When Specialty Isn’t in Your Portfolio: How to Retain Clients with External Support

Key Takeaways

·       Clients appreciate trust, counsel, and solutions that meet their individual requirements even when you can’t provide the insurance itself.

·       Your clients remain satisfied through external support such as Managing General Agents (MGAs) and wholesale insurance brokers.

·       Establishing partnerships in an insurance industry keeps your agency as the customer’s primary point of contact for all their queries.

·       Open communication, honesty, and ongoing counsel foster loyalty and guard your business relationships for the long term.

The insurance business is constantly expanding and evolving. New emerging risks require clients to be served with products that lie outside your norm—actually, that’s fine too. Sometimes you just don’t have the specialty cover designed for their purposes—and that’s fine too. How you handle it makes all the difference. By providing clients with access to the appropriate outside resources and continuing to be involved, you demonstrate that their interests always matter most. That method retains clients and enhances one’s reputation for reliability, assistance, and customer-centricity.

This piece examines why leveraging outside assistance is smart business, how MGAs and insurance wholesalers set themselves apart and add value, and how steps can keep your clients coming back to you even if you don’t have all specialty coverage lines in-house.

Utilizing Outside Assistance

Every agency has instances when client requirements exceed ordinary home, auto, or commercial insurance. Perhaps a customer desires insurance for an unusual sport, a high-tech firm’s cyber exposure, or commercial property located in a high-risk area for flooding. These types of exposures require specialty insurance. But you may have neither contracts nor product expertise for particular specialty products. Rather than risking that a customer is left unhappy or shopping elsewhere, you can leverage solid partners outside your agency.

It makes you a guide and a consultant as opposed to just being a seller. It leads people to see you as a stable source who is going to be able to deliver even if that takes you outside of yourself.

The MGAs and Wholesale Insurance Brokers’ Role

Two partners in particular play special roles in such instances: Managing General Agents and wholesale insurance brokers. Both assist insurance agencies and agents in filling in gaps in services that regular insurance carriers do not handle. They serve as bridges to specialty insurance markets and retail agents alike.

MGAs possess unique authority from insurance carriers to underwrite, set prices, and even settle claims for unusual risks. This allows an MGA to act promptly and design policies for circumstances that traditional insurers might shun. For example, if your customer requires insurance for an unusual business or piece of property, an MGA is able to locate the correct solution—where you might be unable to provide it directly.

Wholesale insurance brokers, meanwhile, represent multiple carriers and have extensive familiarity with hard-to-obtain coverages. They enable agents to go into specialty markets and products that might otherwise be inaccessible to them. With a wholesale broker as a partner, you acquire their network and expertise to find solutions for your client’s most unique insurance requirements.

These outside experts aren’t competitors. They’re behind-the-scenes collaborators who have an interest in assisting you in keeping and pleasing your client. By retaining you as primary point-of-contact, your client receives specialty cover they require—without shopping and potentially leaving your agency for good.

The Advantages of Referral Relationships

Referral agreements with MGAs and wholesale brokers provide your agency assurance that any special risk is manageable. Although you might miss out on a commission for a specialty product, you also earn trust and loyalty over time. The majority of clients want to retain an agent who knows their business and knows when to call in outside assistance.

Client Retention: Your client still views you as their advisor and does not have to build a relationship with someone else.

Expertise: MGAs and brokers remain informed about emerging risks and regulations in specialist insurance so their clients are properly protected.

Honesty and creativity when problem-solving are values that clients appreciate, and loyalty is likely to result in referrals and additional business.

Sharing your network and resources with a client is a positive testament to your agency’s devotion to their interests.

Open Communication Creates Client Trust

When you don’t have a specialty insurance product to deliver yourself, how you communicate with your client is paramount. Be honest and direct and explain that you want to assist and do so through using your network to source the ideal solution for them. Inform them about how MGAs or wholesale brokers cover gaps and that you will remain their primary point of contact throughout and support them each step of the way. Having your customer in the know creates trust and avoids misunderstanding. It converts what otherwise could be a failing into a show of professionalism and transparency. Even when the response is, “Let me get in touch with my partners,” showing yourself as being willing to take responsibility and see it through is a big positive statement in itself.

·       Update the client regularly so they know you’re working on their behalf.

·       Be ready to discuss the reasons why specific dangers require outside experts.

·       Be pro-active in following up after placing specialty policy to discuss issues regarding service or renewals.

Steps to Retaining Clients When Your Specialty Isn’t in Your Portfolio

·       Be up to date on emerging insurance products and perils so you recognize when a customer requires specialty insurance.

·       Establish close, dependable relationships with MGAs and wholesale brokers to secure easy referrals.

·       Be honest with clients about how you work and how outside collaborators will assist them.

·       Ensure that your agency is always accessible for additional questioning and service—both prior to and after placement.

·       Check up on clients regularly to go over their requirements and determine whether your own portfolio must be widened in the future as well.

The Long-Term Value of Being Flexible

In a competitive industry, flexibility and a customer-oriented mindset distinguish an agency. Being willing to call in outside assistance rather than saying “no” is picked up on by customers. Eventually, it makes your agency more than a product seller; it makes it a solver of all types of coverage issues—simple and complicated. Adjusting to your customers’ shifting demands allows you to expand. You may discover gaps in your existing portfolio reveal an emerging demand for specialty products that you could add to your portfolio later on. Relying on your outside partners also enables your agency to learn more, get up to speed more rapidly, and be a go-to source even for the most unusual exposures.

Summing it all up

Having a missing specialty product in your agency is not a dead end to a client relationship—just an ability to differentiate through reliability and service. With your network of MGAs and wholesale insurance brokers at their disposal, you keep clients protected even when their circumstances venture into areas of specialty or complexity. Consistent, concerned communication and an openness to collaborating with outside partners demonstrate commitment to client welfare. Making clients happy is more than selling them just the exact policy they desire. It’s about being their go-to expert and guide throughout the entire process, regardless of how specialized their insurance requirements get.