Find out ten ways to stay connected with your clients, keep them happy, and build their loyalty to you and your agency.
In the insurance industry, it takes a lot of energy and time to earn new customers and build a successful business. The worst thing an agent can do is let a client file grow dusty after closing a sale. Client engagement is key to keeping customers happy. Happy customers don’t leave. Here are 10 customer retention insurance strategies to focus on when building and maintaining your business.
1. Stay in Touch
When you regularly reach out to your clients (not just trying to sell them something), you keep your name fresh in their minds. Holiday cards, newsletters, postcards, gifts, and emails all go a long way in building loyalty.
2. Cross Sell
If your agency sells home and auto insurance, try to secure both products for your clients. The more connected a client is to your agency, the likelier they’ll stay. Incentivizing bundled packages works well for these customer retention insurance strategies.
3. Get to Know Your New Clients
Front-load your relationship building by making an effort to get to know your new clients. Learn about your client’s family and what they like to do for vacation. Learn their family pet’s name. And don’t forget to jot down these notes in your files. Your early communication sets the tone for your relationship and is a great addition to your customer retention insurance strategies.
4. Annual Coverage Review and Discount Reviews
Sure, it’s easy to just let things chug along and not touch base with your long term clients. You may feel like some of your clients fall into a “set-it-and-forget-it” category and not review your clients’ coverage on a regular basis. By checking in annually though, you can learn about any life updates like a new car purchase on the horizon or a client thinking of putting their house on the market.
By knowing ahead of time if your client’s needs are changing, you can offer new quotes or products ahead of time which may prevent them from “shopping around.” It’s also a great time to review what current discounts and promotions might apply to your clients and let them know how you can save them money. Spoiler alert: clients who regularly save money aren’t going anywhere!
5. Ask for Referrals
This might seem like one of the strangest customer retention insurance strategies out there, because a client referral and customer retention have almost nothing to do with each other. But, if you can get your current clients to talk you up to their friends and family, there’s a great likelihood that they will stay with you, as well.
6. Educate Your Clients On Loyalty Benefits
Some types of auto insurance policies offer benefits like accident forgiveness after about 5 years. Reminding existing clients about these policies is one of the best customer retention strategies because it incentivizes them to stick around. Other incentives that reward clients for staying with their provider include decreases in deductibles and no-claim bonuses.
7. Offer & Incentivize Auto-Payments
Getting your existing clients to sign up for automatic bill-pay or automatic payments is one of the easiest customer retention strategies. Auto payments make it easier for your clients to pay their premiums on time which will reduce any lapse in service. A client using automatic payments is also less likely to cancel immediately, because there is an extra step/barrier. This gives the agent more time to save the relationship and win back the client.
8. Reward Retention Within Your Agency
If you manage a team of agents, or are working on a team of agents, come up with retention rewards for retaining clients. Offer a retention bonus or start a contest with points given when an agent successfully retains a client for various intervals (2 years, 5 years, 10 years, etc.).
9. Create Feedback Channels For Your Clients
Build systems and methods for existing clients to offer you feedback. Send out a satisfaction survey to get personal feedback as well as find out what types of concerns and topics your clients are thinking about. If you can identify points of concerns or tension in the client-agent relationship early, you can be proactive in fixing them long before the cancellation notice shows up.
10. Stay Personal
Many agents will do a lot of work at the beginning of a client relationship to personalize communication and get to know their client. But one of the customer retention insurance strategies used by agents is to maintain the personal communication. A handwritten note at your client’s anniversary of service goes a long way. Did your client just get a new car and update their policy? Send them a card congratulating them on their new ride! Use social media to give personalized shout-outs to existing clients if they offer a referral or hit a service milestone. Set reminders in your calendar so you don’t forget these small acts and gestures that go a long way in keeping your clients happy.
Retaining customers should be high on any agent’s priority list. Make room in your schedule to keep existing customers happy, by not having to spend hours each day cold calling for new business. Partner with HBW Leads and they will generate double-verified leads just for you, so you can focus on the relationship building. Contact HBW Leads today and connect with their insurance and technology experts to learn more.