5 Tips to Retain Your Insurance Customers

By Deborah Pinnock on Apr 7, 2020 9:30:00 AM

A survey by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) checks in a new insurance broker. At the cost of $500 each to acquire new clients, it pays to keep the ones you have. Use these five tips to retain your insurance customers:

Surprise and Delight

Surprising and delighting customers has been a goal of marketing and sales departments for years. Businesses that "surprise and delight" might give members a free upgrade on seats when they check in for a show, their favorite appetizer for free when they check in at their favorite restaurant or other gifts they will appreciate.

It's harder to "surprise and delight" when you don't have a store or physical products, but not impossible. Ideally, you should use this tactic several times a year, but you can also focus on the month or so before they renew their dental or vision insurance. Here are some ideas to kick-start your brainstorming:

Send birthday and holiday messages (personalized cards are best)
Create fun or useful care packages for busy times at their office or holidays.
Offer a special loyalty discount on a product.
Partner with local businesses to offer exclusive discounts on their services to your customers.

Highlight Discounts and Savings

How many people automatically check the bottom of the receipt to see how much money they saved? Everyone loves saving money. For a service like insurance, if you don't highlight the savings, people can often forget about it. Every quarter (or a month before renewal), highlight the savings your client has benefited from. If your clients aren't receiving monetary savings, highlight other benefits they receive through your services.

Present this information in the form of a professional report that they can share with their company. If you want to combine it with "surprise and delight" tactics, create a fun, celebratory way of sharing the information. If you want to make the report special, spotlight one or two ways you benefit from having them as a client.

Automatic Payments

Automatic payments are the most convenient way for your clients to pay for their insurance and increase customer retention. Receiving regular bills for services reminds clients of the cost of your service. It also creates an added hassle for them to send the bill through the payment process of their company every time a statement is due. By setting up automatic digital payments, the client only gets reminders of electronic payments and receipts of payment—no additional effort is needed. The convenience alone can help keep clients.

Be Honest and Take Responsibility

Transparency, transparency, transparency. Be honest with your clients. If they are about to experience a rate increase, call them up to inform them. If you can shop rates for them, do so before the call so that you can present their options on the call. If a problem arises with your service or the product you sold them, take responsibility, find a way to correct the problem, and communicate the solution to your client.

If your client submits a claim, call them to keep tabs on the process. You can act as a sympathetic ear to any troubles they are having with the process, and when possible, send their feedback to the insurance company. Understand that insurance claims are stressful and time-consuming for your clients. Act as counsel when appropriate—don't just educate, help them with information, guidance, and empathy.

Cross-Sell

Cross-selling insurance products is one of the best methods of customer retention. It is a commonly known fact that if your client buys more than one type of insurance product from you, then they are more likely to stay customers. Many brokers immediately try to up-sell new clients. While this may work, it is more likely that they will buy a second product from you when you have proven to be a great client manager. Here are a few tips for approaching cross-selling with current clients:

Inform clients of other products by sharing a list of all available insurance types during the onboarding process. Don't aggressively push the products, inform them of the opportunities.
Include a reference to other available insurance types through the care packages you create for your clients (e.g. extra travel toothbrushes meant for dental insurance clients that you think your vision insurance clients might find useful).
Ask questions to discover information about potential cross-sale opportunities. The best time to do this is during client surveys or when getting information for a quote.
Prepare an offer that highlights the benefits of purchasing multiple insurance products using your services. Present the proposal during policy reviews.

There are many ways to build customer loyalty and retention. It's best to start on a small scale and perfect a few methods before adding additional touchpoints to your routine. Quality is always more important than quantity, as the adage goes. Make sure the methods you choose suit your personality and sales methods as well as your clients' needs. And if you are looking for tips to sell your skills to clients, and how to help them get the best health insurance possible, check out our FREE guide below.