BY APPT ONLY - No Walk In's NO Cash

[insurance1822]

My colleague has a captive agency & he's running into logistical problems. He has a book filled w/ bums who insist on paying cash, insist on coming in to heckle staff over their rates etc. It chews up their time on the daily. My response is STOP taking cash or check payments; make everything electronic. If you still drive to an office to pay a bill (and bitch over pricing and take up your staff time by 20-30 minutes every time you come..) it's not a customer you want. Get rid of them.

BY APPT ONLY - You can't just walk in the office to b1tch about your rates or question your bill. You must set an appointment. These questions can and should be handled over the phone...PERIOD. The need to service this very small % EATS UP TIME and is unnecessary. I'm thoroughly convinced these people swing by the office on their way home from work OR on their off day SIMPLY to take up somebody's time just to "feel" better about the insurance they're spending money on.

You cant just "show up" to a doctor, cpa, mechanic shop etc & just instantly get serviced. YOU SCHEDULE AN APPOINTMENT. Simply be enforcing that rule you'll cut out 50% of these idiots who are just looking to take up your time.

Now I know many old bum agents will throw your arms up & start talking about how this is a people business and blah blah blah. This is a BUSINESS first & foremost and needs to be ran as efficiently & profitably as possible. You can't afford to constantly explain the same things over & over again to the *** population who's arguably not even looking for an answer.

At my indy I DO NOT take any cash payments or checks...it's all electronic. I make everybody go on EFT. My office isn't even open...it's BY APPT ONLY. I have never failed to close new business because of this. Have I maybe lost a few who've randomly showed up looking for service? I'm sure I have. I've taken a handful of calls where people say "I'm at your office & nobody is here?" and I say "Yes as per the sign on the door we're by appointment only.." Fortunately I market to a demographic who also doesn't have time to pop into offices, they'd much rather just call me. All my clients have my cell phone for instant access to me whenever they need it.

I write a substantial volume of business & my retention is over 94% (3 years in...so I'm sure that number will increase as the years go on.) I told this captive he needs to streamline his operation. If he loses 1% of his accounts BUT frees up enough staff time to increase sales 30% (which I ran the numbers and that's how it should play out..) It's 100% worth it.

The problem is he's also an old bum agent who doesn't really know how to write business (and he's captive..) so I think he's also...just complaining

 

[shawnmwalker]

Sooooooooooooooo, What is the question or point?

Yes we agree! Free up time, sell annual EFT all the time. When you do free up the staff time make sure it translates into sales not sitting.

 

[nyc2phi]

Sounds like he made his decision early what type of business he was going to write and he stuck with that.

He's now a used car dealership and that's the type of clientele he is going to attract.

In my area I have a no cash sign in the window. A lot of things can go wrong when accepting cash in a rougher neighborhood.

 

[BlockO]

If he loses 1% of his accounts BUT frees up enough staff time to increase sales 30% (which I ran the numbers and that's how it should play out..) It's 100% worth it.

I can't disagree with anything you said. and I think your friend is exaggerating.


those numbers you listed that I quoted above would be dead on accurate with some agencies, but way off on others. too many factors involved here to lump all in one category. the biggest one being location (big city vs. small town), another being the carriers the agency has and where they fall in the preferred - non-standard spectrum.

most agents who live in small town USA can't get away with not allowing walk-ins. and if they have an office in the main part of a small town, they probably wouldn't want to anyways.

as for taking cash.... I'm in six states, so logistics works in my favor there of not taking cash. But I accept cash payments for locals. I only have a small handful of them, but 80-90% of them are some of the best customers I have. been on the books for years, never lapse, rarely complain, and I get by far the most referrals from them.

points is: your friend could weed these bad people out without having to throw the baby out with the bath water.

 

[Herkster]

I can't disagree with anything you said. and I think your friend is exaggerating.


those numbers you listed that I quoted above would be dead on accurate with some agencies, but way off on others. too many factors involved here to lump all in one category. the biggest one being location (big city vs. small town), another being the carriers the agency has and where they fall in the preferred - non-standard spectrum.

most agents who live in small town USA can't get away with not allowing walk-ins. and if they have an office in the main part of a small town, they probably wouldn't want to anyways.

as for taking cash.... I'm in six states, so logistics works in my favor there of not taking cash. But I accept cash payments for locals. I only have a small handful of them, but 80-90% of them are some of the best customers I have. been on the books for years, never lapse, rarely complain, and I get by far the most referrals from them.

points is: your friend could weed these bad people out without having to throw the baby out with the bath water.

I agree with this 100%. With our location, we wouldn't survive without walk-ins - well, we would now that we've been around has long as we have, but I'm sure walk ins were a large part of our business when it was being built.

We have a few cash customers, most of our farm customers pay with a check, and it works out just fine.

 

[BlockO]

most of our farm customers pay with a check, and it works out just fine.

the fact that most carriers accept E-checks as payment now make that more convenient. customers who used to stop and write checks now just call me with the routing & acct. numbers.

 

[CaptiveGuy]

I agree but for agencies who have always taken walk ins and cash payments they just can't cut it off without a major disturbance to their book. I'm 4 years in and don't take cash/money order payments in the office. Clients are free to mail it to the carriers themselves or opt for EFT/annual payments.

My first year indy I wrote anyone just trying to build my book and it was service nightmare. Now with a target market, my service calls have gone down from 25-35 a day to 10 per day while still writing a decent amount of business. Now I'm sitting around thinking why do I still need my CSR...

 

[Italianik]

Holding money is the plight of my life, but what do you do for commercial? I always meet them in person and they give me checks. I write business checks to reconcile easily at the end of the tax year, so I get it.

Same for closings. Depending on the timeline of the close- they pay with a check and need proof of payment. Sometime the date moves...

But I agree- most of my clients don't come to my office. Maybe 10%.
And I don't think most of my commercial clients know where my office is bc I go to them for appts/ apps.

 

[rudy323]

If your state allows it, charge a payment fee.
Especially when you NEED staff in order to take payments, they might be a breakeven endeavor

Imagine you have $100k in cash premiums that equals $15k commissions. You have to hire an employee and pay them $25k a year to be sitting in the office to be available to take those payments. You're losing money