Renewal and relationship
are not one and the same
[We] must frame our conversations with clients
in a way that supports the agency’s service model as a
differentiator separate and distinct from the insurance contract.
By Scott Naugle
The annual renewal process, whether for a commercial lines, personal lines, or employee benefits program, is stressful. Successful agency owners and employees want to hold onto an account, maintain the client relationship, and book the renewal premium. We may, however, create more tension than necessary in not being more judicious in how and when we use the term “renewal.”
What renews on an annual basis is the insurance contract. The agency’s relationship and representation of the client should not be commingled or confused as also having an annual expiration date. Properly positioned, it should be repeatedly and gently underscored that the agency relationship with a client is ongoing and separate from the 12-month expiration and effective date cycle of an insurance policy.
I’m not suggesting that it is easy to separate the agency/client relationship from the renewal of a policy, but we do ourselves a disservice by not using language and supporting processes attempting to separate the two. We often leave a client with the impression that the two are one in the same.
Ideally, the client is clear that the relationship with the agency, its service staff, and the producer are evergreen, ongoing, and not subject to an annual thumbs up or down. The insurance contract is what renews annually; carriers and coverage terms may change, but the agency representation is constant and consistent.
Unfortunately, we wave the proverbial red flag at a client during the renewal process, signaling to them that the agency relationship may also be inextricably intertwined with the selection of carriers and coverage terms every year.
Part of the problem is that we begin a renewal process 60 or 90 days prior to the effective date of the insurance program. We ask for updated schedules of vehicles, estimates of next year’s annual sales or, in personal lines, we may send a renewal questionnaire to be completed. This has the effect of alerting the client that they may want to search for coverage and pricing alternatives through a competitor while underscoring that both the agent relationship and the insurance renewal are both up for reevaluation. An independent insurance agency can deliver several carrier quotes and options to a client while remaining the agent of record.
A few years ago, I was asked to work with the personal lines operation in our agency. As I reviewed their procedures, the renewal process stuck out to me and appeared to work against a smooth insurance contract renewal, regardless of the carrier that may be selected by the client.
The process that troubled me was a form letter that was mailed with a five-page questionnaire alerting the client that their renewal was coming up and asking the client to update and respond to the questions. This was, to me, a waving of the proverbial red flag in front of the client. Since the agency dialogue with the client never separated our relationship with the client from the insurance expiration date, the renewal letter was a call to action for the client to possibly seek other quotes through competing agencies.
Additionally, we did not have a process in place throughout the year to regularly contact the client and inquire about any exposure changes. Because we only asked for an update at renewal time, this further underscored and entangled the renewal of the insurance contract with our agency relationship with the client
In the agency, I stopped the renewal letter process immediately and had the letter deleted from our agency software system. I also put in place a workflow process that prompted us to contact the client two to three times during the year to check on exposures as well as updating them on the insurance market in general.
The call 30 or so days before the renewal was framed as a general check-in call and a discussion of what to expect in terms of renewal pricing with a reminder that renewal invoicing would follow. If we were keeping the client abreast during the year of market conditions and trends regarding pricing, the client call before renewal time should have had no surprises and rather it is a preview of the renewal and market or markets selected.
Changing processes and discussions with the client from the agency standpoint is only one-half of the task. The other part of the equation is gaining the client’s understanding that only the insurance contract renews annually and that the agency relationship is ongoing. This separation of contract renewal from agency relationship will be a new concept to many clients who may be slow to understand or accept. This is not their fault. We as agents have been browbeating it into them through our discussions and processes for years.
Realigning a client’s thinking in terms of the agency relationship and contract renewal will not happen overnight, nor will it be easy. We must first change the mindset and messaging within the agency. Then, we must frame our conversations with clients in a way that supports the agency’s service model as a differentiator separate and distinct from the insurance contract.
In what is often a hard market with increasing premiums and additional policy exclusions, we need every tool we can muster to keep a client on the books. Changing our language around the renewal process can only help your agency. There is little to no downside.
The author
Scott Naugle, CIC, AAI, is a 45-year veteran of the insurance industry, growing up in a family agency in rural Pennsylvania to COO of a large, publicly traded agency with 30 locations. He serves as a board member of the Risk & Insurance Education Alliance. Academy board. Scott works now as an independent consultant and can be reached at Naugle@live.com.
