HometownQuotes

[secondcreek]

As I have said on the forum previously, I think Bob tries to run an ethical business.

However, there are glitches. Jan 9th I got an email saying my account was being closed as requested. Ok, but I haven't spoken with anyone at HTQUOTES for at least five months.

If you can live with some of the hiccups on the customer service side, you might get pleasantly surprised with the leads.

Overall, the lead quality was better than other vendors I used. Lead flow was low.

Thankfully, I no longer need to fill in the gaps with Internet leads.

Just don't get bent out of shape if the leads aren't what you want. Go into it with low expectations. Don't spend your grocery money on them for sure.

Buying Internet leads is almost like a rite of passage for new agents. Most new agents are not capitalized enough or have the office infrastructure to go "all in" on purchased leads to the degree to scale their efforts to make it pay.

So, for the majority of agents the leads should be one small piece of the agent's lead generation efforts.

I remember thinking I was smarter than those who were already in the business and I could crack the "code" on Internet leads.

Despite the advice on this forum it took me about 2 years but I finally realized this type of lead is not a silver bullet. Kinda humbling realization to make but it saved my career.

If you are fairly new to the business, I urge you to focus on network marketing.

 

[ericinsures]

I'm thinking of giving them another go my hopes are up and I believe they are exclusive that's what keeps drawing me back to them

 

[dondulah]

I'm thinking of giving them another go my hopes are up and I believe they are exclusive that's what keeps drawing me back to them

They do have glitches at times. However they do make it right. I am a big fan though, here us why. If your front line service rep can't get it done. Ask for your region manager. They have authority to do things and make it happen. Whenever my quality goes down they do an analysis and tweak it. Makes a huge difference. They care and are white hat. If you have problems and can't get it resolved hit me up. I will help make a connection there for you.

 

[Bob Klee]

I tried them recently. It did not work for me. I found their customer service to be horrible. I wrote to the company president about it but he also ignored it. I would not recommend them.

Hello Walthamny,
I'm the President & I know I've not rec'd an email from an unhappy agent in quite a while! I'd love to chat with you so please either PM me here with your contact info or email/call me as my direct line is in my signature below! I'm currently in PST time so please, don't call too early in the morning

Looking forward to seeing what I can do to help you.

Thank you,

Bob

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I talked with them. They informed me they don't have the leads necessary to support me in my area. I don't think they are an aggregator as someone previously stated or they would have tried to sell me. They seemed pretty upfront. I could be wrong but that's my opinion.

Thank you,

We generate a whole bunch of leads ourselves & at the same time, we are an aggregator.....We sell leads we don't have an agent for to our competitors...as does everyone in this space & any lead vertical that I'm aware of. If we didn't, we'd be out of business. No one has an agent in very zip for every lead type they generate!

What we do have are good tools we've developed that help us determine good/bad leads...even our own we generate are screened with these tools. "Bad" leads we call "drunken leads" as we have no idea why anyone would take the time to fill out an auto lead for Mickey Mouse, Ben Gay or ?? We've seen them all.

We try our best to give good advice & be honest with our agents if we don't feel we can meet their needs. We don't just sell "junk" leads to take an agents money. We have high standards & constantly are doing our best to improve the quality of the leads we sell our agents.
It does me absolutely no good to sign an agent up just to send them junk leads & take they money! That is not a sustainable business model. We need agents that appreciate good customer service & good leads. On average we have about a 15% return rate for Auto/Home leads. I wish it was zero but that is not possible. We give credit for all bad leads one gets & if that means 50% of your leads are bad [happens occasionally no matter how good our tools are at trying to sniff them out] then we give credit. It is not the agents fault the leads are bad, it is ours.

Anyway, if I can help, please let me know.

 

[Aram Fingal]

In the internet lead world, they are the least stinky turd. And I mean that as a compliment. Working with internet leads is like digging through turds to look for diamonds. If you're going to do that, you might as well choose the turd provider with the least offensive turds.

Seriously though, the turd reference is more to do with leads generally. HTQ is a great company to work with. I've had issues with them before but they've always worked with me to resolve them. Bob will even step in if necessary and he's quick to admit when they make a mistake. It is a very difficult process to entice people who will be quality leads to actually request quotes (as agents we all know that) and it's even harder to do over the internet. So I think HTQ does about as good a job as can be expected.

 

[nato]

Can you filter homes by year they were built with HometownQuotes? I am only competitive with houses between 1980-2000. Is this possible?

 

[Bob Klee]

Can you filter homes by year they were built with HometownQuotes? I am only competitive with houses between 1980-2000. Is this possible?

Good Question!
I don't work with all the filters like my staff, but I know we can go 1980 & newer. Not sure if we have an upper limit.
If you call the office: 800-820-2981, I guarantee you they can though!

Interesting thing is: we are seeing more & more agents wanting 20 years or newer due to roof issues. That is where they are competitive, thus why we have the filter. So you are good with homes 15-35 years new. Nice niche.

Thank you for asking.

 

[nato]

Thank you for answering my question. I will call tomorrow.

To answer your question I get killed with newer homes. I am a captive agent and independent agents have a way better rate than me so I dont even bother.