How to strengthen insurance carrier relationships when 86% of agents cannot find capacity

First Connect’s survey hit me with a number that explains why you cannot get that carrier appointment you have been chasing: 86% of agents reported challenges with product availability as carriers adjust their market strategies. Meanwhile, 71% of agents struggle to understand carrier appetites, which means three-quarters of your competition is blindly submitting business to carriers who stopped writing that coverage six months ago.

Here is what nobody tells you about insurance carrier relationships: they are not partnerships. They are performance-based contracts where carriers continuously evaluate whether you are worth keeping on their books.

And right now, most agencies are failing that evaluation.

The market access problem nobody wants to talk about

Let me paint you the real picture. Startups need to place $250,000 to $500,000 in premium volume just to qualify for direct carrier contracts. That can take years. Personal lines carriers are being extremely selective in contracting new agencies because of current market turmoil. Even established agencies face production requirements they cannot hit, territory restrictions that limit opportunities, and appointment freezes that lock out qualified agencies.

The result? More than half of all independent agencies now participate in a cluster, network, or aggregator just to access the markets they need to compete.

But getting the appointment is only half the battle.

Keeping it is where most agencies fail. Carriers evaluate your book constantly. They look at your loss ratios, your submission quality, your response times, and your technology adoption. Fall below their standards, and you get moved to the bottom of the priority list. Keep falling, and that appointment disappears.

What carriers actually track (and why your agency probably looks bad)

Carriers are not secretive about what they want. They publish the criteria. Most agencies just ignore them.

Loss ratios tell carriers everything about your underwriting quality. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners reports the average losses across all lines hit 55.2%. But here is the gap that matters: leading insurers average 47% loss ratios while laggards sit at 73%. Guess which group gets more appointments and better terms?

Your agency’s loss ratio by carrier, by line of business, and by producer - carriers track all three. If you are not tracking these numbers yourself, you are flying blind while carriers make decisions about your future.

Submission quality matters more than you think. Carriers want to see your business plan and previous loss ratios, and those numbers need to look good to make the cut. Submit incomplete applications, miss key information, or send business outside their appetite, and you become the agency underwriters avoid.

Response time expectations have gotten brutal. For sales and support, most consumers define immediate response as 10 minutes or less. Your clients expect it. Carriers expect you to deliver it. Meanwhile, 81% of agents say customer expectations for speedy quotes have increased, and 70% are challenged to meet those time frames.

That speed gap is killing insurance carrier relationships before they start.

How preferred agencies actually operate

I came across this Insurance Journal piece about making the most of carrier relationships, and one line stopped me cold: something as simple as a thank-you email goes a long way in building long-term trust and strong partnerships.

We have gotten so transactional that basic courtesy became a competitive advantage.

But preferred agencies do more than send thank-you notes. They understand that regular communication with carrier partners is key to understanding each company’s appetite. They do not wait for appetite guides to be published. They talk to their underwriters weekly. They know which accounts to submit and which to place elsewhere before wasting everyone’s time.

They track their own performance metrics obsessively. Loss ratios by carrier, by line, by producer. They spot problems before carriers do, and they fix them proactively. When they have a bad account, they own it and explain what happened rather than hoping nobody notices.

Most importantly, preferred agencies make underwriters’ lives easier. One phone call saves more time than a dozen emails. They provide all pertinent information up front. They communicate the history and risk on every account they present. They set clear expectations about response times and follow through.

This is not rocket science. It is basic relationship management that most agencies are too busy to do consistently.

Technology is the new table stakes

Here is where it gets interesting. 78% of insurance carriers, agencies, and tech firms planned to increase their technology budgets in 2025, with AI garnering 36% as the top innovation priority. Carriers are investing heavily in digital transformation. They expect their agency partners to meet them there.

Agencies still relying on manual processes for data entry, certificate generation, and renewal management are falling behind. Not because carriers explicitly require specific technologies, but because manual processes create the problems carriers hate: slow response times, data entry errors, incomplete submissions, and inconsistent service quality.

Carriers recognize that having access to clean and accurate data is essential to agency success. Digital connectivity means agencies can do more in less time, reduce errors and omissions risks, and deliver on customer expectations. When you submit clean data quickly, you become the easy partner. When you submit messy data slowly, you become the problem child.

Most carriers require continuous E&O coverage as a condition of appointment, with lapses potentially jeopardizing your ability to sell their products. Technology that reduces E&O exposure through consistency and accuracy makes you a lower-risk partner. Carriers notice.

Where AI agents actually help (not where vendors claim)

Forget the marketing promises about digital transformation. Here is what AI agents do for insurance carrier relationships right now.

Certificate processing that used to burn 10 hours daily gets handled in 90 minutes. AI agents read the request email, pull the policy data, generate the certificate, send it to the client, and update your system. No human touches it unless there is an exception. Carriers see faster response times. Clients see immediate service. Your staff focuses on complex work.

Commission reconciliation makes everyone miserable because it is soul-crushing spreadsheet work. Matching carrier statements to your system, identifying discrepancies, chasing down missing payments - AI agents handle this better than humans because they never get tired of comparing numbers. Accurate commission tracking means you spot and fix carrier statement errors fast, which improves your relationship credibility.

Renewal management is where agencies leave money on the table and carriers lose good accounts. Research shows 76% of producers say fast underwriting decisions are critical for placing business. AI agents prep everything before your producers look at it. Policies get renewed on time. Carriers see consistent submission quality. You retain more business.

Data quality improves when AI agents handle AMS data entry automatically. Clean data flowing to carrier systems means fewer errors, faster processing, and better underwriting decisions. You become the agency that submits accurate information consistently.

Response time expectations that crush manual operations become manageable. When routine tasks happen automatically 24/7, your agency responds to carrier requests and client needs faster than competitors still doing everything by hand.

Start with what carriers notice first

Pick the workflow that hurts your insurance carrier relationships most right now. If carriers complain about slow certificate turnaround, fix that first. If your loss ratios look bad because you are not tracking them by carrier, start measuring. If underwriters hate your submissions because they are incomplete, improve your intake process.

The agencies winning in this market are not the biggest. They are the ones that make carriers’ lives easier through consistent performance, clear communication, and technology that eliminates the friction carriers hate.

Your next carrier appointment depends less on your premium volume and more on whether you look like a partner worth investing in. Fix the metrics carriers track. Improve the workflows they experience. Become the agency that makes their job simpler instead of harder.

The capacity might be tight, but preferred partners always get first call when new opportunities open up. That spot is available. You just have to earn it through performance, not promises.