A ‘Safe’ Way to Add Value for Your Customers
Insurance agents need to stand out from the crowd if they are to successfully compete for good clients. One easy way to do this also happens to be a great way to provide a useful service: Promoting safety and ways to reduce property losses.
By suggesting ways to make homes and businesses safer places to live and work, agents offer added value at little cost. And, due to the seasonal nature of many risks, including hurricanes, wildfires, winter storms, tornadoes, hailstorms and certain other disasters, agents have legitimate and important reasons to regularly contact clients and prospects. Suggesting ways to reduce everyday causes of loss, like water damage from washing machine hose failures, has year-round relevance.
Doing so shows concern for their welfare and provides them with tips which, if followed, could reduce the chances of future claims or the severity of claims that are filed. This, of course, benefits everyone. The insurance company enjoys lower claims costs, the agency better loss ratios, and the client fewer disruptions and reduced out-of-pocket expenses.
Our research shows approximately one in four businesses that close because of a disaster never reopens, and many that do reopen struggle to stay open. On the personal lines side, there are many stories of people losing items of untold sentimental value, things that no claim check could ever replace. Safer homes and businesses reduce the chances of these occurrences.
Providing value-added services
There are various ways agents can provide this value-added service.
Agency newsletters, policy stuffers, bill stuffers and other materials that provide safety suggestions may be mailed to policyholders and prospects. Many insurance companies offer agents safety brochures and related materials for distribution. For example, the insurer members of the Institute for Business & Home Safety have a full line-up of natural disaster and everyday property damage loss reduction resources available to them for this purpose.
Local newspapers also can be a good way to reach people with this information. A timely press release offering safety tips related to a seasonal hazard could get your name and your agency’s name before readers. If the newspaper is a weekly, be sure to send the release several weeks before you would like it to appear. If, for instance, your press release offers safety tips related to hurricane season, which begins in June, you probably would want to send the release in early May. Daily newspapers also appreciate plenty of lead time.
Business and home sections of many local newspapers also accept columns from business people. A submission with useful safety tips could find its way into print. The section editor could give you word counts and other suggestions for a successful submission.
Local business groups, such as chambers of commerce, and community groups also often welcome guest speakers. A presentation offering home or office safety tips could be a welcome addition to the speakers’ program, especially if you relate your talk to matters of timely interest. A presentation delivered in late fall or early winter could be a great time discuss winter safety tips. A presentation in the spring or early summer could be the time to discuss severe thunderstorm and tornado safety.
Every client expects his or her insurance agent to provide the proper coverage to protect against losses. By also giving clients advice on how to make their homes and businesses safer places to live and work, insurance agents provide a value-added service that helps policyholders reduce their chances of loss–and that helps the agency stand out.
Harvey Ryland is president and CEO of the Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS), the property loss reduction trade association of the property/casualty insurance industry. IBHS’s mission is to reduce deaths, injuries, property damage, economic losses and human suffering caused by natural disasters.