The Waiting Game

DC HELPERS ORIGINAL · INSURANCE GROWTH SERIES · SEASON 1, EPISODE 3

Previously, in Episode 2, Marcus finally built a list of his upcoming renewals and found a message from Renee that had waited eleven days for an answer. Her reply that night was friendly, and worrying. “I figured you were busy. I’ve been meaning to ask around anyway.”

In this episode, Marcus makes Renee a promise and learns that insurance client communication is not about how good your answer is. It is about how long a client waits without hearing anything at all.

Wednesday, 8:30 a.m.

Marcus called Renee before he opened his email, the way he had promised himself.

“I’m putting real options together for you,” he told her. “Three carriers. You’ll have everything by Friday.”

“Friday is perfect,” Renee said. “Thank you, Marcus. Honestly, that’s all I needed to hear.”

He wrote FRIDAY, RENEE in capital letters on a sticky note and pressed it to the center of his monitor. Then he sent the three quote requests before anything else could get in the way.

Wednesday, 2:15 p.m.

Tom Alvarez called while Marcus was eating lunch at his desk. A pipe had burst in Tom’s kitchen two weeks earlier, and the claim was still open.

“I just wanted to know where things are,” Tom said. “Nobody’s told me anything since the adjuster came by.”

Marcus promised to check. He called the carrier, waited on hold for twenty minutes and learned that the claim was waiting on a contractor’s estimate that Tom had sent nine days ago. Nobody had told Tom it was missing. Nobody had told Marcus either.

By the time Marcus called him back, Tom had already called the carrier himself. He had explained the whole story from the beginning, again, to someone who had never heard it.

“I’m not upset,” Tom said, and he sounded upset. “I just feel like I’m the only one keeping track of my own claim.”

Thursday, 10:40 a.m.

Two of the three carriers had replied. The third asked for updated photos of Renee’s shop, including the roof and the back entrance, before it could quote.

It was a reasonable request. It also meant calling Renee, asking her for photos, waiting for her to take them and sending them back. Marcus added it to his list, right below a certificate a client needed by noon.

The photos request went out at 4:50 p.m.

Thursday, 6:05 p.m.

Diego called on Marcus’s drive home. They had come up in the business together, and these days Diego ran an agency across town that kept growing without ever seeming to make him tired.

Marcus told him about the week. The claim, the carrier asking for photos, the renewal list he had finally built.

Diego laughed. “Man, the chasing. I stopped doing that myself months ago.”

Marcus waited for him to explain. Diego had already moved on to his son’s baseball team. Marcus didn’t ask, and a minute later he had forgotten about it.

Friday, 9:00 a.m.

The photos from Renee had not arrived. The third carrier had nothing to quote.

Marcus called her with two options instead of three and an apology he had practiced in the car. Renee was kind about it. Then, near the end of the call, she said something he wasn’t ready for.

“Oh, by the way, someone named Chris from another agency sent me a message on Tuesday. Just saying hi, asking how the shop is doing. Do you know him?”

Marcus knew Chris. Everyone in town knew Chris. He answered every message within the hour and never let a week go by without checking in.

“I know him,” Marcus said. “Send me those photos when you can, and I’ll have the last option for you on Monday.”

After he hung up, he looked at the sticky note that still said FRIDAY, RENEE. He had kept most of his promise. He wasn’t sure that was going to be enough.

Why insurance client communication breaks down

Marcus didn’t do anything wrong this week. He answered calls, chased carriers and sent requests. The problem was the silence between those moments, the days when Renee, Tom and the third carrier were all waiting and nobody was telling anyone anything.

That silence costs more than most agencies realize. In the J.D. Power 2025 U.S. Property Claims Satisfaction Study, overall satisfaction reached 777 on a 1,000 point scale when customers found it very easy to reach their insurer, compared with 337 when they found it difficult. Customers who received proactive updates were also more satisfied, and the study pointed to voicemails, repeated calls and slow follow ups as the common points of frustration.

• Clients measure the silence, not the work. Marcus was working on Renee’s renewal all week. From her side, she only heard from him twice.
• Nobody owns the update. Tom’s missing estimate sat for nine days because no one was responsible for telling him.
• Carrier delays become your delays. When a carrier asks for more information, the clock keeps running for the client.
• Competitors fill the gap. A friendly “just saying hi” lands best when your client hasn’t heard from you.

A simple rhythm prevents most of it. Update every open client at least once a week, even when there is no news. Give each open file one owner. Tell clients when to expect the next step, and call before that date if anything changes. Log every conversation so nobody has to tell their story twice. The steps are easy. Doing them while you are writing new business is not, and that is the work our virtual assistant services are built to take off a producer’s desk. If you want the bigger picture, our guide on what insurance producers should delegate explains where the rest of the week goes.

Up next. A storm rolls through town, the claims pile up, and on the same day Coastal Fleet Services finally says yes. Two people need Marcus at once, and there is only one of him. Episode 4, Too Many Claims, premieres Wednesday, November 4. Meanwhile, see what happened to Sarah’s showing in the Realtor Growth Series, Episode 3.