Blog

How to Get the Best Insurance Quotes for Your Customers

January 13, 2015
By: Voldico

Providing customers with the best quotes can propel your agency from good to great. We have compiled a list of tips that will help you attain the most competitive quotes out there!

As agents, we want to provide the best service and the most competitive quotes to our customers. More experienced agents learn tips and tricks for attaining these prices, but for newer agents, the best approach is not always clear.

To help, we have compiled a simple list of insurance quoting tips for all agents to consider when writing quotes for customers.

Insurance Quoting Tips for Agents

Always present three viable options. Give your customers a choice by presenting three quote options: Best, Better and Good. All three quotes should have similar coverage. After explaining the policies, allow the customer to choose which option is best for them. Be sure to include one policy with a higher deductible, as this can provide significant savings to your customers.

Check for additional rebates and discounts. Educate your customers on bundles and package benefits. Many carriers offer substantial discounts if a customer buys more than one type of policy (auto, home, life, etc.) at the same time. Sometimes there are discounts for quoting a day or two ahead of issuing the policy, so it’s always worth looking into. Lastly, some carriers offer discounts for driving school and/or good grades for students. Leave no stone unturned.

Identify coverage gaps. Always compare your customer’s current policy with the new policy you are quoting. A gap in coverage can explain why a new policy might cost a bit more, as it offers more coverage than the previous one. A side-by-side comparison goes a long way when trying to explain policy differences in layman’s terms.

Be as thorough and accurate as possible. When filling out the fields for a quote, it is important that you are accurate and include any detail that might offer an additional discount or affect the final pricing. Important things to remember:

  • Data accuracy. Verify that all the information and data in the quote is accurate and up-to-date. When data changes, the quote can change. To avoid any surprises, double-check your work the first time.
  • Include tenure with insurers and past liability limits. When writing a new quote, the information from past policies generally auto-fills for you (if using an automated system). Be sure to verify that the information is accurate, as certain tenure and past policy information can give your customers additional discounts.
  • Always include the insured’s social security number. Social Security numbers are tied to credit scores. Not providing this can result in a higher rate for your customer simply because a credit score could not be found.
  • Always include education and occupation when applicable (this is state-dependent). Most online quoting systems pre-fill fields with default data. For example, Education Level generally defaults to “High School.” If your customer has a higher educational degree and you do not update the field, you might be missing additional savings on the policy. The same thing goes for the Occupation field. Do not select or leave the default setting for “Other.” Pick the profession that is the closest match. By filling out both of these fields, you are increasing the chances of related discounts.

The tips listed above can really add up when trying to get the best quote possible, so we recommend considering them all equally!