Insurance Agent Insight: Jack Krier Shares His Strategies

Jack Krier of Colorado-based Ameri Quote Insurance & Financial Services has been in the insurance industry for 25 years. A captive agent for most of that time, he started his own agency eight years ago so he could offer customers a better choice of products by representing multiple carriers.

At first Jack’s agency was slowed down by unproductive phone time, a 30-minute quoting process, and policies that could take up to four weeks to write. Then he discovered the Norvax suite of tools, including BrokerOffice, QuoteBuilder and SiteBuilder, to speed up his sales process and automate his agency.

Jack recently shared his success with us.

Norvax: What were some of the challenges you faced in the early years of your agency?
JK: When I started, I would quote three companies and then I’d either have them come in or mail them the quote. Or we would do it verbally over the phone. As a rule we know who’s most competitive but we like to quote three companies. It would take us 5-10 minutes for each company, so in all it would take 15-30 minutes to get everything together.

Norvax: What has changed as a result of using your QuoteBuilder quote engine?
JK: I’m most happy with the ease, the convenience and time saving element of being able to run all your quotes and getting them to people quickly. We’ve been doing a lot of online business this year. If you can get a quote to them quickly they tend to stop shopping. Now instead of quoting three companies, we quote up to 5 or 6 all within 5 minutes. People like that. We always ask people if they have email access and if they do we can get it out to them quickly. If they don’t, we can print it out and just send it in the mail.

Norvax: In what other ways has QuoteBuilder made selling policies more efficient?
JK: Now I spend the same amount of time on the phone but it’s more productive time. We get right into the product quickly because they have the rates right in front of them. I can tell them how plans work and at the same time answer their specific product questions instead of going over the rates.

Norvax: How important is speed in following up leads?
JK: Time is a big deal. Any time you can get something in front of people it gets them to stop shopping. Chances are they’ll call more than one company, so right away we assure them we’re licensed with all the companies. I know if I can get that quote out to them they will not shop anymore. They appreciate it. If you can react quickly that shows you are being professional.

Norvax: How has your quote engine changed your follow up process?
JK: If someone goes in and gets a quote I immediately get an email so I can call them and ask if I can explain anything. That helps a lot. Chances are they are shopping around and probably have questions. If you’re [shopping] online you want to know that there’s someone local who can answer your questions and help you with any problems. People online still want a local agent but they don’t want to be high pressured.

Norvax: How has having a website benefited your agency?
JK: I do a lot of yellow pages ads with the website in it. It hasn’t changed how we market our leads; it’s changed how many people we meet with. I’ve been in the business 25 years and thought I’d never want to lose control; I always wanted to meet people face to face. When companies began coming out with their online applications I was worried about not being able to get credit. But that hasn’t been a factor. I can get people to apply online and it can take three to four days to write them if they’re healthy instead of three to four weeks. In some cases they’ve been issued the next day. That’s helpful because I have a small staff of two full time people and myself. We do 30-35 applications a month and we would need more of a staff if we had to meet with all those people.

Norvax: What kinds of people are finding you through the web?
JK: I think it’s a situation where the people that use my site are comfortable looking online and are busy professional people that don’t have time to drive around looking for your office. It’s great for that cliental. Older people might not even have email, but we can just run the quote, print it off and mail it to them.

Norvax: Why did you choose to work with Norvax?
JK: The cost for this service is very affordable; it would be cost prohibitive to pay someone to do what it does.