The #1 Reason Clients Leave Insurance Agencies & How to Stop Them

The best way to improve client retention.

If we asked you why you’ve lost the clients you have, what would you say? It’s likely you or your team may have some ideas. These could be based on Net Promoter Scores, feedback throughout the relationship, and exit surveys. 

Since your current clients are your biggest advocates, you want to make sure you have a clear idea of why they may be leaving. It’s especially important to keep these relationships healthy since your current clients are treasure troves of opportunities such as cross-sells, referrals, testimonials, and more. 

Let’s dive into the main reason clients leave insurance agencies and how you can course-correct.

The Biggest Reason Clients Leave 

Though costs may be a factor, the number one reason clients leave is due to a lack of meaningful communication. 

This boils down to your customer service approach. If you’re focused more on bringing in new clients than you are on maintaining your current book of business, communication easily gets pushed to the back burner. 

After one negative experience, 61% of people will switch to a competitor–make it two, and that number jumps to 76%. Good customer service is characterized by clear, effective, and timely communication. 

Main takeaway: Poor communication is a big contributor to customer churn. 

Neglecting communication is a mistake a lot of agencies make. One study found that only 44% of clients had been in touch with their agent in the past year and a half.

Is this your agency? Can you say that you’ve had contact with each of your clients in the past year and a half? Hopefully, you can. If not, here are some ways to maintain more consistent communication with your clients.

Client Communication Strategies To Prevent Cancellations

Finding relevant times to reach out to your clients through email, phone, and even handwritten notes can strengthen your client relationships. 

Great communication not only pays off in terms of client retention but also acquisition. You can tout your services all day to prospects, but that will never be more convincing than a happy client sharing their positive experience. 

Here are some natural communication opportunities you can use to stay in touch with your clients over email: 

• Welcome emails. This is the time to make your first impression and set the tone for how you’ll communicate with your new client. Send a brief email welcoming your client. Include your contact information, and let them know you’re looking forward to working with them.
• Birthday wishes. Wishing your clients a happy birthday is a small but meaningful way to let them know they are valued and build your relationship. Bonus points for handwritten notes—they’ll appreciate the gesture.
• Age-related products or services. Think about those clients that are turning 26 or 65. Reach out and share relevant information, like Medicare options for people aging in. Plan to follow up a few days after sending this information to be sure they received it and help answer questions.
• Policy renewal reminders. Send a timely reminder that your client’s policy is up for renewal soon, and let them know you’d love to start the renewal discussion. Include any paperwork (with instructions) that pertain to the renewal in this email, and be sure your contact information is front and center. 
• Net Promoter Scores (NPS). The NPS survey is one way to measure the health of your client relationships. The survey helps you organize clients into three categories: Promoters, Passives, and Detractors. This gives you an opportunity to communicate transparently with Passives and Detractors and hopefully win back their trust. Plus, once you know who your Promoters are, you can get referrals and testimonials.
• Cross-selling analysis. Using your data, run some reports to see what cross-selling opportunities you might have. Reach out personally with phone calls or handle this with an email campaign if the list is large.

You will also want to schedule regular reviews on a cadence that makes sense for your agency and clients. During this call, you should review your client’s policy, find out if they need additional coverage, and double-check that they’re satisfied with your service.

It’s likely you can think of many more opportunities to check in with your clients. The good news is that many of these situations can be completely automated, making it easy for you to maintain consistent communication so your clients never feel neglected. 

How? We’ll get into that next.

Save Time By Streamlining Client Communication 

Communication is essential to relationship building. Since this can take a good amount of time and brain power, look for ways to create efficiencies. 

You may already be using certain platforms to manage your book of business. An industry-specific agency management system, like AgencyBloc, can optimize your day-to-day in more ways than one. 

Our platform gives you an organized view of your client and policy records where you can easily and quickly identify communication touchpoints. Plus, client communication is made much easier with features like Automated Workflow and Email Campaigns.

Automated Workflow allows you to create activities, like the examples above, that will send an automated email to your client and set a task on your dashboard. Email Campaigns make it simple to stay on top of client communication, whether they are scheduled ahead of time or triggered by events, like a policy expiration.

This blog was originally published on May 5th, 2016, and has been most recently updated and republished on July 19th, 2022.

Posted by Kelsey Rosauer on Tuesday, July 19, 2022 in Insurance Agency Management System

1. client retention
2. data management