Kelly and Dave’s topic on this month’s episode of the Ridiculously Amazing Insurance Podcast is ways that agencies can become more efficient and effective, from service to sales. These tactics will probably work about 80% of the time, while your traditional methods will be more effective the other 20% of the time, depending on the client and their preferences.
Service team members tend to fall into 3 main inefficient and ineffective habits:
- Automatically remarketing to a client just because it is time for them to renew. By avoiding having a phone conversation with the client, you do not understand any new life events or circumstances that may have arisen that could impact their quote, so by sending them an inaccurate remarketing, you are wasting your time and theirs. This also insinuates to the client that their policy is primarily about price, when you’ve spent months or years asserting that it is about overall value.
- If a frustrated client calls you, you listen to their complaints and then tell them that you will look into the specifics and then get back to them. In the meantime, other calls are coming in and it takes you a week or two to get back to them, by which time they may have already begun shopping around to other agencies.
- Sending a quote over email may be giving the client exactly what they asked for, but it also gives them the opportunity to just look at the bottom line and make a decision without the benefit of your explanation and expertise.
Three alternative habits that service team members can immediately pick up instead are:
- Do not send any more automatic remarkets. Be proactive and call every client every year to discuss any changes that may affect their coverage.
- If you can’t give them a quote or resolve their issue over the phone, schedule a phone call on their calendar to follow up.
- After providing the quote in person or over the phone, send them an email application using Electronic Signature to save both of you time and effort.
On the sales team side of things, here are 3 ineffective and inefficient practices:
- 1. Having no sales process to follow with clients which includes a system and follow up tactics and methods. This process helps you develop rapport and trust through your expertise.
- Creating a deck page to build a quote. Most of the time, this is an unnecessary step and it would be better for you and the client to just move on to the quote.
- Sending quotes over email, which relinquishes your ability to engage with the client to build their preferred coverage.
Alternative habits for sales team members are:
- Develop a sales process and stick with it.
- Experiment with skipping the deck page step.
- Present the quote in person or over the phone.
Some of these ideas may work for you and some may not, but it is important to try new things and see how technology can help your traditional methods along.
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