Escudo Seguros (real case — data altered under NDA) is an insurance broker in Aveiro with 6 employees and a portfolio of 1,800 policies distributed across 950 clients. Motor, health, life, multi-risk, professional liability — a diversified portfolio generating annual commission revenue of €280,000. But there was a silent problem consuming the company from within: every year, dozens of clients failed to renew their policies. Not because they were dissatisfied, but because nobody contacted them in time. This is the case of how we solved that problem definitively.
The Invisible Problem: Clients Who Leave in Silence
In the insurance brokerage sector, renewal is the lifeblood of the business. Acquiring a new client costs, on average, 5 to 7 times more than retaining an existing one. And a policy renewal carries a significantly higher margin than the initial subscription, because the acquisition cost has already been amortised.
At Escudo Seguros, the renewal process was entirely manual. The founder, Dr. Carla (name changed), maintained an Excel spreadsheet with all renewal dates. Every month, she filtered the policies due for renewal the following month and distributed the list to the brokers. Each broker was supposed to call the client, verify whether the conditions still held, and process the renewal.
In theory, the process worked. In practice, it was a predictable disaster. The Excel spreadsheet was updated irregularly. When a broker went on holiday, their clients received no follow-up. In months with higher volume — such as January and September, when motor renewals are concentrated — the team lacked capacity to contact all clients in time.
The result: in the 12 months prior to our intervention, Escudo had lost 247 policies due to non-renewal. Of these, at least 180 were avoidable losses — clients who simply received a proposal from the competition before being contacted by Escudo. In commissions, this represented an annual loss of approximately €38,000.
The Numbers Before the Intervention
• Policy retention rate: 74% (sector target: 90%+).
• Policies lost per year: 247 (of which 180 avoidable).
• Annual loss in commissions: ~€38,000.
• Clients contacted before renewal: 65%.
• Average time to prepare a renewal proposal: 35 minutes.
• Cross-selling (additional products sold to existing clients): 8% per year.
• Weekly hours on renewal management (entire team): 22 hours.
The Solution: Insurance CRM with Intelligent Automation
Pillar 1: Specialist CRM with Centralised Database
The first step was to migrate all dispersed information — the Excel spreadsheet, emails, telephone contacts, handwritten notes — to a centralised CRM, configured specifically for insurance brokerage.
Each client now had a complete profile: personal data, all active policies, claims history, communication history, contact preferences and date of birth. Each policy had its own record with start date, renewal date, insurer, premium, commission and special conditions.
The migration took 3 weeks. It may seem lengthy, but it was the most important investment of the entire project — because without clean, centralised data, no automation would work. We dedicated time to validating tax identification numbers, correcting incorrect renewal dates and eliminating duplicates. We discovered 47 policies registered with incorrect data and 23 duplicate clients.
Pillar 2: 30/60/90-Day Alert System
The heart of the solution was the automated alert system. For each policy, the CRM triggered a programmed sequence of communications:
90 days before renewal: internal alert to the responsible broker. The system automatically generated a client report: claims history, premium evolution over recent years, identified cross-selling opportunities.
60 days before: the client received a personalised email — not a generic email, but a message bearing the broker's name, referencing the specific policy and including an invitation for a free coverage review. The tone was consultative, not commercial.
30 days before: the broker received a reminder for a direct telephone call, with a suggested script and the renewal proposal already prepared. If the client did not answer, the system automatically scheduled a second attempt for 3 days later.
15 days before: automatic dispatch of the renewal proposal by email, with a link to accept digitally. If the client did not open the email within 48 hours, the system sent an SMS version.
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The third component transformed the way Escudo prepared renewal proposals. Instead of the broker manually consulting 3 to 5 insurers, preparing a comparative table in Excel and formatting it into a presentable document, the system did everything automatically.
Based on the client's profile and the current policy, the CRM generated a renewal proposal that included: the current conditions, the current insurer's proposal for the new period, and up to 3 alternatives from other insurers with which Escudo worked. The document was professional, personalised with the brokerage's logo and the broker's name, and could be sent by email with a single click.
The time to prepare each proposal fell from 35 minutes to 4 minutes. More importantly: the quality and consistency of proposals increased dramatically, because the system never forgot to include a relevant coverage nor made calculation errors.
The Impact on Cross-Selling
A benefit we did not fully anticipate was the increase in cross-selling. The 90-day alert system included an automatic analysis of the client's profile: if a client had motor insurance but not health insurance, the report flagged that opportunity. If a business client had multi-risk cover but not professional liability, the system alerted.
The brokers began arriving at renewal meetings not merely with the renewal proposal, but with one or two additional relevant suggestions. Cross-selling rose from 8% to 19% — more than double. In terms of additional commissions, this represented a further €22,000 per year.
The Results: Before vs. After
After 12 months with the new system:
• Retention rate: from 74% to 96% (+22 percentage points).
• Policies lost per year: from 247 to 38 (−85%).
• Clients contacted before renewal: from 65% to 100%.
• Time to prepare proposals: from 35 min to 4 min (−89%).
• Cross-selling: from 8% to 19%.
• Annual revenue in recovered/additional commissions: +€60,000.
• Weekly hours on renewal management: from 22 to 6 hours.
Lessons for Insurance Brokers
1. Renewal is retention, and retention is survival. A brokerage that loses 26% of its policies per year needs to acquire hundreds of new clients just to keep revenue stable. It is an impossible race to win without automation.
2. Proactive contact is worth more than price. Clients who were contacted at 60 days renewed at rates above 95%, even when the competition offered slightly lower prices. Clients value the attention.
3. Clean data is the foundation of everything. The data migration and cleansing phase is the least glamorous part of the project, but it is the most important. Without correct data, no automation works.
4. Cross-selling is natural when there is context. The brokers were not cross-selling before, not from lack of willingness, but from lack of organised information. When the system gave them the right context at the right moment, the additional sale became a natural conversation.
Conclusion
Escudo Seguros did not hire more brokers, did not lower prices and did not change partner insurers. It changed only the process — replacing the Excel spreadsheet with an intelligent CRM, reminder calls with automated communications, and manual proposals with documents generated in minutes. The result was transformative: an additional €60,000 in annual revenue, a less stressed team and clients who feel genuinely looked after.
If your brokerage recognises these problems, start with a simple analysis: how many policies did you lose in the last year? How many clients were not contacted before renewal? The answers will tell you exactly how much money you are leaving on the table.
