Yes, 39% of Americans shopped their auto insurance a little over a year ago according to a recent JD Powers study. This is a 7% increase over 2013. 29% of these people switched their insurance. The bottom line is people are shopping their insurance and every independent agent needs to go in protection and defense mode to focus on a proactive strategy to keep their business.
Imagine this. You are an average two income American family. Everything but gas keeps going up slightly. You put a full day in at work, pick up the kids from dance class and soccer then come home to make dinner. Sounds normal, right? When dinner is in the oven, you open your mail. In the mail is your insurance renewal.
You think “Hmmm, it seems that every year our insurance keeps going up.” You remember working with an agent 4 years ago but you haven’t heard from them since. It seems that no one has really cared about the few thousand dollars you spend with them. Maybe it’s time to give them a call, but then you think “Should I really have to? Shouldn’t someone be working with me?” Plus, maybe you don’t even remember your agent’s name!
Your husband sees the bill after a long hard day at work and well, he’s a little hangry. Let’s just say he’s not happy because he knows the neighbors are paying several thousand dollars less. You agree to call the agent and look around. Then you settle down to watch the Voice together as a family and commercial after commercial is taunting you with savings and ease of doing business. You grab the Ipad and hop on to see. The rate you get makes you sick to think you have been “over paying” for years. Now very upset, one of three things happen:
- You bind coverage ASAP with a direct writer at 10pm at night without contacting your agent to give them a chance. Why call them when they haven’t done much to stay in contact with you?
- You stew on it overnight and the next morning you call your agency, not too happy and a normally pleasant CSR gets hit right in the gut with a rate bullet.
- You get busy at work and by the time you can talk to someone it’s Saturday and your agency is not open.
Now, you the insurance agent, if you knew 40% of your book got another auto quote what would you do? What would you do knowing this if you were starting a brand new agency, how would you design things differently?
We have several challenges in the independent insurance space:
- Our hours are not convenient to the modern family
- We need to be found as an option for the 39% of people shopping
- It is critical in personal lines to have a strong proactive approach to working with clients
- We need a marketing plan to continuously market to existing customers
Agencies can work around not being open 24 hours a day by being proactive. However, every agency needs to start thinking about different hours. Being open later, even 2 days per week, allows for greater flexibility. Your team may even appreciate split hours if it allows them more flexibility with kids or traffic. I also believe agencies need to be open Saturdays if you have a good amount of personal lines customers. You don’t need to be full staff but this can solve many challenges since you are open and let’s face it, it provides better service to your customers. Stop worrying about what your team will think, this is your business. When is the time we start caring what our customers think? You need to look at online tools that allow people to conduct transactions after hours BUT more importantly you need your team to suggest, push and get the adoption of these tools with their customers. They can’t be purchased and then sit on a shelf.
Agencies have an opportunity with this much shopping to attract new business. You need a strong focused two prong approach. First, how to make every client a raving fan that tells everyone they know about you and second, how to be found online. Referral programs are not new but they are rarely ever really adopted and the team rarely adds fuel to the fire. Agencies need a defined customer experience, trained team members and a killer referral program (hint, call us if you need help!). Next, it’s 2016, if your website sucks (pardon our verbiage) you are sunk. If your website looks ok but like everyone else, no one will care. Your website is the most valuable sales tool you have and it’s open 24/7. Stop being cheap and invest in a brand, invest in a modern website that is mobile friendly and SEO optimized. Then take your budget that you once spent on Yellow Pages and put it toward monthly SEO with a real person that you have a relationship with that understands your agency and insurance (we know a really great one if you need this!). Stop thinking that internet shoppers are a waste of time. Every 30+ year old I know starts everything there. Also, stop thinking that B2B business is not on social media or the web because you are wrong.
We need to get rid of the “don’t poke a sleeping bear” motto for personal lines service. Let’s put the licensed agents into a proactive customer loving model. Go back to the scenarios I provided, in your personal lines team you probably see lagging morale and grumpy people who say I’m too busy. Some people are too busy but some are following up 4 times on a cancellation signature. We need to call every customer at renewal and TALK to them. Talk about the market, update their contact information and their home updates. Educate them on new lines of business. You will see increased team morale, account rounds, retention and increased coverages, not to mention CYA on E&O. So why don’t agencies do it? They lack a process, they lack the ability to motivate the team and they lack the belief that you can call your book. It’s an average of 4-5 calls per person per day. It can get done and this is something we specialize in.
I once read that 93% of insurance marketing is focused on new business. What? An industry that runs off of renewal income is so focused on new we forget the current. Again, it’s 2016. Get an email marketing tool, even a basic Mailchimp account, and send out spring cleaning tips. Do something to stay in front of your customer or you will easily be forgotten and lose business without even getting the opportunity.
These stats are real, I can’t change them but what we can do is help your agency prepare for the new challenges!
