Book ‘em Dano!

The first thing, the very first thing, you’ve absolutely got to do if you want to grow your agency is keep the customers you’ve already got! This should be obvious but I know from experience it isn’t. The average agency’s retention rate is sub 85%. The best growth agencies have retention rates approaching 95%!

To grow you must lock up your customers!

This is really easy to do too.

Do you think customers want to leave you? No they do not. Buying insurance is a pain in the ass! Just try it sometime! Really. It’s not easy to decide whom to trust.   All the ads you see on TV make it sound like you’re getting screwed. And developing relationships is hard. All the surveys say that people want to have a relationship with their agent.   Even technically savvy young people want this.

So, make it easy for customers to stay!

Here are some really basic things to do to make this happen:

Communicate. Keep in touch with people the way, an in the frequency they want. Text, email, snail mail, phone, FB, you name it. Do it their way! Don’t just call at renewal. Have a plan to touch every customer at least 4 times a year. I think more is better but that’s a minimum. Let them know you care about more than your commission.

1. Give good advice. Don’t just sell cheap. Sell solutions. Give options – more than one company and more than one price point. I’ve written about the power of three but that’s a great number for options and quotes.
2. Don’t take them for granted. Look, every insurance ad in existence implies you’re cheating them. Prove you’re not. Re-quote every year!
3. Account round. The world is changing but account stickiness still has a lot to do with how many policies you sell a customer. Round!
4. Be grateful. Are you grateful? Glad to be in business? Happy to have customers? THEN SAY SO! People love to be appreciated and feel loyal to those that appreciate them.
5. Be There. When they need or want you. Look 8 to 5 M-F just isn’t good enough anymore. You need to be available by smart phone app, website, mobile phone, text, email, FB, etc. 24/7. It’s not hard anymore. But you have to do it.

Let me be blunt. If you can’t move your retention to 90% plus you have no business trying to grow. You will fail. Do this first! Then stay at it. If you do growth is almost a by-product! Book ‘em Dano!