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About
Cole Hixon Insurance is an independent, family-owned-and-operated insurance provider with three locations in the Athens, Georgia region. Cole Hixon’s 15 agents compete in a crowded insurance market by providing quality coverage solutions with unique experience and knowledge. Their friendly staff works with customers on a one-on-one basis to develop both the perfect policy and a lasting relationship.
Challenge
Cole Hixon's leading carrier stopped writing landlord policies, prompting a replacement search
A major part of Laura Hixon's insurance business comes from landlords and rental property investors. As president of Cole Hixon Insurance, she couldn’t afford for the agency’s main habitational policy carrier to suddenly cease writing new business and renewing current plans. But that’s exactly what happened. “Our main carrier changed their eligibility guidelines, pausing all new business for habitation properties, and decided to stop renewing that entire portion of my book of business,” she says.
Alternative carriers had never been a good option and remained disappointing in their inability or unwillingness to accept the risks of rental properties. First, their coverage wasn’t sufficient for Cole Hixon to offer proudly. They would quote broad form coverage, for example, when special form would be ideal.
Second, most carriers don’t bundle properties, forcing landlords to juggle as many policies as they have residential real estate assets. “Imagine owning 20 different properties as a business owner and processing that many different payments,” Laura says. “To help a landlord or investor in that position, we’d have to go into our system to pull up every policy number, figure out which policy belongs to which property, and then talk to the carrier about each individual property. It created extra steps and extra confusion.”
As she launched her search for a reliable new partner, Laura piqued her ears to assess how new carrier companies would treat her clients. Would they deliver the high-quality service that she demanded? Could they meet the high standard of professionalism, expertise, and thoughtfulness that she had set in her own work of building relationships?
For Laura to continue serving landlords and property owners in the future, she needed to find a solution quickly.
“We were scrambling for alternative markets. We wanted to make sure our clients wouldn’t have to downgrade in coverage, so it was really important for us to find a good alternative for them. Habitational business drives a lot of our agency’s revenue and premium, so stakes were high.”
Solution
Implementing Steadily equipped the agency to provide better coverage and service
Laura began reading online reviews and asking industry colleagues about their experiences. Steadily consistently stood out by thoughtfully tailoring their landlord and rental property insurance policies to provide exactly what clients would need.
Attracted to that comprehensive and customizable risk acceptance, Laura made the decision to implement the tool and give it a go. She was pleasantly surprised to be writing binding habitational business the very same day. “Onboarding was one of the easiest processes I've ever been through,” Laura says, smiling. She couldn’t wait to extend that user experience to her clients, knowing it would give them real-time, reliable information to streamline their processes.
Cole Hixon quickly benefited from the new carrier’s great coverage and rates, as well. Like major carriers, Steadily does offer basic, blanket coverage that includes common peril protections. But unlike legacy providers, Steadily also offers to cover special niche risks like power failures or earthquakes. Laura was happy to notice that the new solution lets clients customize their coverage like this but without an additional cost.
Plus, when Steadily began expressing their human side by interacting with Cole Hixon clients directly, Laura oversaw the customer service with high hopes. Thankfully, Steadily exceeded her expectations by going above and beyond in response rate and assistance.
“It's great to have specialists to call upon. They deeply understand the rental property market, where others just know a little bit about a bunch of markets. Having that on-call expertise is wonderful.”
Results
Cole Hixon now provides the very best customer service in fewer hours, freeing them to grow the business
So far, the new solution is checking all the boxes on Laura’s wishlist. Steadily provided better coverage at competitive rates while streamlining daily workflow for both Cole Hixon and their clients.
Here’s a snapshot of their results so far:
- +25% growth in landlord insurance quotes YTD
- +50% growth in production YTD
- 44% Conversion Rate with Steadily