It’s no secret in the industry that independent agents’ time is spread thin, as they often wear multiple hats in their day-to-day operations. With a still-hot housing market, this is an especially busy season for agents selling homeowners insurance. On top of this, the expectations of modern customers are extremely high, with PwC reporting that one in three consumers will walk away from a brand they love after just one bad experience.
For independent agents, it’s important to have the right tools in place to manage customer relationships and automate marketing tasks to help surpass customer and prospect expectations, because in some cases, the business itself may depend upon it! Solutions like a customer relationship management software can help agents forge those ever-important interactions with prospective customers and strengthen relationships with current clients. Here’s how:
Forging meaningful interactions
It’s important for independent agents to earn a customer’s trust, especially when customers are placing their confidence in something that often is intangible, future-focused and protects their most important assets. With a CRM solution, agents can establish and maintain this trust by easily accessing and leveraging key customer data, like purchase history and family members, from a centralized platform to make their clients feel valued—and confident they are receiving personalized recommendations about their specific insurance needs.
In addition to converting prospects and nurturing existing relationships, independent agents also can use a CRM to simultaneously build a pipeline of leads; new customers that will drive continued growth. As a result, agents can aim to achieve steady, predictable revenue through committed client relationships and growing brand loyalty that drives referral business.
Strengthen customer relationships
A technology solution like a CRM platform also can help agents stay on top of client communications. Too often, homeowners only communicate with their agents when they are purchasing a policy or when they must file a claim, but that shouldn’t be the case. Some CRM platforms include marketing automation capabilities, which can help save agents time on marketing tasks. Marketing automation features can help ensure a regular cadence of client communications that are tailored to their unique needs, and that can track client interactions with those communications.
This can be an overwhelming time, but it doesn’t have to be. In the long run, independent agents who leverage CRM software can more easily build stronger client connections and create more meaningful interactions, helping to build trust and uncover more business opportunities.
Joe Greenspan
As vice president, commercial operations at Act! (www.act.com), Joe Greenspan leads a team focused on customer revenue growth, strategic commercial programs, and operational excellence. With nearly a decade at Act!, he is a change agent driving pricing and commercial strategies, product and service launches, messaging and positioning, sales enablement, and customer lifecycle activities. Before Act!, Joe spent 13 years at Sage in various product and commercial leadership roles, with the majority of his tenure leading high-performance product marketing teams. Joe holds an MBA from Arizona State University and a bachelor’s in psychology from Santa Clara University.