Independent insurance agencies typically average anywhere from 1.3 – 1.7 policies per customer. High-performing multi-line agencies exceed an average of 2 policies per customer. Knowing and monitoring this number may help identify initiatives to improve your agency’s success. It is one of the easiest KPIs (key performance indicators) to calculate. Simply take your total policies and divide it by your total customers. Most agency management systems have reporting capabilities to provide this metric at any point in time, but it can also be easily counted and tracked using manual means.
Increasing this KPI should be an initiative for most agencies. Reaching out to existing customers is usually less expensive and time consuming than acquiring new ones. By increasing your average number of policies per customer you will not only increase your revenue but, as best practices indicate, the more policies a customer has with your agency the more likely they are to stay!
Take some time to calculate this KPI for your agency. Then set a target of increasing it by at least 10% over the next year. Start by possibly initiating some of the following initiatives:
- Cross-Selling Campaigns: Find all of your customers that have an auto policy with you but no home, or a home policy with you but no auto. Then set up a campaign to reach out to them. This is best done by reaching out to the insured by phone and then following up with an e-mail reminding them of the savings they are missing.
- Account Reviews: There are a lot of valuable reasons to conduct a periodic review with your clients. One of the best reasons is to help you uncover policies your customer might have with another agency. This might include a recreational vehicle policy, a rental dwelling, a business policy or a flood policy.
- Additional Policy Campaigns: Identify a policy that many of your clients don’t have, like an umbrella or life policy. Then start marketing that policy to your insureds via phone, e-mail and text.
A good sales automation or CRM product can you accomplish all of these. If you need help setting up any of these types of campaigns, please reach out to me and I will work on helping you set it up!