..:: Insurance News & Views ::.. -
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Published on: 2/1/2007
Last Visited: 12/17/2007
Jeanne Heisler, agency principal at the Ronan Agency, Inc., in Brick, N.J., has seen a similar trend at her agency.
"We absolutely agree…we do a lot of life policies and when we write an entire account we find people consider us their professional agency and they will tend to talk to us before going out and looking for information other places," she says.
Heisler has a first-hand understanding of why some customers stay and why other's stray---she's experienced New Jersey's progression from a struggling insurance market to one that's more competitive.She's seen many customers leave, but has also managed to regain some of those accounts.
"We've had a lot of turnover since we went from crisis model to a competitive mode.So many people did switch and, sure, it's less expensive, but they're getting less coverage because they didn't understand what they purchased.What we've done is continue to write to them and encourage them to bring in their policy so we can get to the root of what made them switch…in some cases it was just because of the mail they got (offering lower prices)," Heisler says.