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America’s Choice Insurance Partners Uses InsurGrid to Save Agents and Customers Time While Closing More Business
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In 1984, America’s Choice Insurance Partners was started as an independent insurance agency to serve the needs of RV owners across the state of Michigan. Today, they’ve grown to serve the needs of customers across 20 states, providing coverage for everything from home and car insurance to business and life insurance.
As a business that aims to “treat all customers like family,” the agents at America’s Choice understand that life can be hectic and buying insurance policies can be confusing. Their mission is to make it as easy as possible for people to get the coverage they need with premiums that fit their budgets.
Yet, America’s Choice agents often struggled to quickly get the necessary information from prospects needed to provide timely and competitive quotes.
The Challenges of Getting Declaration Pages Over the Phone
Like most independent agents, the typical way agents at America’s Choice received policy information from prospects was over the phone.
As Erin Tyrrell, Insurance Advisor at America's Choice Insurance Partners, explained, “Over the phone or having them email or take a picture and text it to me was how I was mainly getting people’s declaration pages. If we were talking on the phone and they had their dec pages in front of them, I’d have to try to get them to read it off for me.”
As every agent knows, this can prove particularly challenging when people either don’t have their current policy information in front of them or if they do and they simply don’t understand it — which is very common. “There is some education involved,” Erin said,”since people don’t typically understand what declaration pages are or why we need them.”
Not only did the back and forth of these phone conversations take a lot of time and follow-up, they also required a lot of the customer. “It’s a hassle for the customer to have to go find these documents that they don’t usually have at the ready or even know what they are,” said Steve Chandler, Sales Manager at America's Choice Insurance Partners.
Steve also highlighted another challenge, “If the client doesn’t know where to find their dec pages, they often think, ‘Hey, let me call my agent.’ Well every agent knows that if your client is looking for their dec pages, they’re shopping.”
To solve for these challenges and automate the way they received dec pages from prospective customers, America’s Choice turned to InsurGrid.
Saving Agents And Customers Time With InsurGrid
Using InsurGrid, America’s Choice Insurance Partners is now able to more quickly and easily obtain complete policy information from customers and prospects. By offering people a secure link where all they have to do is enter basic information and log into their current carrier’s portal, America’s Choice agents now get instant access to accurate dec pages.
”A lot of people still don’t know how to find and save policies to their computer, then send them to us as an email attachment,” Steve said, “But, they do know how to log onto their online accounts with their current carriers.”
“Using InsurGrid is so much easier than someone having to go find their dec pages. It’s less hassle for the client and the agent.”
Erin added, “InsurGrid is a huge time-saver because it’s easy for people to fill out, which means I can more quickly have quotes ready to go instead of waiting weeks on end for people to bring in or email me their information. It’s beneficial to me and the customer.”
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Complete & Accurate Policy Information Leads to More Closed Business
Not only is it a time saver for everyone, but because the agents now have accurate information for every policy on a potential customer’s account, they’re in a better position to win their business as well as spot upsell and cross-sell opportunities.
“With InsurGrid, you’re getting accurate information and that’s the most important thing,” Erin said.“It’s helped me close more business because I can easily point out what’s missing in people’s current coverage.”
The ability to clearly see all the current coverage someone has has also helped America’s Choice agents educate prospective customers on where they may have been oversold in the past or where they might have had lack of coverage.
And remember the potential threat of people’s existing agents realizing their clients are shopping around for a new policy? InsurGird now helps America’s Choice protect against that. As Steve said, “InsurGrid prevents the current carrier from knowing that the client is shopping, so we can safeguard against a possible steal back from their current agent.”
America’s Choice Insurance Partner isn’t just using InsurGrid on a 1:1 basis, they’re also taking a one to many approach by emailing their unique InsurGrid Agent Tool link out as an easy way to offer complementary home and auto quotes to their database of customers and prospects.
And this two-pronged approach has been effective. In the first few months of using InsurGrid, they’ve been able to automate the collection of over 60 dec pages, resulting in over $84,000 in premiums.
Going forward, America’s Choice Insurance Partners intends to incorporate InsurGrid into their other on-going email and marketing campaigns more.
“It allows us to create a better, more modern customer experience,” Steve said. “If you’re more technologically advanced than other independent agencies, it’s a distinct competitive advantage.”
As Erin said, “I wish I would have thought of this; it’s genius." - InsurGrid
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