Need help with research project, please

[DebAmstutz]

A friend of mine is doing an insurance research project and needs to know if there are agencies out there who have made an effort to round out personal lines accounts, how you went about it, and do you have results you can quantify.  I said I'd post here and in the other forum and forward replies.  So, if your agency has been successful in a personal lines rounding effort and can prove it, please reply here or email me directly and I will forward the replies.

Thanks in advance!

[Lance Bateman]

Have tried several times - run reports to find accounts missing certain coverages (usually personal lines) - then start with a letter, phone follow-up.  However, without definite involvement of a producer, usually have not found sufficient response from the customers.

If we also have their life and maybe retirement or investments, we've had better luck.  Otherwise, they are shopping for lowest price.

[Jeff Zylstra]

I don't know if we could quantify it or not, but this has been an ongoing goal for us for years, and I know that we have one of the highest ratios of cross selling with Auto-Owners.  Whenever we write a policy, we always quote both home and auto, and many times the umbrella and life too if the company has MP discounts for those lines of business as well.

I think that one of the biggest helps (and obstacles) to getting new business or writing the "other" policy are the multi-policy discounts that Auto-Owners employs.  They make a HUGE difference in pricing of the overall account.  Other companies have gotten on board with that too.  That said, when you offer to quote the "other" policy for a customer, it can make the customer shop the policy that they have with you as well, which can obviously backfire on you.  So be careful in doing that.