Once there’s a claim, we have the ability to really shine.  We’re responsive and concerned.  We work to expedite things and look out for our policyholder’s interests.  We end up creating more of a relationship with our clients.  When there’s a claim, we get the opportunity to really shine in the eyes of the policyholder.  The problem arises when everything is going well!

When all is well and there aren’t any claims (which is most of the time), we aren’t thought of.  And when we aren’t thought of, our clients are easily persuaded to consider using another agent or finding a better rate.  The real challenge with keeping clients isn’t mishandling a claim.  It’s being faceless.  The danger lies in being a nameless toaster.

How do you avoid the misfortune of being forgotten?  Let me share a lesson I learned many years ago when I was working to succeed as a small business consultant.  I have a pretty strong business background and I knew I could help most any small business in any area they needed help with – finance, marketing, systems, personnel, etc.  I marketed to businesses far and wide – businesses in various industries and of various sizes.  I was open to any assignment I could attract.  After all, I couldn’t afford to turn any opportunity away.  I worked hard at developing my consulting practice, but never achieved more than mediocre results.  After a few years of struggling, I ended up moving on to other things (read that as, “I had to get a job.”).  Just after accepting an executive position with a company, I gained an important marketing insight.  Here is the insight I got:

If you’re not known for something, you’re not known for anything.

I had been a toaster.  People hardly thought of me.  They rarely referred others to me.  Only a small number of them chose to give their business to me.  My mistake kept my practice in mediocrity.
In order for an insurance agent and agency to thrive, they must be known for something.  In order to accomplish this, one needs to have a message that’s remembered, and must create and maintain a relationship with one’s clients.  As for the message, most agents have a message that’s “vanilla”.  They don’t differentiate themselves from everyone else.  Perfect examples of messages that don’t differentiate can be found in your local Yellow Pages under “Insurance”.  Pretty much everyone says the same thing.  If you want to be remembered, you need a message which sets you apart.  It doesn’t need to be anything peculiar, just something that will cause people to remember you.  It may be something about who you work with or something about one of your traits.  Think of it as “branding” yourself; something to be associated with and remembered by.

As far as creating and maintaining relationships with clients goes, obviously the way to create relationships is to interact with clients.  Staying in touch with clients requires both passive and active systems.  Passive systems are those which are essentially on “auto-pilot” and don’t require much of your personal time.  Passive systems can reach greater numbers of people because they don’t require your personal involvement.  They can be used with every one of your clients.  Some Passive Systems you can implement are:

•    Printed or email birthday cards (annual)
•    Printed or email anniversary cards (annual)
•    Printed or email annual review reminders (annual)
•    Printed or email thank you notes (annual)
•    Printed or email newsletters (monthly or quarterly)
•    Email thought of the week (weekly)

Active systems, on the other hand, require you to be more selective.  These are systems which are dependent on your direct involvement.  You’ll need to be selective with who will get your personal attention.  Basically, you’ll want to nurture the strongest relationships with your best clients – your “A” list.  These clients typically will be those who have multiple or sizable policies with you, are easy to work with, and/or have been doing business with you for a longer period of time.  This group will generally comprise about 20% of your book of business.
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Some Active Systems you can implement are these:

•    Take your “A” list clients out to lunch for no reason (once a year)
•    Personally call just to say “Hi” and stay in touch (2-3 times a year)
•    Personally call to thank them for their business (annual)
•    Conduct “A” list client appreciation events, open houses and seminars
•    Send “A” list clients a Thank You gift (annual)
•    Be a resource.  Be on the lookout for non-insurance solutions clients may need.
•    Ask for their help (don’t you feel more of a connection with someone when they ask for your help?)
•    Send referrals back to clients whenever possible

In conclusion, the key to being remembered by your clients is to have a point of differentiation and to nurture an ongoing relationship.  These two concepts will allow any insurance or financial services professional to boost their rate of retention, improve client loyalty, and generate more client referrals.

Keep your business and yourself from becoming toast.  Don’t be a toaster.

When I moved to Oregon from Colorado I decided to stay with the same insurance company I had been with for the last 12 years.  I didn’t know any of the agents in my new town (or anyone else for that matter), so I did what most people in my situation would do.  I picked the agent with the largest ad!  After all, he HAD to be at least somewhat successful to afford an ad like that, right?  So I called the agency, got a quote, and bound my coverages.  A few days later – after I had moved into my new home – I stopped by his office to deliver my initial payment.  You’d think they’d be glad to see me.  Nope.  You’d think they’d say, “Oh!  You’re the one who just moved to town!  Let me get Bob (not his real name) so he can introduce himself to you.  Nope.  They simply said, “Thanks for dropping off the check.”  Now in fairness to Bob, maybe he wasn’t in or maybe he was tied up in a meeting.  But the truth is I never did hear from Bob.  Ever.  Well,… that’s not entirely true.  I did receive a couple of mailings offering to sell me life insurance.  Then one day about 8 months later, I met someone – another agent.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.  I wanted to tell you about my friend’s insurance agent.  She couldn’t stop raving about him and how he had helped her.  He learned that she had just moved to town and didn’t know anyone.  Not only that, but he learned she was just starting a new business in the area.  He started introducing her to various business people in the community.  He dropped off literature he thought she’d find useful.  He and his wife invited her to join them at various business functions that could be worthwhile.  Whenever she’d stop by his office with a questions, his staff (yes, he had a large enough book of business to employ 4 staff members) would always call him out of his office to say, “Hi”.

Was it worthwhile to devote that much time, thought and energy to one policyholder?  Well, consider this…  She had him provide all of her personal and business coverage needs.  Additionally, over the years, she has referred about 50 clients to him and continues to endorse him.  And here’s the most amazing part.  HE HASN’T BEEN HER AGENT FOR OVER SEVEN YEARS!  She had to move away from the area and STILL she raves about him!  By building relationships with his policyholders, this agent retains his clients who are loyal to him and become referral machines for him.  In fact, at no time did my friend mention whether his rates went up or down.  The rates became secondary.  It was the relationship with her and the interest he took in her success that made all the difference.  It was a real testament to the power of building relationships with “A” clients.

Let me finish telling about my own insurance agent experience.  As I was saying earlier, I met another insurance agent about 8 months after moving to town.  We met at a Chamber networking event.  I really liked his energy and attitude; he was positive, sincere, and not pushy – very relatable.  We talked for a while, decided to get together to discuss what he did, and exchanged business cards.  A few days later when I went to his office I found him to be the same person I had met earlier.  In other words, while it’s true we did discuss insurance matters, he was very conversational and easy-going.  He wasn’t pushy and I really felt he was getting to know me.  I went back a few days later for his insurance proposal and he had a handful of pamphlets and brochures for me.  During the course of our previous conversation he had discovered that not only was I new to town, but was new to Oregon.  He also had learned that I enjoyed hiking and camping.  In spite of the fact that I wasn’t yet a client, he had taken the time to round up a few things to help me.  He had shown that he cared.

As you might guess, I became a client.  Fortunately for me, his rates were really great; but frankly, I had decided to go with him even if his rates were slightly higher than I had been paying.  I made the decision to move my business to him because my agent at the time didn’t care and my new agent did.  I decided to switch because my new agent not only cared, but he helped me improve my existing coverages, which I was willing to do even if it meant paying a higher premium.  (After all, why have insurance at all if it doesn’t protect us the way we want it to?)  Not only am I a client, but I will no doubt stay his client for as long as I’m in the area.  You see, … we connect with people for who they are and not for what they do.  I’ve already referred other clients to him.

By the way, at the end of my discussion with my friend, I asked her who her agent is now.  She commented that when she moved into town she had just picked someone out of the phone book, but he never had any contact with her.  Guess who I’m going to refer her to?

It makes no difference whether you’re offering P&C coverage, life insurance, health insurance or financial services, you need to understand a couple of underlying truths in order to really succeed in this business.  The first truth is that no one wants to buy insurance.  If you’re in the business of selling insurance, then you’ll have a hard time succeeding.  There are two kinds of prospects who call up asking for an insurance quote – those who are price shopping and those who don’t know how else to get the answers they need.  When you respond to the price shoppers by simply providing an accurate quote, you obviously end up playing the price game.  The one with the lowest price wins – at least until renewal time.  If you should happen to have the lowest quote you get the business.  But in fact, you end up with a customer rather than a client.  These customers have no relationship with you and typically spend less, are less loyal, and are often more difficult to work with.  If you (mistakenly) provide a quote to someone who calls because they don’t know what else to do, you demonstrate that you are in the business of selling insurance and you make them a prime candidate as a client for a true insurance professional.

Which leads us to the second truth.  The second truth is that most prospects don’t know what they need.  They don’t know what they need because they don’t know what they don’t know.  They aren’t even aware or mindful of all their needs and exposures.  If you simply respond to these prospects with a quote, you do them a severe disservice and you sell yourself short as a professional.  Prospects don’t know what questions to ask, they don’t appreciate the consequences of their decisions, and most times aren’t even sure how to make a smart buying decision.  Additionally, by simply quoting an insurance coverage, you sidestep your opportunity to establish yourself as a knowledgeable, creative and caring professional.

Assuming that you don’t want to attract price shoppers and don’t want to short-change prospective clients, then you must stop offering insurance quotes.  Let me explain by way of an example.  A couple of years ago, a now successful insurance agent I know (in fact, he’s my personal P&C insurance agent) stopped offering insurance quotes.  Instead, when a prospective client calls for a quote, he asks the prospect to set up a time to meet with him.  If they decline, he lets them know that his approach to business is to personally meet with each prospective client.  If they still decline to meet and insist on simply getting a quote, he politely tells them that they probably aren’t a good fit with him and offers to provide names of other agents in the area!  Here’s the result of this approach.  His business is growing at over 25% a year, his client retention exceeds 90%, and he enjoys his work more than ever before, because he only ends up working with clients who are like-minded and respect him!

What happens during his meeting with his prospective clients?  He, of course, addresses their initial concerns for a particular insurance coverage, but then enters into a conversation about their goals and concerns, which in turn, naturally leads to a discussion about what they want to accomplish, what the policy they’re asking for provides, and where additional coverages may be helpful.  Clients don’t want to buy insurance; they simply want the protection and benefits that proper insurance coverage provides.  There’s no point in buying insurance if it doesn’t do what it’s intended to do.  This agent then sets up a second meeting for the prospect to come back for a short presentation which includes the recommendations and associated costs.  He then allows his client to make an informed, intelligent buying decision.  As you might guess, he closes an extraordinarily high percentage of his presentations.

This approach of meeting with every prospect builds tremendous rapport, demonstrates a thorough command of the subject, and shows a concern for the well-being of the client and the client’s family.  It’s no wonder that my agent sells 50% more insurance per client than his peers and maintains a retention rate in excess of 90%.  (How much would your profits grow if you simply boosted your retention to over 90%?)  There’s no question that it takes courage to turn prospects away, but the rewards are fairly dramatic.  (Think of the time and energy saved by simply reducing the number of difficult clients that you and your office have to deal with.)

Stop providing insurance quotes to customers and start creating clients.  You’ll be glad you did.

Why does this happen?  Even though we sold them the policy they needed, they up and go.  Why do they leave?  Sometimes they leave due to circumstances out of our (and often their) control.  It could be a move out of the area, loss of a job, divorce, etc.  But more often they leave for other reasons.  Many clients/customers leave because of rates – or so they say.  But the truth very often is that the excuse of rates is really a symptom, rather than the problem.  Even more importantly, it’s not that they found a better rate that’s the real issue.  The real issue – or symptom – is that they were shopping rates at all!  Which brings us to the real question.  What problem is rate shopping a symptom of?  Why would they be rate shopping at all?

People generally look elsewhere because of one or more of the following reasons:

1.    Wrong Kind of Client (relates to how you acquired them)
2.    Lack of Credibility (relates to how you made the sale)
3.    Absence of Relationship (relates to systems)

Let’s discuss the cause of each problem and how to avoid or overcome it.

1.    Wrong Kind of Client (relates to how you acquired them)

Cause: If you find your clients through passive methods – internet leads, yellow pages, newspaper ads – then there is generally only one thing they are interested in – a good rate.  After all, they have nothing else to go on.  There’s no other reason for them to do business with you other than your rates.

Solution: How do you avoid attracting price shopping customers?  Attract clients instead using active prospecting methods.  Active prospecting methods are: effective networking, generating client referrals, properly leveraging centers of influence, and just talking to people as you go (personal observation – an art in and of itself).

2.    Lack of Credibility (relates to how you made the sale)

Cause: Plain and simple, if you just sell your client a good policy, you run the risk of being viewed as an insurance salesperson.  And if that’s the case, then when your policyholder meets someone they view as an insurance professional (as opposed to an insurance salesperson), they are attracted to them and will often leave you for them.

Solution: Become someone who other’s view as an insurance professional.  What’s the difference between an insurance salesperson and an insurance professional?  An insurance salesperson sells insurance and an insurance professional helps people solve problems.  One sells.  The other helps.  This is not simply a matter of semantics.  The most effective way to illustrate this distinction is by offering an example.  Let’s use a multi-line property and casualty agent as an example.  Someone who thinks and acts like a salesperson will provide a quote to a prospect for an auto insurance policy and may also try to sell them a homeowner’s policy.  Their focus is on selling one or more policies.  In contrast, an insurance professional will make every effort to sit down with the prospect and truly assess their needs in full so they can suggest the best solution to the problems they uncover.  Often it leads to a sale, but not always.  However, when you do this, you 1) establish credibility, 2) build a relationship, 3) ultimately sell more products, and 4) develop more loyalty (retention).

Conducting one’s self as a professional rather than a salesperson requires a shift in thought, action and words.  Professionals offer solutions that may not even involve a sale.  They may refer their client to other professionals as needed.  They take an interest in their clients, not just their policies.  The payoff is more than worth the effort.

3.    Absence of Relationship (relates to systems)

Cause: If, after you make a sale, you either have no contact with a policyholder again or only speak to them when they call you, then you have no relationship with them and they are, in fact, a transactional customer rather than a client.

Solution: Obviously the way to create relationships is to interact with clients.  But the challenge that most of us have is in finding the time to build these relationships.  Which brings us to why Absence of Relationship is related to systems.  In the absence of one or more systems, staying in touch with clients and the entire relationship-building process is a hit-or-miss endeavor.  Without consistency, it is difficult for any relationship to grow.  Additionally, if contact is infrequent no real connection develops, while too frequent contact simply becomes annoying and reflects poor judgment.

The key to consistent contact at an appropriate frequency is to implement systems.  In order to implement systems you need contact management software or some other systematic means of generating reminders.  If you don’t presently have CRM (Client Relationship Management) software, then shame on you!  Anyone who is in the business of marketing must have some software or some system for purposes of scheduling calls, to-dos, and meetings.  [A couple of popular CRM software programs are ACT!™ and Goldmine.®]

Assuming that you have a CRM solution in place, we need to answer three questions:

1.    Which of your clients should you build relationships with?
2.    What are some practical ideas for staying in touch and building those relationships
3.    How often should contact be made?

The answers to these questions are dependent upon one another.  Staying in touch with clients requires both passive and active systems.  Passive systems are those which are essentially on “auto-pilot” and don’t require much of your personal time.  Active systems are those which are dependent on your direct involvement.  Passive systems can reach greater numbers of people because they don’t require your personal involvement.  Active systems, on the other hand, require you to be more selective.  You need to choose who will get your personal attention.

Passive Systems

Due to their nature, Passive Systems can be used with every one of your clients, or more accurately, every one of the clients you’d like to keep.  Some Passive Systems you can implement are:

•    Printed or email birthday cards (annual)
•    Printed or email anniversary cards (annual)
•    Printed or email annual review reminders (annual)
•    Printed or email thank you note (annual)
•    Printed or email newsletters (monthly or quarterly)
•    Email thought of the week (weekly)

All of these systems are good, but have only a marginal impact on their own.  They’re best used in conjunction with Active Systems.

Active Systems

The very nature of Active Systems requires us to be selective with whom we choose to invest our time.  Basically you’ll want to nurture the strongest relationships with your best clients – your “A” list.  These clients typically will be those who have multiple or sizable policies with you, are easy to work with, and/or have been doing business with you for a period of time.  This group will generally comprise 10-20% of your book of business.

Some of the Active Systems you can implement are these:

(Use your CRM solution to keep your systems consistent and timely)
•    Take your “A” list clients out to lunch for no reason (once or twice a year)
•    Personally call just to say Hi and stay in touch (2-3 times a year)
•    Personally call to thank them for their business (annual)
•    Conduct “A” list client appreciation events, open houses and seminars
•    Send “A” list clients a Thank You gift (annual)
•    Ask for their help (don’t you feel more of a connection with someone when they ask for your help?)
•    Send referrals back to clients when possible

Clearly, these are just a handful of Passive and Active systems.  Hopefully they’ll get your creative juices flowing.  Also, keep this in mind.  While these are effective systems to be aware of, they’re not nearly as effective as when you actually implement them!

In conclusion, anyone can turn their retention problems around as well as improve an already good rate of retention.  By implementing more Active Prospecting methods, by shifting to more of a Professional attitude and demeanor, and by utilizing both Passive and Active Relationship Building systems, any insurance or financial services professional can boost their rate of retention, improve client loyalty, and generate more client referrals.

No one wants to buy insurance.  Not homeowner’s, auto, life, health or disability…  They only want what the insurance provides.  They only want the benefit.  Believe me, if people could get the benefits they wanted in some other way, they would.  So,… if you “sell insurance” success will be tough.  On the other hand, if you’re in the business of helping people it’s a different story.  Now, you might protest that the distinction is simply a matter of semantics, but there are fundamental differences between having a sales focus and having a helping focus.

This difference affects pretty much everything a person does along with how they do it.  If they have a sales focus, their focus is on making the sale!  Everything from the initial contact to the presentation to the close to the follow-up is done from a sales perspective.  Marketing, contacting, presentation, and follow-up are from a product and/or company perspective.  On the other hand, a person who is focused on helping rather than selling will understand that the service they provide (helping) is what matters and the insurance they offer is simply the means to achieve the solution they create.

Let me illustrate what I mean.  Here’s how a sales-focused person contacts:  “Mr. Jones, my name is Bob Smith and I am with the ABC Insurance Company.  We have a full line of products to meet your needs.  I’d like to set up a time to show you our products and explain how they can solve your problems.”  The focus of the entire exchange is on selling their insurance products.  In contrast, a person focused on helping, contacts this way:  “Ms. Jones, my name is Sue Smith and I help people protect their assets/reduce employee turnover/leverage their financial security.  Is that something of interest to you?”  They understand that they are a professional offering help, rather than a salesperson selling products.

There are many other distinctions related to taking a professional, helping approach over a selling approach, and they have significant implications.  Professionals help rather than sell.  They have clients instead of customers/policyholders.  They build relationships instead of conducting transactions.  They offer solutions instead of sales.  They attract clients instead of pursuing customers.  People buy from them instead in being sold.  They find cooperative opportunities instead of competitive obstacles.  Think of the implications from these distinctions.  We’ve always heard that people do business with people they like, and people like people who help.  You’ve heard the term “trusted advisor”?  This is what we’re talking about.  It occurs when you shift from selling to helping.  Imagine having clients who are eager to refer others to you.

When you adopt the attitude of a professional and take the focus off the products, guess who the focus falls on?  You!  You become the service that clients buy.  You become valuable.  You become a resource.  You become an expert.  Clients don’t look to insurance policies for answers, they look to you!  One of the greatest challenges in arriving at this mindset is becoming clear as to what makes you unique so you can communicate it effectively to your prospects and clients.  I often work with my clients on clarifying their purpose and identifying their unique strengths so that their marketing and leadership is effective.  An interesting challenge we face is that we tend to downplay our strengths, especially if they come easily to us.  We tend to take them for granted and we tend to assume that everyone has the same (or better) abilities.  A very revealing exercise I often ask clients to do is to ask five people they know for five traits that make them excellent at what they do.  (My suggestion is to ask people who aren’t family.  Ask clients, friends, and associates.)  You may be surprised at the results.  I find that the responses fall into three categories.  1) You’ll hear things about you that you and everyone else already knew and will thereby get confirmation, 2) You’ll hear things that you already knew but didn’t think anyone else noticed, giving you new insights as to what people notice and value, and 3) You’ll hear things that you never knew about yourself; things that never occurred to you to be a trait that others would value.  These traits and insights are the things that set you apart from all the others out there.  These are the things that cause people to do business with you.  These unique traits will help you be more effective as you contact new prospects, present your ideas, and generate referrals.

I find that when people aren’t clear about what sets them apart and aren’t clear about their purpose (Inotherwords, why they do what they do) they end up leading with their products and their company.  They rely on the strength and credibility of others instead of leading with themselves.  The goal of every professional should be to become credible in their own right.  That doesn’t necessarily becoming the foremost expert in their field, but it does mean becoming excellent at what they do as a professional – helping others.  It means finding new ways to help.  It may even mean helping in ways other than with insurance.  You can become a resource for information or a networking source of contacts within your community.  You can offer advice in other areas of business or life (other professionals are more than happy to provide you with article and insights you can pass on).

The whole point of this is to stop selling insurance and start helping people.  It’s been said that people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care, and it’s true.  The interesting consequence is that when you take your focus off of selling and place it on helping, you’ll attract more clients, generate more referrals, and sell more insurance.  Life is good…

When things work well for us, when the garage door opener and the coffee maker work the way we expect them to, we generally don’t think much about them. We take them for granted and may not even recall who the manufacturer is. It’s only when they don’t work that we pay attention. Then our attention gets focused on the product and the perhaps the people that made the product.

This trait of human behavior is especially important to make note of when it comes to the business of insurance. It’s pretty evident that when a policyholder has a claim, your agents have the opportunity to really shine – to stand out from the crowd – to deliver more service than expected. The challenge comes when everything is working well! Just like the coffee maker, when things go well (as expected) they’re hardly ever thought of. The insurance is just there. Its “works” the way they expect it to, and therefore the agent and the insurance are taken for granted. There’s often very little connection or relationship with the agent. Some policyholders will just view them as the salesperson that was there to sell them insurance.

The bottom line is that when your agent doesn’t have an ongoing connection with their policyholders, he or she is subject to being picked off by someone with a little lower rate or by someone who happens to come along at the right time and is able to build rapport with them. Agents who retain clients in the face of rate increases, poor fund performance and increasing competition understand that they need to connect with their policyholders in ways that address some of the eight universal needs that people have. These universal needs are:

1.    Sense of Accomplishment – People want to feel that they’ve accomplished something through their efforts.
2.    Sense of Belonging – People want to be part of a winning team. Make certain that you communicate just how much your team is winning.
3.    Direction – Communicate your purpose and provide your clients and prospects with the direction to achieve it.
4.    Sense of Empowerment – Expect the best of people and they will rise to your expectations.
5.    Recognition – Everyone, to one degree or another, loves recognition for a job well done.
6.    Respect – Treat people the way you want to be treated. Understand that although we all have different hopes and dreams, we all have them.
7.    Sense of Significance – Make sure you help your policyholders understand the significance of their efforts towards reaching their goals and achieving their purpose.
8.    Sense of Purpose – I believe that everyone craves a purpose. We want to be passionate about something (anything!). Be clear on your purpose and develop the purpose of others.

Well, now that we’ve covered these eight needs that people have to one degree or another, how do we apply them in our business? We need to provide these needs in an ongoing manner. The key is for agents to continue to “tap their policyholders on the shoulder” – to continue to let them know they’re still there and are thinking about them. It’s a matter of doing something extra when things are going well. Typically, a good policyholder retention system is made up of a combination of passive and active programs.

Active programs are effective but are time-consuming. The benefit of an active program is that it is very personal and demonstrates that someone took the time to do something specifically for their policyholder. The active programs in a retention system should address one or more of the eight needs. If an agent develops active programs that suit his or her style and addresses some of the above needs, their efforts will provide great returns.

Passive programs are efficient, which is good, but everyone recognizes that they’re automated. The benefit of using passive programs, however, is that they work while you sleep (or play) and they create top-of-mind awareness. They’re a means to keep an agent and the agency in front of a policyholder. Again, if you can address one or more of the eight universal needs that people have, you can maximize the effectiveness of your passive programs.

I’ve compiled a list of both passive and active programs you might consider as a means of
helping your agents stay in front of their policyholders. Not every idea will suit everyone and
you may think of other ideas to add to this list:

•    Conduct in-person annual reviews
•    Stop by a policyholder’s office when you’re in the area for no reason other than to touch base.
•    Send birthday cards
•    Send anniversary cards
•    Send holiday cards
•    Personally call a policyholder just to thank them for their business
•    Have your CSR call a policyholder just to thank them for their business
•    Personally call a policyholder just to say hello
•    Send a small gift [$5 - $10] (supermarket-purchased movie tickets are my favorite) for no reason other than to thank them
•    Regularly hold open houses for groups of policyholders
•    Send a monthly or quarterly newsletter by mail or e-mail

Implementing a policyholder retention system can be time consuming and may require some
investment, but keep this in mind: the cost of keeping an existing client is far less than the
cost of finding and acquiring a new one.

Policyholders will be far more likely to stay with your agents for a far longer period of time
when an agent has made a lasting impression on them. They’ll also be far more likely to refer
someone to them as a client when they’ve made a lasting impression on them as someone who
cares about people as people. The difference is in the details. It’s what sets apart those who
really excel from those who just do well. Help your agents to do the extra work to retain
clients. Not only will they keep more business, but they’ll write more lines of business and get
more referrals from their current book of policyholders.