Congratulations! You’ve landed a new insurance client. They’re excited to work with you, and you’re excited to start providing them with the coverage they need. However, before you can officially begin your business relationship, there’s one more important step: the customer onboarding process in insurance.
The customer onboarding process is essential to building a robust and lasting relationship with your new client. It’s an opportunity to learn more about their needs and expectations and to set the tone for your future interactions. Plus, it paves the way for building customer loyalty and trust – two essential ingredients for a successful insurance business.
So what exactly is customer onboarding in insurance? And what’s the best way to go about it?
What Is A Customer Onboarding In Insurance?
Customer onboarding in insurance is the process of collecting and verifying the information needed to provide coverage, issuing a policy, and making sure the customer understands their policy.
It’s important to note that customer onboarding is different from sales or marketing activities like lead generation or product promotion. Instead, it’s focused on the post-sale process of setting up a new customer for success.
There are a few key steps involved in customer onboarding in insurance, which we’ll cover in more detail below.
What Is The Importance Of Customer Onboarding In Insurance?
There are a few key reasons why customer onboarding is so important in the insurance industry:
Collect Accurate Information and Reduce Misconceptions
The customer onboarding process is your opportunity to collect all the information you need to provide accurate coverage. This includes things like contact information, birthdates, policy start dates, and more.
Inaccurate or missing information can lead to misunderstandings about the coverage provided, which can in turn lead to customer dissatisfaction. By taking the time to collect accurate information up front, you can help reduce the chances of miscommunication and misunderstanding later on.
You can also take this time to communicate all of the intricacies of the policy to the customer. This can help prevent customers from filing claims for coverage they didn’t realize they had, or that isn’t included in their policy. It also diminishes the risk of policy misuse, which can lead to higher premiums or even policy cancellation.
Increases Customer Retention
During the customer onboarding process, take the chance to make a good and lasting first impression.
Your goal should be to make the onboarding process as smooth and easy as possible for your customer. If they have a positive experience during onboarding, they’re more likely to continue doing business with you in the future. With 28.5% of customers reporting a great experience after completing a sale with their insurance agency, it’s obvious that customer service matters.
On the other hand, if the onboarding process is confusing or frustrating, it could turn customers away before they even get started. By making customer onboarding a priority, you can help increase customer retention and loyalty in the long run.
Cross-Sell and Upsell Opportunities
Finally, the customer onboarding process provides an excellent opportunity to cross-sell or upsell additional products and services. For example, if a customer is buying auto insurance, you could offer them the option to add on renters insurance or life insurance. Or, if they’re already a renter, you could suggest they add on flood insurance or pet insurance.
By offering additional products during the onboarding process while ensuring successful client management, you can help increase revenue and scale your business. Plus, it’s a great way to build lasting relationships with your customers by providing them with the coverage they need.
The Ultimate Checklist For A Customer Onboarding Process In Insurance
Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s take a look at the ultimate checklist for a successful customer onboarding process.
Basic Information
- Collect basic information: Contact information, birthdate, address, social security number, and driver’s license number
- Let your customer know where to get the information
- Prepare contract: Once you have all the necessary information, you can prepare the contract for your customer to sign.
- Send contract for signing: After the contract is prepared, send it to your customer for signing.
- Receive signed brokerage contract: Lastly, once you’ve received the signed contract, you’re ready to begin onboarding your new customer!
Welcome
- Prepare a welcome package: This can include things like a welcome letter, information about your company and services, and anything else you think would be helpful for your new customer.
- Send welcome package: Once you have the welcome package prepared, send it to the customer’s address.
Scheduling
- Schedule consultation call: After they’ve received the signed contract, reach out to your customer and schedule a consultation call. This is an opportunity to discuss the policy in more detail and answer any questions they may have.
- Confirm consultation date: Ensure that you and your customer are on the same page about when the consultation will take place.
Call Preparation
- Prepare call agenda: Having an agenda for the consultation call will help you stay on track and cover all the necessary topics.
- Prepare client’s to-do list: After the call, you should have a list of the next steps for your client. This will help them know what they need to do to get started with their policy.
Consultation Call
- Understand the customer’s situation: Understanding your customer’s perspective is key to providing them with the best possible service.
- Go over the to-do list: Revising the to-do list from the preparation stage will help ensure that your customer knows what they need to do next.
- Discuss expectations: Discussing expectations is important to set realistic expectations for both you and your customer.
- Align your priorities: Make sure that your priorities are aligned with your customers so that you can provide them with the best possible service.
- Determine what documents will be needed: Outline the documents you need to ensure a smooth process.
Post-Call
- Determine next steps: After the call, you should have a clear understanding of the next steps that need to be taken.
- Send customer post-call summary: Sending a summary of the call to your customer will help them remember what was discussed and what needs to be done next.
- Request documents from the client: Now’s the time to request any documents that were discussed during the call.
Future Meetings
- Schedule a follow-up meeting: Schedule a follow-up meeting with your customer to check in and see how they’re doing.
- Confirm the follow-up meeting date: As always, confirm the date and time of the meeting with your customer.
CRM
- Update customer profile In CRM: Updating the customer’s profile in your CRM will help you keep track of their information and interactions. InsuredMine insurance CRM features a great way to manage your customer’s information as well as track your marketing and sales efforts.
Guides
- Provide instructions for accessing online accounts: If your customer is new to using online accounts, be sure to provide them with instructions on how to access their account. Written or video guides can be helpful for this.
Feedback
- Request onboarding feedback: Your goal is to provide an excellent customer experience, so be sure to request feedback from your customer after they’ve gone through the onboarding process.
- Receive the completed feedback questionnaire: Once you’ve received the feedback, take some time to review it and see what areas you can improve.
All-In-One CRM for Insurance Agencies
The way you interact with customers during the onboarding process sets the tone for all future interactions. It’s important to take the time to do it right so that you can provide an excellent customer experience.
InsuredMine CRM is here to help you streamline your customer onboarding process. Our all-in-one CRM for insurance agencies offers everything you need to manage your customers, sales, and marketing in one place.
Request a free demo and see how we can help you streamline your onboarding process.
