As a business owner, running your agency is a lot like being the coach of a sports team. It’s about strategically selecting the right tools and teammates to position your agency for success. Just like in sports, a good coach stays informed by watching the competition, learning from their strategies and staying one step ahead to keep the team on track.

In recent years, the insurance industry has undergone a dramatic shift. The emergence of the “insurance-as-a-service” model, which prioritizes digital interactions across the policy lifecycle, has transformed how insurance is delivered and experienced by clients. Further, top competitors in today’s digital-first market are leveraging automation and artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance flexibility, convenience and accessibility for clients.

This approach stands in sharp contrast to the insurance landscape of 20 years ago, which was largely transactional and product-focused. Insurance was primarily sold through agents, brokers and direct sales channels. Policies were often viewed as one-size-fits-all solutions. The process was typically handled through emails or paper forms and customer interactions mostly took place in person or over the phone, where long wait times were common. Customers had limited control over their policies, often needing to wait for in-person assistance from agents to make changes or ask questions. The overall experience was far less flexible and heavily reliant on traditional communication methods.

As consumers increasingly turn to digital platforms and mobile apps for their insurance needs, independent agents must explore new ways to enhance the digital client experience.

Just like a successful sports team requires both a strong offense and defense, your agency needs a well-rounded set of strategies to win new clients—offense—while also safeguarding and nurturing your existing ones—defense.

How exactly can you do this? On the defensive side, automating your renewal process can play a crucial role in retaining clients. On the offensive side, offering instant text-based insurance quotes is an essential tool to attract new clients. By balancing both of these strategies, you can position your agency for long-term success and stay ahead of the competition.

Why Is Automation and Accessible Communication Important?

Before exploring how automated renewals and quote-by-text can save your agency time and create a seamless client experience, it’s essential to understand why accessible communication channels and automation processes are important.

Implementing both can greatly boost your client satisfaction and retention. The more you invest in automating administrative processes in your agency—harnessing the power of AI to handle tasks like managing renewals, processing quotes, sending follow-up emails or tracking policy updates—the more time you gain to focus on the things that matter most, like building meaningful relationships with clients.

As an independent agency, you may not have the same “team roster” or resources as larger industry players, but that doesn’t mean you can’t compete at a high level. While limited resources can make it challenging to keep up, AI and automation can level the playing field by helping you reclaim hours in your day.

If your staff are no longer weighed down by time-consuming tasks, they can provide more clients with higher-quality service. This enhances client satisfaction and retention by positioning your agency as a trusted expert that clients can rely on to meet their needs promptly.

In today’s fast-paced market, speed is crucial. Customers not only expect it but are also less forgiving of bad experiences. More than half of consumers will switch to a competitor after only one bad experience, according to the 2025 Zendesk “Customer Experience Trends Report.” Additionally, 64% of customers consider speed and responsiveness just as important as price when deciding where to make a purchase, according to “Time to Win: The Consumer Patience Study” by Jay Baer.

Given this, it’s no surprise that consumers are increasingly looking for more convenient ways to interact with businesses and that cell phones have emerged as one of the most preferred methods of contact. The vast majority—80%—of consumers prefer texting with their insurance agents, according to a survey by communication platform Hi Marley.

By meeting your clients where they are and offering communication channels that align with their preferences, you can significantly enhance their overall experience. This personalized approach not only improves customer satisfaction but also fosters greater loyalty because clients feel valued and understood.

Insurance companies using one-to-one text messaging experienced a 15% improvement in client retention compared to traditional communication methods, such as phone calls and emails, according to Statflo. Providing seamless, mobile-accessible services shows clients that you are adaptable and committed to offering them the convenience they desire.

Automated Renewals: A Defensive Strategy for Client Retention

Imagine you’re the coach of a star player whose contract is up for renegotiation. You’re so focused on preparing for the next big game that you miss the chance to sit down with your player and discuss their contract. When they see that their salary has been lowered in the new contract offer, they start to worry. However, you had planned to explain that while their base salary is lower, they’re eligible for a huge performance-based bonus if they play well during the season. Unfortunately, since you didn’t reach out in time, your player, feeling undervalued, starts looking at other teams for a better deal.

Renewals at your agency work the same way. If a client notices a sharp increase in their premium and you’re too busy to proactively reach out and explain the reasons for the change—plus the options they have—they may decide to look for a cheaper option with another provider.

Unfortunately, this lost business could cost you more than you think. The insurance industry has the highest customer acquisition costs of any sector. Various industry sources estimate that it costs seven to nine times more to attract a new customer than to retain an existing one.

This is why a strong defensive strategy that involves an automated renewal process is crucial for protecting your existing clients and safeguarding your agency from lost business. Fortunately, there are tools on the market that can help you reach out to clients who need you most, making sure you can recapture their business.

AI-driven renewal technology can automatically track your clients’ policy expiration dates, ensuring that no renewals are missed. It also analyzes rate changes in your client’s policies, identifying which clients are most at risk based on significant premium increases. This allows you to prioritize outreach efforts to clients who may be more likely to consider switching providers.

Some tools can provide you with side-by-side summaries of premium changes between your insured’s current policy and a carrier’s renewal. These comparisons make it easy to see how your client’s new premium stacks up against the existing one, highlighting any significant increases or changes in coverage. With this detailed view, you can quickly familiarize yourself with key talking points and engage in a thoughtful discussion with clients about alternative options. This positions you as a trusted expert they can rely on.

Quote-by-Text: A Proactive Strategy for Business Growth

Once you’ve leveraged automated renewals to identify at-risk clients, you can take it a step further by utilizing agency tools with SMS messaging capabilities to send instant insurance quotes directly to clients’ cell phones, making the renewal process faster and even more convenient.

Text messaging has quickly become the most preferred communication method for consumers. In fact, the response rate for text messages (45%) is significantly higher than email (6%), according to Soprano. Additionally, studies show that SMS generates 17 times more revenue than email, according to Subtext, making it a highly effective channel for client engagement.

So, how exactly does quote-by-text work? Let’s say you have a client who is looking to get insurance coverage for their car. To start the process, a customer texts a simple phrase like “cover my car” to your agency’s dedicated text messaging number. Once prospects reach out, quote-by-text tools will engage in a conversation with the consumer to gather necessary information, asking them questions like, “What is the make and model of your car?” or “What year was your car manufactured?” until it has enough data to send them quotes from various providers.

With the entire process being fully automated and happening on the client’s cell phone, quote-by-text tools eliminate the need to manually draft emails, compile policy information and flip between carrier websites to gather quote details.

Also, instead of your emails getting lost in clients’ inboxes, text-based quoting tools ensure that your clients can more readily review the policy information. This increases the likelihood that they will engage with and act on the quotes, ultimately boosting both your sales and client retention rates.

While SMS quoting can be an essential part of your agency’s defensive strategy, it also plays a key role in your agency’s offensive strategy, helping you stay proactive and win new business. It’s a fast way to share information with potential customers. By delivering key details in fewer messages, you reduce the chances of clients getting stuck in your sales funnel, helping you drive business growth by converting prospects into sales quicker.

Striking the Right Balance

Just like a well-rounded sports team, your agency’s success hinges on balancing client acquisition with retention. To stay defensive and protect your existing clients, it’s important to automate key agency processes, like renewals, to ensure you continuously recapture business opportunities and mitigate financial losses.

However, it’s also essential to push beyond your current book of business to score new clients. Using quote-by-text tools is a great way to get information out to prospects without the manual legwork required of more traditional methods.

The key to staying at the top of your game in today’s competitive insurance landscape is finding the right balance between offensive and defensive strategies. By leveraging automation and continuously evaluating and adjusting your approach to retain existing clients and attract new ones, you can ensure your agency operates at its highest potential, staying ahead of the competition and positioning itself for long-term success.

Michael Streit is president of EZLynx.