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Keep More Customers (Retention and Rounding)

More Retention & Rounding Tools

1. Coverage Review/Change Communications

The Opportunity: Suggesting a coverage review to your clients may not only generate additional revenue and provide you with E&O protection, it can help you build rapport with your customers and demonstrate to them the value of having an independent agent. Here’s how you can systematically contact your clients to suggest a coverage review with them or simply recommend additional coverage:

Step 1 – Determine Customers to Contact and Schedule Communications: Determine the type of policyholders you want to reach, i.e., home or auto. Schedule communications to your customers based on their renewal dates and your staffing levels.

Step 2 - Deploy Communications: Use your agency management system to systematically track and send a policy review letter to your customers within 2-3 months of their renewal date. Below is a template of a homeowner renewal letter you can use for this purpose, a letter template suggesting a Replacement Cost Coverage Upgrade, and a generic renewal letter you can send with any renewal policy.

[homeowner policy renewal letter 1, change coverage letter 6, generic renewal letter 22]

Step 2 - Follow up: Follow up your direct mail communications with a phone call to the customer. Be sure to log the date and results of all calls.

Step 3 – Track and Measure: Track the results of all communications including number of responses/response rate, amount of additional coverage sold, and the amount of additional premium generated. Calculate the cost per quote and cost per sale to determine your ROI.

You can track and measure the cost-effectiveness of all communications you deploy by using the attached sales log and tracking attachments.

[log sheet and sales tracking sheet attachments]

Tips and Techniques

• Use your agency management system to create a Source to Sale report so you can see where all your new business is coming from.

2. Build Customer Loyalty

The Opportunity: Advertising by insurance companies has increased by more than 64% since 2000, to 2.89 billion*. With your customers being bombarded with television, radio, and internet ads from direct and captive insurers – roughly 80% of competitive carrier advertising spending came from Geico, State Farm, Allstate, and Progressive – it’s very important to build loyalty to your agency so that your customers do not rate shop.

Travelers marketing communications can help your agency develop a stronger relationship with your customers by keeping your agency name top of mind, showing how your agency is looking out for them, and informing them of the added value Travelers provides.

* TNS Media Intelligence

Step 1 – Develop a Plan:

• What customers do you want to mail to?

• What communications do you want to send?

• When do you want to send them?

Step 2 – Order and Send Communications: The following relationship-building communications are available.

• Claim Service (auto claim service brochure 11880, property claim brochure PL-12665, Concierge Claim follow up C-25608, auto claim follow up C-25171, home claim follow up C-25172, Personal Inventory list PL-8993, Letter 26)

• Direct Loss Reporting (One-to-One letter & cards, claim service magnet PL-12006, auto accident guide C-24909, Claim card/key tags C-25613)

• Safety programs (Home Maintenance Guide C-24929, Preparing for a weather Emergency C-24944, Fire Safety PL-9587, Crime Safety PL-9588, Teen Driver PL-9052)

• Thank you (One-to-One New Years Greeting, concierge claim thank you card C-25604, notecard PL-10814, postcard PL- 10815, Letters 10, 23, 25, 31)

• MyTravelers (Access Your Account PL-12176, MyTravelers at a Glance (agent directed) PL-12177)

Step 3 – Track and Measure: You can set up a tracking system using your agency management system or the attached log sheet. Log the deployment date and communication name/form # so you know what has been sent to each customer.

[log sheet attachment]

You can measure the effectiveness of increased contact by your customers by tracking and measuring the average tenure of your Travelers customers that regularly receive relationship-building communications, and comparing the results to your customers that do not receive relationship-building communications.

Tips and Techniques

• Talk to your local post office to see how you can achieve postage rate discounts.

• The earlier you write a customer in the lifecycle the longer you have to retain them.

[The following is a new link under Keep More Customers]

More Account Round Programs

1. Account Round/Up sell Your Customers

The Opportunity: One of the common factors for attrition comes from clients who only have one policy with your agency. They are talking to their other carriers as much, if not more than you. Rounded customers move their business far less frequently than non-rounded customers. That’s why account rounding is one of the most effective means of retaining your customers.

• 1 policy: customers typically stay 7-9 months

• 2 policies: 26-28 months

• 3 or more policies: 5+ years* *PIA Study

Step 1 – Determine the type of monoline customers you want to reach

Step 2 - Select the Communications You Want to Deploy: Use the Travelers branded direct mail communications below, or select the letter templates for your non-Travelers customers. To see the rounding tools available through the One2One Program, click here. [link to One2One]

• Auto to Home (Product check off postcard PL-10411 Have Auto Sell Home letters Home postcard 10155)

• Home to Auto (Quantum auto postcard PL-12999, auto postcard PL-10156, Have Home Sell Auto Letters, Product check off postcard PL-10411)

• Auto and/or Home to other (Account Round Letters)

• Flood (postcard PL-10341, Sparky postcard PL-9549, Homeowners Flood Brochure PL-10278, Preferred Risk Policy brochure PL-11992

• Valuable items (PAF letter; brochure PL-10727)

• Umbrella (Umbrella Letters, brochure PL-8623)

• ID Theft (brochure PL-12413)

• Boat and yacht (boat brochure PL-10139, yacht brochure PL-10140)

Step 2 – Generate mailing lists: Create mailing lists of the monoline customers you want to reach.

Step 4 – Deploy Communications: Address and mail the communications you choose to send. If you are sending a large quantity, you may want to stagger the deployments so you have adequate staff to handle the responses.

Step 5 – Follow Up: Follow up any mailings with a phone call. Attached is a script template you can use for this purpose. [account round script template]

Step 6 – Track and Measure: You can track and measure the cost-effectiveness of all communications you deploy by using using your agency management system or the attached Marketing Plan ROI template the attached sales log and tracking attachments below. You will want to track the deployment date, the date of any follow up phone calls, and the number of inquiries generated. To evaluate your results, calculate your response rate and cost per mailing, and determine the number of policies quoted, the number of policies sold, the amount of additional premium and commission associated with the policies sold, and the lifetime value of the policy.

To evaluate your ROI, compare the cost of implementing the program against the number of customers that purchase additional policies and the lifetime value of the policies they purchased.

[marketing Plan ROI template]

Tips and Techniques

• Talk to your local post office to see how you can achieve postage rate discounts.

• Scrub the list to confirm it does not contain duplicates or erroneous information.

• Use your agency management system to create a Source to Sale report so you can see where all your new business is coming from.

• If you have an agency management system, you can use it to create mailing lists, print letters, and

track your customer communications.

2. Cross Sell – Selling Across Business Lines

The Opportunity: Many of your best and most loyal commercial insurance customers may have never considered your agency for personal insurance or commercial insurance. Why? Maybe they didn’t know you offered it. Customers that already know and trust your agency with their personal or commercial insurance are outstanding prospects to sell other types of insurance coverage. And when you cross-sell to existing customers you not only acquire new business, you increase the retention rate of those customers. Here’s how you can implement a program to sell insurance across business lines to your existing customers.

Step 1 – Determine the customers you want to go to sell to. Since everyone needs personal insurance, your commercial lines customers are excellent prospects.

Step 2 – Select and Deploy Communications: Send your customers these communications.

• Have Commercial sell Personal (Letter 8, e-postcard)

• Have Personal sell Commercial (note: use this communication only to customers you know are need commercial insurance (e-postcard)

Step 3- Follow Up: Contact the customers you sent a letter or e-mail to with a follow up with a phone call.

Step 4 – Track and Measure: You can track and measure the cost-effectiveness of all communications you deploy by using the attached sales log and sales tracking sheet attachments below. You can also use your agency management system to create a Source to Sale report so you can see where all your new business is coming from. You will want to track the deployment date, the date of any follow up communications, and the number of customers quoted. To evaluate your results, determine the number of policies quoted, the number of policies sold, and the amount of additional premium and commission associated with the policies sold. Calculate your response rate and your cost per mailing.

[log sheet and sales tracking sheet attachments]

Tips and Techniques

• See the Cross-Sell with Travelers Group Program section for information on offering personal insurance to a commercial insurance customer’s employee, or to a large group such as unit owners of a condo association.

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