"How" is a great question. And I agree, at first blush, making 1,000 personal contacts with every customer is a pretty daunting task. I'd suggest starting on a smaller scale and concentrate on showing some love to your heavy hitters, which means stepping outside of the web and (gasp!) picking up the phone.

At InsureMe, our Affiliate managers try to contact our largest affiliates once per month. And we have a lot of affiliates. On the agent side, our CRM's contact our entire agent base once per quarter. What do we say? Why do we do it?

Quite simply, we feel it's important to check in with people to see how they're doing. Is there anything new and exciting going on with the client? Building a personal rapport from the outset (and a sincere one at that) shows your client that you care about them. Caring is good. Caring is human. Human is personal and personal appeals to consumers like you and I. But I digress.

As the conversastion continues, ask your client if they're still satisfied with your service or if there's anything you could do to improve their experience with your service or product. And of course, where insurance is concerned, you'll want to make sure their coverage still fits their needs. Ask about new drivers, new home remodeling or purchases, new additions to the family...you get the drift. Trust me, your client will be grateful that you're keeping their best interests at heart.

So. To directly answer JR's question, I'd start by making some smaller goals for yourself and expanding those goals as time goes on. You could start by contacting your biggest clients once a quarter (every three months) and increasing the number of personal contacts throughout the year. Of course, you can always up the ante over the holidays (we send gifts to a certain percentage of our top accounts, etc.) and major life events (wedding, new baby, etc.).

Above all, when it comes to contacting your clients, remember that passion, enthusiasm and empathy are the key to having meaningful interactions with your customers. And meaningful interactions help you secure your client base—and increases the chances that your client will refer you to someone else. And referrals are a beautiful thing.

For more customer service fodder, check out the following articles from our Agent Resource Center:

• Building Client Relationships


• Agent Phone Etiquette: Making a Positive First Impression on the Phone


• Managing Your Time for Maximum Results

Keep the questions coming, everyone. :)