Last week, we established the importance of referrals for growing and scaling a water damage restoration company. We looked at how specialists could build strong relationships with plumbing contractors, which are one of the most steady sources of business for restoration businesses.
Today, we want to shift gears. We want to take a quick look at another mutually beneficial relationship with its own unique set of challenges. Building a referral relationship with insurance agents is an important marketing effort and here’s how we suggest you get started.
Why Partner with Insurance Agents?
While it might seem unconventional for an insurance agent to get involved in an insurance claim, it is actually more common than you might think. Customer satisfaction is a top goal for insurance agents and many will step in to make sure their desired outcome is achieved.
More specifically, agents might get involved if they’ve had customer satisfaction issues in the past or they’ve had a difficult experience with a water damage restoration company. Building a relationship with these individuals and convincing them you’re their best call for a happy homeowner can result in becoming an agent’s primary referral to homeowners who are water loss victims.
Addressing Challenges While Partnering with Insurance Agents
Building relationships with insurance agents isn’t always easy. At times, it might feel you have conflicting goals. The truth is that water damage restoration professionals and insurance agents share one very important goal, making the homeowner happy.
The biggest challenge you will face as you work to build these relationships is that insurance agents are rarely a quick source of referrals. Instead, it takes time to prove your reputation to these professionals. To address this challenge, we suggest that you make yourself stand out by adding value to your marketing efforts. One way we have done this at PowerDry is to offer continuing education courses to insurance agents.
Persistence Pays Off
Consistent marketing is the key to establishing referral relationships that will truly pay off. This means that, much like the marketing to plumbing contractors, you will need to employ multiple marketing strategies to truly connect with an agent and convince them to work with you.
Just like your relationships with plumbers, you will want to have consistent marketing materials that will create brand recognition. This means they need to be seeing the same logo, the same colors, and the same fonts over and over again.
If a relationship doesn’t blossom over time, that doesn’t necessarily mean it isn’t going anywhere. Instead, try again with a different approach, ask for honest feedback when met with resistance, or ask your peers about their own experience for fresh ideas.
At More Floods, we have dozens of referral marketing strategies that are members are equipped with. By joining our network, you’ll gain access to these strategies as well as ongoing support from our team and other professionals all over North American. Click here or call 1-866-667-3356 to learn more about how we can help you expand your referral marketing to include insurance agents.