For over five decades, Kelley, Jiggins & Associates (KJ&A) has been a trusted name in California’s insurance landscape. Their team delivers affordable, reliable and personalized insurance solutions to more than 9,000 clients across the state, and their mission is driven by an unwavering dedication to client satisfaction.

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As a long-standing independent agency, KJ&A works tirelessly to ensure every detail of a client’s home and auto lines policy is thoroughly protected. And to honor their commitment to strategic growth, their team is constantly exploring ways to leverage new and emerging technologies so they can do more with less and focus on what matters most — fostering robust relationships with their clients.

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Facing challenges with client retention during California’s hard market

Approximately a year and a half ago, Kim Meehan, Office Manager at KJ&A, noticed a concerning trend: there was an unprecedented increase in incoming calls from clients inquiring about rising premiums. 

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The hard market had hit, and as policy renewal deadlines approached, clients were calling in to explore alternative options and source the best deal. At the same time, California was also facing devastating wildfires, which caused carriers to pull out of the market or decline renewal policies altogether. 

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This increase in call volume put immense pressure on the team at KJ&A. Many agents already lacked the time required to proactively service their entire book of business or prioritize clients based on more nuanced policy factors like who had missing coverages or who was eligible for policy discounts. Reacting to each and every incoming call in a timely fashion, then (as well as moving existing clients to new carriers so that everyone remained protected) was quickly draining all available resources.  

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For Miguel Reynaga, a Personal Lines Account Manager at KJ&A, client interactions became increasingly tense during this period. “Clients were calling in angry and frustrated about their rising premiums,” he explained. “Each call felt like a sales negotiation about price, rather than a value-adding advisory call to help the client find the best deal for them.”

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What Miguel dreaded most was the uncomfortable ten minutes of small talk he had to make with each disgruntled client while anxiously waiting for the carrier portal to load on his screen. And although the personal lines team at KJ&A always tried to conduct policy checks ahead of client calls, the manual nature of this work, as well as the sheer volume of calls to handle per day, made this almost impossible. 

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To make matters worse, once Miguel finally logged into the carrier portal, he still lacked the insights to explain why a policy had increased in price. This only compounded things, and it was impeding Miguel’s ability to renew policies and retain his book of business. In fact, at the height of the hard market Miguel was losing an average five clients per week. Worse, he was left feeling burned out, overwhelmed and unable to deliver on KJ&A’s core promise — to deliver exceptional client service.

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The impact of AI-powered renewal intelligence

When Matt Jiggins, President at KJ&A, discovered Quandri’s Policy Checking capability, he presented it to the team as a solution to tackling the mounting workload. And despite some initial pushback, they couldn't deny their eagerness for an immediate solution to help everyone at KJ&A work more proactively and retain their clients. And the solution was immediate. 

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Once set up, Quandri’s platform provided the KJ&A team with instant, easy-to-read summaries of key policy changes directly within each agent’s existing Applied Epic workflow. This included:

• Premium increases and explanations for why rates had changed
• Missing coverages that exposed clients to risk
• Potential cost-saving opportunities, such as discounts or bundling options
• Clear talking points to guide conversations and build trust with clients

Strengthening retention and enabling cross-sell opportunities 

With Quandri’s AI-powered renewal intelligence now automating policy checks and surfacing key policy insights, agents could get back to focusing on the more human aspects of personal lines renewals, like building rapport, reinforcing trust and providing strategic guidance to ensure each client’s policy is perfectly tailored to their unique requirements. And it was this ability to personalize conversations that directly contributed to renewed policies and retained clients. As Miguel explained: 

Beyond bolstering client retention, Quandri also helped the KJ&A team proactively identify and act on cross-sell opportunities across their entire book of business. With detailed insights into monoline policies, missing coverages and bundling options, agents could access a clear pathway to expand client policies and increase coverage where it matters most, instead of simply reacting to premium increases. 

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Helping KJ&A regain their client-centric edge

For Kim, Quandri’s renewal intelligence platform meant moving away from simple transactional interactions and towards more advisory and consultative conversations, which allowed the personal lines team to provide value-driven policy recommendations and successfully deliver on providing clients with exceptional client service.

In addition to proactive calls, agents like Miguel could now immediately field questions from clients calling in. This eradicated awkward small talk, and meant no more having to put clients on hold while he waited for carrier portals to load.

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Boosting morale and transforming the employee experience

Boosting retention and becoming more client-centric is important, yes, but equally important is retaining staff and ensuring their day-to-day working life is both productive and rewarding. And from the beginning, KJ&A’s President, Matt, saw AI-powered renewal intelligence as a key driver of the employee experience. “It’s an excellent way to stratify your staff,” he explained. “Your least expensive individual (AI) does the work to maximize your expensive staff to benefit the company.”

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Matt’s team was no longer bogged down by tedious administrative tasks, nor did they have to react to disgruntled clients calling all day long. Now, agents had the time to focus on higher-value activities, like engaging in fulfilling conversations with clients to ensure the idiosyncrasies of their policies are fully met. 

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As a result, daily stress levels at KJ&A plummeted and overall retention rates have dramatically improved, and the team now feels equipped to proactively service their clients, while also seizing cross-selling opportunities, without burning out.

"My day goes by so much faster and smoother now that I’m having positive conversations with clients. I no longer have to jump from screen to screen while a client is frustrated on the other end — I have all the information I need right in front of me."

• Miguel Reynaga, a Personal Lines Account Manager at KJ&A

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Overall: A smarter, more efficient renewal process

With Quandri, the personal lines team at Kelley, Jiggins & Associates has successfully moved away from spending time on manual processes or fielding frustrated calls and can now dedicate their time to working with clients so they make the best possible decision about their coverage. More importantly, Quandri has helped KJ&A stay true to the mission it was founded on back in 1971, a mission grounded in providing clients with excellence in service so that the homes, vehicles and personal belongings of Californians stay protected, year after year.

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To learn more about how Quandri's AI-powered renewal intelligence platform can help your personal lines insurance agency retain more clients, improve efficiency and empower your team to work proactively, contact us today or book a demo here.