Customer retention is generally cheaper than generating new business and growing those relationships over time can prove fruitful.
For intermediaries selling general insurance, the renewal period is a major touch point when you have a golden opportunity to nurture your client.
Here are the top five considerations at renewal:
- Renewal allows for regular contact to help build rapport. This is vital for growing customer loyalty, ensuring you retain the business long term.
- Renewal gives you the opportunity to talk about other products and services. This grows your business, but it also increases customer loyalty. The more products a customer buys the more they feel secure with your service and the less likely they are to switch.
- Times change; people change. Have your clients’ needs changed since they first bought that policy? Add value by proactively reviewing their needs. For example, has their income increased and are they looking to save more or invest in a pension? Have they had a child and need additional life assurance cover?
- If the premium this year is relatively unchanged and the cover remains suitable, simply recommending to renew with the current insurer can be OK. If the premium remains consistent over several years, its often worth re-quoting every third or fourth year as markets change and another insurer may provide equivalent cover at a cheaper price.
- If you use a provider who has a single policy wording with premiums offered from a small panel of insurers, they might automatically offer the client a switch from one insurer to another at renewal under the same wording, but don’t just rely on that; check the wider market because:
- a provider using a single policy wording priced by a panel of insurers is not whole of market
- just because the current provider has given the customer an alternative, it doesn’t mean the policy is suitable, or there is not something better available through you
And don’t forget, a happy customer is a loyal customer. They are also a customer that refers friends, so working on your existing customer relationships is a great way of winning new clients.
