In this recent podcast clip Chris (Floodlight Consulting Group) talks about his background in the insurance industry and how the outcome of claims dramatically affects an agent in a company’s book of business.
‘Most everybody listening to this is probably gonna have, if they’re more than just a few people, they probably have a marketing rep or they have a sales rep out there, you know, that’s touching agents, plumbers, et cetera. So how did that conversation change if we’re not doing candy and smiles anymore, how does this conversation outside with agents change and what are the implications for operations? What did that look like?
So here’s kind of how our agent conversation shifted the next time we went into their office, or when we went into an agent office for the first time. You know, subsequent to us, kind of making this shift. We instead started to engage them about the role that we play in retaining their clients.
And what I mean by that, we’ve recognized, and I, coming from the insurance industry, knew it as fact because I’ve, I’ve heard the data. I’ve seen the data directly from State Farm. State Farm used to have an annual claims review where agents would call in, they’d hear all the stats in terms of loss ratios and how it’s impacting underwriting and different high propensity loss areas from the prior year and how storms affected things and average homeowner loss.
They would go through like what was the most common cause of loss and all that kind of stuff. And we learned some things. I learned some things from that. It’s that the outcome of claims dramatically affects an agent in a company’s book of business if a claim goes well, right? A customer reports above a certain satisfaction level for their claim. They are a customer for life.
Within State Farm, average tenure of a household account. Within State Farm, people having all their policies with us was something like 10.1 years, and at the time, I don’t know what it is now, it was number one in the industry. We had the longest retention of anybody and agents were really proud of that.
But what’s interesting is, is once somebody has a major homeowner’s claim beyond a certain amount, I can’t remember if it was 12,000 bucks or or more, but if there’s satisfaction reaches above a certain threshold on that claim, their longevity goes almost double to 21 years, average tenure, which is really interesting data.
And of course State Farm has more data than anybody else in the industry, at least did at the time. And so it was powerful and we knew that, and I took that to heart. And there were things when we heard those reports, my team and I did to try to enhance claim experience. But of course there’s very little we could do at arm’s length, but fast forward to restoration industry. This is the conversation I’m having with an agent.
“Look, Mrs. Producer, Mr. Agent owner. What we’ve learned over the years,” and we know this as restoration companies, if we take enough time to just think about and reflect about the business we have and the role we have in these claims, the effect we can have on the outcome of the claim, we know this to be.
“Hey, Mr. And Mrs. Agent, listen. What we’ve learned over the years as a company is that when one of our agent customers has a claim for one of their policy holders, one of two things is gonna happen at the end of that claim. If it goes really well, it almost doesn’t matter whose fault it was. You know, if you had ’em all set up with the right coverage, or the adjuster was having a good day or we as the restoration company just hit the ball out of the park.
It doesn’t matter who is at fault for that great experience, you’ve got a customer for life. It’s very unlikely they’re ever gonna shop their policies once you’ve delivered on the promise, right? Is the feeling and the affirmation they get after a good claim.”
I said, but what we’ve also learned is the exact opposite is true. If we get to the end of a claim with one of your policy holders, regardless of whose fault it was from the policy holder’s perspective, it’s all part of that Allstate, or State Farm, or Barker Erlene’s Insurance Independent Agency, it’s all under the cloud of that because that’s who they’ve been, that’s who they think is their agent, and that you’re the solution to all of it.
And so if it goes wrong, you very likely will have a shopper at your next renewal with them. And I add the final sentence, and this was, I’m role playing for you. This was our sales reps conversation. This was the narrative that we started from.
This was the route. Moving forward, “Mr. Agent. We as a company take that very seriously. So let’s talk about how we can partner on these claims, right? To create the best outcome. And a big part of that’s gonna be communication.
What level of communication are you and your team interested in from us? What kind of frequency of updates would you like to be included and copied on our communicate with the client? You know what? What is your desire? Because what we’re trying to do is create a great claim outcome because if we do that, we’ve helped your business succeed. We’ve closed your back door, right? And then hopefully you guys are motivated to direct more people our way because you’re confident in the kind of experience that we’re going to give.”‘
Watch the full podcast replay here: https://ironcladrestorationmarketing.com/4332-2/
Follow Floodlight Consulting Group online:
📌 https://www.floodlightgrp.com/
📌 https://www.facebook.com/floodlightgrp
📌 https://www.linkedin.com/company/floodlight-consulting-group/
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Benjamin Ricciardi is the founder of Ironclad Restoration Marketing, A digital marketing agency that specializes in the Restoration and Cleaning industry based in South Florida. Benjamin is the author of The No Bulls**t Guide to Internet Marketing for Restoration Contractors and hosts The Restoration Rundown Podcast, a podcast that is focused on everything related to marketing and owning a Restoration and Cleaning Business. Connect with Benjamin and Ironclad Restoration Marketing on social media for the latest tips and tricks on how to grow your Restoration Business.