In a hard insurance market, where insurance companies are increasing their rates, P&C insurance agents may find it more difficult to retain their clients, especially if they are unable to remarket their clients’ policies to get lower premiums.
In this blog, let’s talk about self inspections and how agents can demonstrate their value and improve client retention:
This is not just some techy gimmick. No, this is a powerful tool that P&C agents can use to not only retain their clients but also to deepen their relationships with them.
Let’s start with the basics. In a hard market:
- Clients are feeling the pinch of rising premiums and stricter underwriting guidelines.
- They are looking for ways to save money and reduce their risk exposure.
This is where self-service inspections come in. By offering clients the ability to perform their own inspections, agents can help them identify potential hazards and mitigate their risk. This is a conversation starter, a way for agents to engage with their clients and provide personalized risk management advice.
But it’s not just about risk management. Self-service inspections can also help clients feel more in control of their insurance policies. They can see firsthand how their actions impact their premiums and take steps to improve their risk profile.
Now, some agents may be hesitant to embrace self-service inspections. They may worry that clients may not be honest with their self inspection or they will miss something important.
It’s Not Really An Inspection
You should be able to configure your self inspection platform to make an app that is focused on the theme of your reach out. Here are a few examples:
- Overall Check In and Risk Review
- Solid Fuel Burner Safety Review
- Commercial Kitchen Compliance Check
- Spring Cleaning and Check In
- Inventory Reminder
These type of Self-service “inspections” are not a replacement for traditional inspections or underwriting. They are simply another tool in the toolbox, a way to engage with clients and provide more personalized service.
What follows is a HOW TO roll out a self service inspection program that is a conversation starter with your clients and a way to offer personalized risk management without the expense and logistics of actually visiting the property.
How To Implement a Self Inspection Program for Retention
Here is a roadmap for agents on how to use self-service inspections to engage and retain their clients.
Step 1: Engagement with Clients
Seeing as you are not remarketing policies to other carriers you now have some extra time to re-allocate. What to consider:
What are your goals
- Reduce risk
- Identify credits
- Find upsell opportunities
- Review changes over the past 12 months
- What carriers will support the campaign
Step 2 – It’s All About Them
Say your team spent 20% of its time remarketing – re-invest that into risk evals. How many hours does that give you?
- Now spend that time showing the client you get them and their unique situation!
- Spend 5-8 minutes and review Google Earth, Facebook, their Website. Keep the tabs up.
- Jot down a few highlights or unique things you learned while reviewing.
You will use this in the video email and it is a great way to break out of their inbox and get opened. The goal here is to go from your average open rate to perhaps 50% better. Everyone likes to read about themselves.
Step 3 – Send a Video Email
According to research, videos can increase your email open rates by 19% and click-through rates by 65%. On top of that, mentioning the word “video” in your subject line can boost the open rates by 7% to 13%
I like SendSpark but there are plenty of others like Loom and Vidyard. Here is how I do it:
- Record a 2 minute video which starts with full face video and then reduce it to a small inset video while you walk and talk thru the tabs you kept open on your screen.
- Moving quickly, talk about their home or business and show some understanding and empathy to what they have created.
- Move right into a closing and speak to how you think you could reduce their risk, identify some credits or how they could provide you some more info through a self-inspection.
- Invite them to do a self inspection and include the URL
- In your SendSpark email template, provide a link to your calendar, email and text.
Step 4: Personalized Risk Review – The Self Inspection
- Now the fun starts…
- Monitor that they complete the app led inspection over the next day or two
- Review the inspection results
- Record your risk eval on SendSpark and email it
- Respond with an email on suggested ideas
The Wrap Up
Put together a 3 or 4 email drip campaign to follow up and nurture the engagement
- Email #1: Ask about the suggestions you made
- Email #2: Invite them to do a video inventory with the self-inspection app or some other value add proposition
- Email #3: SendSpark a request for a reference or especially, ask them to do a video SendSpark reference
Summary
While the hard market may be forcing changes on your marketing approaches and allocation of time, self service inspections as a connection and convo starter fit the bill for replacing the time and energy you used to spend on remarketing policies to lower premiums.