If you’re a small or mid-size insurance agency competing with the larger companies for new policies, a new study by Velocify brings good news. The study titled, Insurance Industry Online Buyer Experiences, examines the responses of 25 direct, captive, and independent insurance carriers. Here are three of the biggest missteps many of the largest insurers in the nation are taking and strategies on how you can compete and win:
Some insurance agencies completely ignored prospects altogether. 39% of inquiries never received a call, 34% never received an email and 17% were completely ignored, according to the study.
What can you do? Show buyers the love they are looking for!
- In a recent survey studying Online Buyer Expectations by Zogby Research “no response” was found to be more harmful to a company’s reputation than “poor service or rudeness.”
- Given buyers are likely to shop around for insurance after a bad customer experience, and especially if no response is given, providing superior service right out of the gate can give you an advantage even over the largest competitors.
The largest insurance agencies in the nation leave online prospects waiting. Ready insurance buyers wait an average of 2.3 days to get a call from an insurance company and often don’t even receive a call back at all. While the average email response time was faster, at 22 hours, there is considerable room for improvement in a process that is so easily automated.
What can you do? Follow up as soon as possible!
- Placing an immediate call (within 60 seconds) with online insurance buyers increases your conversion chances by an astounding 391%, according to research from The Ultimate Contact Strategy conducted by Velocify.
- Sending an initial email within 20 minutes can increase conversion by 49%, according to the same study.
The largest agencies in the nation give up on online insurance buyers too soon. According to the study by Velocify, the average number of call attempts per lead was 1.45 and the average number of emails sent was 1.56.
What can you do? Persist but don’t annoy!
- The optimal number of call attempts is between five and seven (after seven the inquirer often gets cold feet and usually starts to feel harassed), according to research from The Ultimate Contact Strategy conducted by Velocify.
- Statistically, less than half of successful sales deals are closed with leads that were reached on the first phone call, according to the same study.
- This means there is considerable opportunity for sales reps to continue to persist beyond the first two calls, knowing competitors have long since stopped trying.
In summary, by following a consistent, optimized contact strategy with immediacy and persistence, you’ll be heads above your very large industry counterparts.
