How to Find and Fix Your Insurance Agency’s Biggest Challenges

Ask your staff.

That’s the main idea here.

Wait… there’s more.

I wanted to make the process effective and easy so I developed a resource and a plan for any insurance agent to use.

I created this plan with three main principles in mind:

1. Simple solutions to your agency’s biggest problems deliver the best ROI.
2. Your staff knows A LOT about your agency’s challenges.
3. Changes in your agency work better with buy-in from the staff.

---

If you agree with those three principles and you think your agency has room for improvement keep reading.

Step 1: Give This Opportunity Questionnaire to Your Staff

This staff questionnaire identifies the biggest challenges facing your agency and asks for one improvement that could help each problem.

I want you to give it to every staff member.

Click Here to Download the Microsoft Word file.
​
BTW, I purposely didn’t put my brand on it so your staff would think you made it. Put your logo on there, I don’t care ;)

Or just copy and paste the questions below into an email:

​———————--

1) The #1 customer service complaint we get is:
One idea to reduce this is:

2) The #1 problem our customers have with claims is:
One idea to reduce this is:

3) The #1 reason our customer’s policies get cancelled is:
One idea to reduce this is:

4) The #1 cause of unproductive time in our agency is:
One idea to reduce this is:

5) The #1 reason customers don’t renew with us is:
One idea to reduce this is:

6) The #1 reason our customers refer our agency is:
One idea to increase this is:

7) The #1 reason we cross-sell policies is:
One idea to increase this is:

8) The #1 education/training deficiency we have is:
One idea to improve this is:

9) The #1 reason people should buy from us instead of another agent is:
One idea to make more prospects aware is:

10) The #1 reason people should buy from us instead of direct from the carrier is:
One idea to make more prospects aware is:

​————————-

It’s important to have your employees fill it out individually because you want to get a variety of responses and solutions that won’t be influenced by the most dominant personalities or groupthink.

You may decide you’ll get better input if each person fills it out anonymously.

I’m not against that, you’ll probably even get better feedback!

​Step 2: Share the Results With Your Entire Staff in an Open Meeting.

Depending on how large your staff is, you may filter the responses rather than sharing everyone’s response with the entire group but it’s up to you.

In any event, I recommend throwing the ideas and suggestions presented out to the group to get their feedback on which ideas hold the most promise.

Remember that change only works if your staff buys in so I’d steer clear of changes nobody likes.

​Step 3: Develop a Plan to Implement The Best Solutions

Get everyone’s agreement and develop a plan.

Put it down on paper and give everyone a copy.

Be as specific as possible and use concrete numbers and actions your staff can be held accountable for instead of general “feel-good” statements.

Get commitment from your staff members as you develop this plan.

If one solution oversteps realistic expectations you’ll reduce the effectiveness of all the others so don’t go for too much too fast.

​Step 4: Follow up

​After a month bring your staff together again and go through the plan for get feedback on how well it has worked.

Change the plan as necessary to improve the results.

Add new ideas if staff members have them.

​Step 5: Rinse Wash and Repeat

​Make this a regular process in your agency.

There isn’t one item on this questionnaire that doesn’t demand continuous thought and attention.

​And One More Thing

If you find this resource helpful would you do me a favor?

Would you share it with a colleague or carrier rep you think would also find value in it?

Or at least click one of the like buttons?

I hope this helps you and I’d love to hear any feedback about your results in the comments below.

Thanks!
John