We found this clip from an old IMMS Weekly Marketer 

The Newman Insurance Agency, North Miami Beach FL doesn’t like to lose clients.  So each time an insured cancels a policy, the agency does its best to solve the problem.  “When we ask why they canceled,” explained principal Irving Newman, “they’ll usually tell us that they weren’t happy with their claims or with their sales representative.  So we’ll contact the company claims department or find a new sales rep.”  This persistence pays off: 70% of the agency’s former clients return to Newman Insurance. 

Customer downsizing:  beat your competitors 

If competitors are shooting you down at renewal time by offering your customers higher deductibles or other premium-cutting incentives, why not beat them to the punch?  

Contact customers well before renewal and use every risk management technique possible to downsize their premium.  

It may be a problem at mid-term, but keeping the account in the long run should prove well-worth the effort.  Using the downsizing technique opens a lucrative prospecting opportunity.  Point out the savings on the renewal premium, then ask for the name of five friends for whom you’d iike to provide the same type of savings.

           Source: Frank J. Herberg, CPCU, Agency Development Coach

Short course in human relations

 I am not sure where I first found this statement.  I know it was years ago.  And I know it has remained posted in our office ever since.   

Send a note to your new customers 

After they’ve made the decision to purchase their insurance from you, most new buyers will ask themselves if they made the best choice.  An effective way to handle this “buyer’s remorse” (post-purchase cognitive dissonance) is to send a short, handwritten note the day after the sale.  Thank them for their business, and congratulate them on making a wise decision.  Your note should also call attention to all the ways that the new customer can contact you---by e-mail, by phone, by fax. 

I call it the first service call.  

 PS--Another good retention strategy: make sure the new customer is immediately placed on your agency newsletter list.  Making 2 or 3 contacts in the first year, including an annual review, will help cement the business. 

Putting beliefs to paper 

A former client developed adopted an unusual commitment to the agency’s customers.  It was put into the form of a mission statement which was distributed to all associates and posted prominently in the agency’s reception and employee lunch areas.  Here it is in an Alpha Insurance Agency format with its promises. 

What does your mission statement promise? 

It is about relationships 

In his fabulously successful book The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell tells a story about his interview with financial planner Tom Gau of Torrance CA.  Kavesh and Gau is one of the top financial planning firms in the country.  Gladwell says “as you would expect from a great salesman, he has a kind of natural exuberance.”   Gau also has a special relationship with his customers. He expresses it to Gladwell this way: “I love my clients, okay?  I’ll bend over backwards for them. I call my clients my family.  I tell my clients, I’ve got two families.  I’ve got my wife and kids and I’ve got you.”