Articles And Paperwork From Van Mueller

If you were at the Vegas meeting and listened to Van speak about the challenges that we are facing in America, you know how important it is to share this information with our clients. To help us all do that, Van gave us about 250 articles and ideas to become familiar with and use in our presentations. Here are the links to those articles and ideas. Print them, learn them, use them with your clients and watch your agency grow!

Thanks Van!!

Van's Packet 1: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B-AKd1hVvbDTWXB5NDdxRkhUejJjNWFRTC16VzI0Zw

Van's Packet 2: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B-AKd1hVvbDTUGxPeEc3eDBRR2E1RnJVX2NETm4yQQ

High Touch In A High Tech World

Danger Will Robinson, Danger!

I've talked a lot about the importance of using new tools and techniques to keep in touch with clients, most of which being some form of technology.  But it's important to make sure that technology is not your ONLY form of contact with you clients. Clients are people, and people need real-life human interaction to feel loved and special (and you want your clients to feel loved and special)!

It's vital to the success of your agency to find the time and opportunity for increased and improved contact with your clients. If your clients don't receive at least 13 touches from you each year they most likely don't even remember who you are. But it's just as important to make sure those touches are personal, and not just a meaningless letter or video. Your clients want to know that you remember them before they make sure they remember you.

Here are a few ideas to personalize you client contact program and keep your clients happy to hear from you throughout the year:

1. Call your clients twice per year just to check in on them and make sure things are going okay. No cross-selling, no products, just the question of how things are going and the offer to help with anything they need.
2. P.I.R. The Professional Insurance Review is an obvious one, but is often skipped by agents who mistakenly think their clients don't need or want them. Even clients who start out griping about coming in for an annual review usually walk out with a smile on their face and a renewed appreciation for you and your office. If you have clients who refuse to do an annual review, you don't really have a client. At best they are a customer and at worse they are a price shopper with no appreciation for how you take care of their family.
3. Personal notes about clients in newsletters, emails and other communication to hi-lite achievements and client businesses go along way towards making a client feel appreciated. Pick a new client each month and write a short article about how wonderful they are. Include it every piece of communication you do throughout the month (your blog, newsletter, email blasts, mailings, etc.) and give multiple copies to your client so they can share the piece with their friends and family.
4. Personalize your birthday message. Instead of sending a generic birthday card, make a personal video or phone call for your client. A personal message from you on their birthday will do wonders for your relationship with your clients.
5. Thanks a Latte: Pick a client each week to deliver a latte to. The message is easy, "Hi, it's Robert - your favorite insurance agent - and I'm going to be driving past your (home or office) tomorrow on my way to an appointment. I really appreciate our relationship and the work we do for you and I wanted to drop off a latte to say thanks. What's your Starbucks drink of choice?"

These 5 ideas (and the hundreds more like them you can come up with on your own) will go along way towards making you THE insurance and financial advisor your clients think of, remember, and stick with even during challenging times. You can't control the rates you offer your clients but you CAN control the feeling they have about you and your agency. You CAN leave a lasting impression and make sure your clients feel loved and special.

Increase your retention and your referrals by implementing new personal touches to you agency. Do it today!

Robert Edgin

Ideas From Oklahoma and New Mexico!

I was fortunate enough to visit Oklahoma, Arizona and New Mexico during the month of January and share some ideas with a lot of great agents in those states. Here are a couple of ideas from agents that were picked up along the way:

1. Mike Pinion - OK: "An idea that I use is the AARP defensive driving course as a way to save my clients money and hopefully they learn something. The class costs $20 for non members and can be taken online. The link is www.aarpdriversafety.org In Oklahoma the discount is 10% on the liability and collision. This can be a nice discount for a teen especially. It also lasts for 3 yrs so that is another benefit to it."

2. Mike Pinion: If you are wondering how to improve your PAS percentages try doing a SAM filter for your youthful operators, then add the vehs under 7500 or pleasure usage to that search. From there you can check that list to see if you have a car that a teen is assigned to with low mileage or pleasure usage. Generally the premium does not change when you rate them to work over 7500. It is a way to improve your numbers without having to increase premiums. If you are wondering I did it and my own son was listed as pleasure usage and it did not cost me anything to change it.  

3. Rocky Ray - NM: Rocky shared an idea with me regarding American National Cashback checks. When Rocky mails or delivers a check to his clients, he sends a copy of the check along with some extra business cards and Cashback brochures and a note for his clients to show their friends. He knows they'll spend the real check, so including a copy allows them to show their friends that they get money back from their insurance company.

4. Keith Griffith - NM: Keith showed me a great little first aid kit that can be purchased for $1.50 and be used as a give away for clients and prospects. I thought the kits were great and something that people would keep for quite some time in case of emergencies.

Thanks for the ideas guys!

Blogging For Client Retention - Part 2

Hooray, you've decided to add blogging to your repertoire for 2012! I'm proud of you for making such a wise decision, now let's talk about a few tips on how you actually get it done. Blogs do NOT have to be painstaking or take an abundance of your time. In fact, you can put out 2 blogs a month (that's 24 client touches a year) in less than an hour! Here are some practical tips to get your blog up and running:

1. Where To Blog: The first thing you need is a place to do your blogging. I don't mean a place to write, like a coffee shop vs. your office, I'm talking about a place to host your blogs where people can go to find them on line. The easiest and most user friendly place for people new to blogging (or even not so new) has got to be blogger.com. It's designed and set up to get you blogging in a matter of minutes with a couple of clicks and it's completely free. You get to name your blog whatever you want AND you can have as many different blogs as you want.
2. What To Blog About: Once you get your free account up and running (2 minutes), it's time to start picking the topics for your blogs. This is very easy to do for at least the first 50 or so posts. Put a pad of paper next to your phone at the office. Every time a client calls in with a question write it down on your pad of paper and then answer it in your blog. Clients ask the same questions over and over again, you might as well type the answer once and then send the answers out to all of your clients before they get around to asking you. You can also find a topic or two every month just by paying attention to the news and posting about an insurance topic you see come up in the headlines.
3. How To Write: Make sure you write the blog as if you were talking to one person. Imagine yourself sitting across from your favorite client and answering their question and type it out as if you were talking. You want your blogs to be very readable AND you want them to have your personality sprinkled throughout so that your clients can actually hear you talking when they're reading your blog.
4. It's Not Just About The Words: Spice up your blog and break it up with a photo or video. It's easy to add both with blogger by clicking the image or video icons on the tool bar.
5. You're Not Writing A Novel: People don't have the time or desire to read an insurance book, so keep your posts short and sweet. Think "Reader's Digest." Keep your articles short enough to read in 3 minutes AND try to throw in a personal story or experience every once in a while to let your clients get to know you better.

That's it! A few simple steps and a few tips to follow and you'll be a blogging pro in no time. There's one last tip to make sure you follow, don't give up! Blogging is something you do on a regular, on-going basis as a way to communicate and retain your clients and build strong relationships. You can't do that if you write a blog or two and then quit. Commit to making it a normal part of your agency and it'll take you a long way!

Good luck and good blogging,

Robert Edgin