This blog post summarizes Kenny Hendrick’s interview of Kelly Endicott, owner of K & M Insurance, on how her agency uses ValChoice. This podcast was posted to Spotify, Apple and YouTube as part 2 of HawkSoft’s Insurance perspectives podcast covering ValChoice.
How does K &M Insurance use ValChoice?
1:30 – Kelly covers how they enable in the HawkSoft marketplace then decide what they want the automation to do. ValChoice sends out the emails and then writes the information back to the clients policy tab.
2:00 – Kenny mentions that ValChoice implemented the two-way API partner.
2:13 – Kelly talks about how to assign action items inside the AMS.
2:40 – Dan elaborates on how ValChoice turns the AMS into a CRM. The automations mine the system to find the types of sales action the agent wishes to perform. ValChoice then runs the automation and signs the follow-up actions to the appropriate person. People do not have to change how they work. This makes for a very simple process.
2:53 – Kelly discusses how this approach makes managing the agency much easier because she can quickly identify who has what actions to follow-up on.
4:18 – Kenny compares the ValChoice integration to a rotisserie chicken, set it and forget it.
Kenny asked Kelly to talk about her agency and how long she’s been in the agency.
5:12 – Kelly explains she started at the agency at five years old via a kindergarten exchange program. ;). Kelly started as a filing clerk, became a CSR assistant, then a personal lines CSR, agency management was next. Kelly became a part owner in 2016 and is now one of two owners. K & M has 15 people working in the agency.
What was Kelly looking for when she first encountered ValChoice?
7:55 – Kelly covers how as the market changes they need to adjust their sales and marketing strategy in the agency. ValChoice created an easy way to provide extra attention to customers.
What are you able to do now with ValChoice that you weren’t able to do before?
9:20 – As an agency owner Kelly has a lot of different responsibilities. Hence, she gets busy and doesn’t have time to learn a new system. Therefore, she doesn’t have the bandwidth to learn new systems. ValChoice made it really easy to create campaigns, start them and step away (just let the campaigns run). When she’s doing so many other things, this is an easy way to increase what she’s able to do.
10:55 – Dan elaborates on the A/B testing they did when first working with Kelly. Group A would receive the ValChoice information. Group B did not receive the ValChoice information. The test has been running nearly a year with thousand upon thousands of policyholders through the test. The result is that Group A policyholders have an 80% lower request to be re-marketed rate. Carriers are thrilled because they’re reaching 98% retention, which greatly enhances the profit for the carrier.
12:35 – Kelly explains the email comes from her, but the rating piece is 3rd party which substantiates that a good decision was made. One of the first things Kelly noticed is that the calls with customers that received the ValChoice information led to a much friendlier, account review type of conversation.
13:40 – Kenny mentioned that in his cubicle at HawkSoft he had a sticky note saying “if the price becomes about price, you’re a commodity and the lowest price wins.” The value independent agents bring is that insurance is not as cut and dried as picking your rate. ValChoice is providing the benefit of communicating the intangible extra value of being with the right carrier.
15:18 – Kelly talks about with ValChoice she can not only keep renewal rate high, but she can also upsell those customers easily with minimal effort.
What would Kelly change about ValChoice if she could?
17:05 – Kelly says she put some thought into this but doesn’t think she would change anything. ValChoice is good about knowing what they need, accepting input and using that input to figure out the best way to do things.
What are some of the things that are coming in the future?
18:50 – Dan explains that ValChoice started by automating everything about renewal to minimize effort and maximize retention. Now the company is evolving from a focus on renewals to everything sales oriented. ValChoice automates the entire process. ValChoice automations can sell as effectively as the best sales people. Finding ways to maximize the effectiveness of the people is what ValChoice is doing now.
20:15 – Kelly discusses book consolidation and policy changes as specific examples of using ValChoice. Any agency will admit that it’s painstaking. Agents don’t want to disrupt the insured. There’s nothing more valuable than assuring the policyholder that they’re with a good quality insurance company. She’s also really looking forward to utilizing this for policy changes. Kelly gave an example of using ValChoice to win new business. “It totally gets their focus off of premium.”
23:13 – Dan covers the importance of knowing the communication is being delivered. Importantly, ValChoice is delivering greater than an 80% open rate on emails with documentation of who opened, agreed, declined, etc.
24:12 – Kenny How would you describe the value that ValChoice brings to your agency?
24:33 – Kelly discusses how ValChoice hase given her the ability to be proactive rather than reactive with customers. That will differentiate her from other agents. It’s changed the tone of the conversation for the calls that are coming in has been immensely beneficial to her staff. The negativity of the calls has shifted to talking about coverage.
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