Act cFluent Newsletter, February, 2007 - Subscribe today Subscriber benefits include early evaluation of new products and discounts. - Tell a friend

Information for independent insurance agents about issues at the confluence of technology, consumerism, marketing and agency practices. Subscriber benefits include free trial evaluation of new products and programs.

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We have had conversations galore with independent agents on the topic of purchasing internet generated leads and have yet to hear of any unequivocal success stories. Just the same, we are sure there are some and would love to hear about them via our blog or the contact link below. In the meantime, here are some things to think about before you jump in or even if you already have.

You know what you paid and you know how many leads you received; you probably also know how many policies you actually wrote and you certainly know what the leads cost you. That information alone may be enough to let you know if your lead program is successful. But it costs money to process new business and to service it. Usually you need to keep an account for a few years before it is truly profitable and the more policies per account the more quickly an account becomes a profit bearing account. It probably would be a good idea for you to go back and see how many internet generated customers are single policy accounts and how many of them are still with you after the first renewal.

There are several considerations for you that should make your decision easier. A good place to start is by comparing the value proposition of your agency with the value proposition of the quote aggregator. If they don’t match then purchasing quotes may not be a good idea. If they do line up then check out the other considerations a few paragraphs on.

How do you glean the value proposition posited by a quote aggregator? One way would be to ask what key words they bid on when doing search engine marketing. Understandably, they probably won’t tell you. But you can get an idea by doing your own key word searches in Google or Yahoo. If you Google ‘low cost auto insurance Denver’ or ‘free automobile insurance quotes Dallas’ and your search aggregator shows up in the paid ad area you will start to get an idea of the value proposition they are promoting via the key words they purchased. If your agency’s value proposition is something like ‘we take time to analyze our individual client’s needs, suggest alternatives and prepare a unique, effective insurance program for each customer’ then you have a value proposition mismatch and purchasing leads may not be a good idea.

Suppose the quote aggregator’s value proposition aligns with your agency’s? The next consideration is whether you are equipped to deal with the quote opportunity. All evidence suggests that these opportunities do not have a shelf life. Along with the internet comes an expectation of immediacy. If you are prepared to follow up with prospects, preferably by phone, within an hour then you have a much better chance of converting quotes to policies. That doesn’t mean you have to necessarily provide a quote within an hour but you do need to make contact. If you are going to apply the pre-internet standard of ‘one or two business days’ follow up then purchasing internet leads probably isn’t for your agency.

Finally, you should think about other expectations internet generated customers bring with them. For instance, it is not unreasonable to assume that, if a quote was solicited online, there may also be an expectation of being able to have questions answered, policy service requests handled or the ability to do other transactions on your agency web site. If you cannot fulfill this expectation then, again, internet leads may not be for you.

These considerations are not by any means all inclusive but they do provide a baseline structure to help you think through your decision. If you have other considerations, success stories or lessons learned, please share them with us.

Part IV of a multi-part series (Part I, Part II, Part III) that explores what you can do to make your website relevant to your agency, your employees, your customers and your prospective customers. These articles focus on agency strategies and initiatives apart from the internet and then suggest ways to make your website tools pay off in the context of those initiatives.

Global warming? Maybe for a few months but winter finally arrived with a vengeance as we knew it would. And ice, sleet, snow and freezing temperatures visited some unusual places (as we never would have guessed). In most cases harsh winter weather ratchets up anxiety as employees pensively watch out the windows for clues as to road conditions and listen for school closings and early dismissals. Those who can think ahead to the following days imagine the phone lines lighting up with claims for fender benders, downed tree and power lines and leaky roofs.

It’s hard to think of a winter storm as a customer development opportunity but it is. Email and your web site make it possible. In fact, email and your web site make it easy and virtually cost free to communicate with your customers ‘just in time’ and add some more value to your relationship.

Your office may close or you may be operating with reduced staff. If a winter storm causes enough damage it may result in your insurance companies issuing special claim phone numbers or procedures. Do you have information about what to do when the power goes out or safe winter driving tips available to send to customers? Now is a good time to send it along. Better still, this information should reside on your web site and you should send customers there. It is little opportunities like this that remind your customers you are there and thinking about them and remind them about the value of your web site.

Without email addresses and appropriate web content you will miss many chances to engender those behaviors that result from the highest levels of customer loyalty: superior retention, more policy sales per account and referrals. But if you can commit to communicating with customers this way you actually have a compelling reason for them to provide you their email address: effectively helping you, help them.

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Act cFluent
Information for independent agents about issues at the confluence of technology, consumerism, marketing and agency practices.
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About Confluency Solutions
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Confluency Solutions specializes in solutions that generate growth through high customer satisfaction. Easy to implement technology combined with traditional independent agency strengths vault your agency into the ranks of the top performers. Confluency Solutions provides complete business solutions, not just technology. We free you up to compete at an advantage, with any size competitor, in a way that just isn't possible without the right tools and without knowing how best to use them. Confluency Solutions makes the web work.
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