How FirstMark Insurance Group Evolved from Chasing Renewals to Anticipating Them

What if every missed renewal could have been saved by a conversation weeks earlier?

It can cost seven to nine times more to acquire a new client than to retain one. Yet most independent agencies still manage renewals the same way they did a decade ago: manual review, calendar-driven outreach, and limited visibility into at-risk accounts. Renewals get missed, and clients take their business elsewhere.

FirstMark Insurance Group is an independent Seattle-based agency that has built its reputation on being a trusted advisor to its clients. As the agency grew, the team needed a better way to manage personal lines renewals. One that would let them spend less time bouncing between carrier portals and more time with clients.

Thankfully, EZLynx's renewal and client retention tools gave FirstMark the power to turn renewals inside their agency management system from a bottleneck into a growth lever.

Shifting From Reactive to Proactive

The shift began with visibility. EZLynx's real-time renewal dashboard automatically flags accounts likely to face significant rate increases, giving FirstMark a clear view of which clients are most at risk before an account is up for renewal.

Instead of digging through carrier portals and client spreadsheets to surface this information manually (and risking a late reaction), the team can see where to focus weeks in advance, with the data to back up important client conversations.

"We've seen measurable improvements in our retention," Christina said. "Just having access to those insights for us has been huge and saves us hours each week."

With the help of EZLynx, FirstMark has scaled significantly over the last several years while maintaining best-in-class retention. What started near 96% retention now holds consistently at or above 99%, even as operational complexity increased. That's the real value: not just maintaining retention, but raising the bar while the business grows, so every new client FirstMark adds is one they're built to keep.

That shift from chasing renewals to anticipating them gave FirstMark more time back in the day. Time to advise clients, reposition coverage where it made sense, and stay ahead of accounts that might otherwise have been at risk.

How Retention Risk Insights Become Agency Actions

Knowing which accounts are at risk is only half the battle. EZLynx pairs rate increase insights with remarketing automation, taking FirstMark's team from spotting a renewal risk to fresh quotes in hand without the manual work in between.

Once Retention Center flags an at-risk account, Automated Renewal Quoting goes to work. It retrieves remarketed rates automatically and displays them next to a client's current policy, so agents can compare premiums side by side without leaving the renewal screen. What used to take 15 minutes of manual quoting per renewal now happens in the background.

For Christina, the impact goes beyond efficiency. "It's empowering for our team to have all this information at their fingertips," she said. "It empowers them to make informed decisions and provide clients with enhanced service."

Why FirstMark Insurance Chose EZLynx

Retention is a highly important performance metric, but it's not the only reason FirstMark chose EZLynx. The agency was looking for an all-in-one insurance platform and a partner committed to growing with them.

"EZLynx was the easy choice for us when we were making a decision for an AMS system. We use EZLynx because it puts the servicing, the rating, all into one easy-to-use system, so our agents and our employees don't have to use multiple systems at one time," Christina shared. "It's been a game changer for us."

For Christina, the real value is having a technology partner that keeps innovating. "You have to adopt technology into your agency to be able to service your clients if you want to continue to grow," she added. "And with EZLynx, it's the perfect combination, because they're looking forward into the future for us, they're a great partner for our agency."

The agencies that win renewals aren't the ones chasing them. They're the ones anticipating them. EZLynx helped FirstMark make that shift across the agency, so every renewal becomes a chance to show clients their policies are in good hands.

Watch FirstMark's full customer story.