Insurance Policy Renewal Secrets
Shhh, we have a juicy blog here all about insurance policy renewal secrets and how to be a renewal master. Renewals are the lifeblood of insurance. Many agencies don’t make money in the first or second renewal term—so we have to have a strategic plan for tackling retention.
Retention doesn’t happen by accident; it happens by intention. Agencies with a plan learn how to retain at top levels (96%), while agencies that use hope as their strategy fall between 88–90%. There’s a big jump there! So let’s review insurance policy renewal secrets.
Secret #1: Updating Contact Information
All year long, on every call that comes in, we need to validate contact information. We can’t give WOW Customer Service if we can’t get in contact with them. With increased underwriting memos, the need for proactive renewal reviews, and client nurturing, if we don’t have a good cell phone, email, or address, we can’t hit top retention for your agency.
Secret #2: A Well Trained Team
Insurance renewal reviews are a secret weapon for insurance policy renewals. However, a renewal review is a skilled conversation. In fact, one of the main reasons our prospects don’t move forward with making renewal reviews is that they fear their team is not capable of having a skilled conversation. Here is the good news: people can be trained, and APP has renewal review call training!
Secret #3: Stop Automatic Remarketing
Here is the reality — the model where the management system sends a task to the account manager when a rate goes up a certain amount and then we automatically shop the policy is outdated. The automation of these tasks or working the download has actually made our entire renewal experience about rate and not coverage.
Stop these automatic remarkets immediately. Replace it with a renewal review where, instead, we call the client to review the policy and then decide if a remarket is valid. You will find a very low hit ratio on remarkets when the client is not contacted first. Save yourself a lot of time by having a better strategy.
Secret #4: No More Monoline
Monoline business is often not only a lower profit margin for the agency, but it also has a lower insurance policy renewal rate. Why? They are missing discounts, they have two agents so it’s a game to win the other policy, or it’s a lower-level client that may struggle to keep insurance in force.
Work to quote everything multiline and you will see a higher closing ratio and more policies per account, which drive profitability.
Secret #5: Payment Strategy
The highest retention is ACH pay-in-full. How can we get every client on it? Well, that may be a struggle, but we can offer it on every remarket and new business account. If we can’t get everyone on pay-in-full, shoot for ACH/EFT, mortgagee bill, or pay-in-full, and you will still see a retention bump. We also cover this in our Agency Retention Course.
Secret #6: WOW Customer Service
After the insurance hard market, clients are paying more for their insurance. When you pay more for something, you expect more. During this time frame, the demands on agents are at an all-time high. So clients expect more, and we have no time to give any more to clients. Or do we? With the right training and approach, we can make WOW service a routine, natural way of doing business. It starts with training and mindset.
We need to embrace the fact that we need to move from transactions to experience to help build trust with our clients. A great insurance renewal secret is to WOW your clients so they don’t want to leave you.
Secret #7: Team Incentives and Metrics
Many insurance agency owners either don’t have access to accurate data or don’t take the time to clean up their agency cancellations and get a clear retention rate. If you don’t have the data, you can’t share it—when there is no data, everyone operates on feelings. You may feel like you are working hard and have a less-than-industry-average retention rate. Feelings aren’t your friend. Your first step is to work to get accurate numbers—you absolutely can when you embrace them!
Next, are you incentivizing your team on retention or new business? For the service team, I prefer to provide book growth incentives. When the book grows, everyone wins. When you have high new business or retention, you may also not be growing your book.
Conclusion
In conclusion, mastering insurance policy renewals is a critical component of a thriving agency, and it begins with intentional strategies that prioritize retention. By diligently updating contact information, investing in a well-trained team, halting automatic remarketing, transitioning away from monoline policies, optimizing payment strategies, delivering WOW customer service, and leveraging accurate data with team incentives, agencies can achieve retention rates as high as 96%. These secrets are not just tactics but represent a mindset shift toward building lasting client relationships and fostering trust.
With the right approach, renewals become more than a necessity—they become a powerful driver of profitability and growth. For agencies ready to elevate their renewal game, implementing these strategies with discipline and focus is the key to becoming a renewal master.
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