Running your insurance business
When it comes to running your insurance business, you have a lot on your plate. You’re consistently trying to exceed customer expectations, increase revenue, maximize efficiency, and help your business grow for the long term. It can be difficult to focus on your insurance agency brand while executing service, but it will be much easier with a branding plan in place.
You’ve worked to build your brand and have a vision for your company, but it will only be effective if you reinforce your brand’s presence across various pieces of collateral. Understanding the customer lifecycle ensures that you’re keeping your brand present at each stage to help improve customer loyalty.
When you convert a lead to a customer, it’s important to reinforce that you’re the first point of contact they should call when they have questions or concerns about their policy. Making sure that your digital experience, printed and mailed pieces, and contact center are consistently representing your brand helps to make you the go-to when questions come up, giving you the best opportunity to build loyalty.
Once the contract is signed, you should immediately provide your new customers with a welcome packet that includes the following:
- A welcome letter detailing who you are, what you do, and who they should contact with questions (including direct phone numbers and email addresses)
- Policy-pertinent information including policy inclusions, exclusions, and declined coverage in a simple, easy-to-understand format
- Any ID cards, certificates, or proof of insurance
Instructions on how to cancel any old policies, including a “break up” letter template
Especially when it comes to personal line policies such as homeowners and car insurance, customers can get confused about who to contact with questions. Send your customers this key information both digitally and via traditional mail (unless they’ve expressed a paperless preference).
A few days after the welcome packet goes out, follow up with a call from your contact center to ensure everything was received and looks correct to the customer. Remind them that as their insurance agency, you’re available to help out with any questions they may have about coverage, renewals, or changes to their policy.
The job doesn’t end there—to improve the insurance customer experience, you should send regular communications to your customers throughout their first policy period. Your logo, company website, and contact information should be prominent and consistent across all of the onboarding and service messages you send your customers.
Once the policy is written, it’s normal for your customers to “go dark” until they need something specific. In fact, the average insurance customer only has 2.7 insurance-related information needs per year, with claims being the most pressing insurance needs in any customer lifecycle.
While it may not be your responsibility to adjust and process claims, if you’ve done your job in reinforcing your brand your customers will likely contact you when a claim does occur.
As an agency, your role in the claims process is limited. You can work with your customers to ensure that they file claims properly, check status with the carrier, and work to reassure your customer about the impact of each claim on their policy premiums going forward.
One of the biggest mistakes that insurance agencies make is relying on carrier marketing materials, especially during the renewal period. If you rely too heavily on carrier branding, there may be confusion about your ability to shop a policy with other carriers, adjust coverage, or assist with other service-related questions.
As renewal time approaches, proactively ask your customers if they’re happy with their current coverage, if they’d like to increase or decrease coverage, or if they need to add any other individuals to the account. Remind them of all the services you offer at your agency—if you’re already writing their homeowners insurance, ask them about additional coverages like flood and wind, as well as coverage for their other assets, such as cars, boats, or personal items.
Because of the nature of the insurance business, you need to make sure that your brand voice as an agency sings louder than the carriers. Positioning yourself as an accessible resource for your clients can be difficult when you’re focusing on doing the work to help your agency grow into new markets and new service lines.
Partnering with an effective, technology-driven insurance BPO can help you sort through the administrative tasks, enhance customer acquisition, and manage accounts while ensuring that your brand standards are upheld through the entire process. Ready to enhance your customer lifecycle? Get started below:
About Patra
Patra is a leading provider of technology-enabled outsourcing services and software solutions to the insurance industry. Patra powers insurance processes by optimizing the application of people and technology, supporting insurance organizations as they sell, deliver, and manage policies and customers through our PatraOne platform. Patra’s global team of over 6,500 process executives in geopolitically stable and democratic countries that protect data allows agencies/brokerages, MGAs, wholesalers, and carriers to capture the Patra Advantage – profitable growth and organizational value.
