, presentations, seminars, and newsletters. Many broker/dealers also use this, so you won't have to worry about FINRA compliance. I'm leaning towards this one myself. You can email the newsletters on an automated basis (just like e-relationship) AND you can even do a Print & Mail - where they do all the work. (Additional printing & postage costs apply)
Forefield Newsletter | Forefield /Broadridge | Forefield

 

[farmerslane23]

We do have a newsletter service. The newsletters are really nice actually. They went out this week, so the example came to the office. It's gorgeous.

I haven't really heard much feedback on them, though. Maybe I'll start asking during our account reviews if the client receives the newsletters and if they are useful. I'm sure most people don't even open them, but maybe some do.

 

[DHK]

Newsletters should be useful... but that's not the purpose of a newsletter.

The purpose of a newsletter... is to not let them forget you.

This way, when you contact your clients, they will remember you, respond positively to your calls, and come in for reviews.

If you have nice content that sounds like YOU wrote it... with your picture and contact information... that's all you need.


The second reason to have a newsletter... is to automate your follow up and let THEM call you when they're ready.

Let me tell you a personal experience. About 20 years ago, I was in a network marketing company. I wasn't successful, so I began to search out various training and reports, etc. I requested a cassette tape called "The Shocking Truth about MLM" by Art Meakin. It was sent to me and I enjoyed it.

After getting a couple of mailings from a guy to "work my lead"... I think I actually told him that I wasn't interested, so he didn't have to keep mailing to me.

He kept mailing to me - every month on the 1st week of the month.

This went on for quite some time. Eventually, I was forced to conclude that:
1) He knew what he was doing,
2) He must be successful to continue to mail to someone who actually said not to.

(Remember, you don't need permission to mail anything to anyone... just email.)

After 18 months... I decided to join with him in his network marketing company.

His name was Norm Klootwyk out of Marshalltown, Iowa.


And I still remember this... nearly 20 years later.

It's the ONLY time that someone's CRM and continued follow up worked on me.

 

[farmerslane23]

I'm not the owner of the agency, and we're captive and subject to lots of rules, so the newsletters are not written by me, but they are very professional. I think that would be something that I wouldn't be able to change/fix.

We're in a very affluent area that's a bit oversaturated with insurance agents, so I want to give them better customer service than they would receive elsewhere. Something that's different from everyone else...