Here are some of the top strategies to retain your clients:
Pick up the phone
The first part of retention, in my opinion, is simply doing what you say you’re going to do. You’re going to pick up the phone call and do the service work behind it because there’s a difference between a sales agent and a servicing agent.
You have to think that we’re working with individuals who are typically around 85-years-old , and they want to have the reliability of knowing they’re going to be able to talk to that same person when they have questions or concerns.A sales agent is that agent who goes into the home, they get the application as fast as they can, hold their breath, and runs to their car knowing they’re never going to look back. They’re never going to go back and see that individual, and those agents have terrible retention.
They have to keep working because they’re not thinking it through and they’re playing the short game. With retention as an agent, you’re playing the long game. I think the first thing is to make sure that you’re returning phone calls.
Send out birthday and holiday cards
Sending out thank you cards and birthday cards is important for retention. An example of this taking place happened with of one of our business partners in the Western part of North Carolina. They have a very large book of business. Each one of their members gets a happy birthday call and a happy birthday card.
If the thought comes up about if there was a point or any real value in sending these cards, the right answer is that there is a point. One customer walked into the office and said they were thankful for the birthday card saying it was the only one they got.
The question does come up how could you ever stop a practice that results in those kinds of responses? If sending cards even influences just one person, it makes it all worthwhile.
Stay visible in the sales environment
When agents are not visible, they are out of the consumers’ minds; which is just human nature. Back in the day, people never even thought about or dreamed about advertising. The way they are doing the things that can be done now via social media was unheard of back then.
Send a text message, communicate with your clients
For those that don’t want to be in front of a camera, you can simply send a text message to your clients. People now value communication above all else.
Ronnie James recently went to a conference, and the speaker there said that now 87 percent of Americans say their preferred method of communication is text. It is important to think about how many people don’t pick up their phone but are willing to answer a text. It’s not just my college kid that does that. That’s actual people that do those things. As an agent, be sure you get everybody’s cell phone number because most of everyone has one. Have your clients put you in their phone contact as a “Medicare agent” because sometimes people forget names.
Give your clients a magnet
Business cards get lost but refrigerators don’t. When you give out a business card and a magnet, just tell your clients to put them on their refrigerator. Follow up by saying if you have questions, contact me and you know where to find me. It is all about just having a little bit of fun with it.
Those types of endearing comments make a difference to people, and they will remember you by that. Your clients will know what number to contact and what questions to ask. When their friends ask them about who helps them with their Medicare, your clients will know where to you’re your number. if you’re just writing it and running – then you’re not selling and servicing. All you’re doing is defeating the purpose of what we do because there is a good living that can be made from retention.
Referrals keep business going
There’s a lot of value in what you’re doing out in the field because as we all know, Medicare pays great residuals for us. It’s our job to retain that business, but also look at it as not just earning not earning your residuals, but earning those referrals like you talked about.
Retaining your current clients
Maintaining your clients is essential part of your job as an insurance agent. It isn’t always about finding new customers, sometimes it is about powering up your current client relationships.
Contact us at 888-622-9122 if you need anything! We are one phone call away!
