The quote went out at 9:15 this morning. The prospect replied "thanks, I'll look it over," and that was the last you heard. By Friday the quote will be one of three or four in their inbox, and whichever agent follows up well and gets the paperwork back fastest writes the policy.
This is the quote-to-bind playbook for an agency texting from its own phone. Our renewal and lapse playbook picks up once the policy is on the books; this one gets it there.
A quote is the halfway point, not the finish
J.D. Power's 2026 U.S. Insurance Shopping Study found auto shoppers now receive an average of 3.5 quotes, the highest in the study's history, and that 48% of new auto policies are bought digitally. It also found 45% of auto shoppers own a home but only 20% were offered a homeowners quote. Your quote is in a crowd, and the bind is your cross-sell moment.
A quote converts when the prospect decides quickly and the agency collects the bind requirements quickly. The second part is where the delay lives: a driver's license, a VIN, a prior declarations page, an e-signature and a first payment are each a small task the prospect keeps putting off. Text handles both halves, because a phone can photograph a license in thirty seconds.
Who sends it, and from which line
New business belongs to the producer, service to the CSR, and the texting keeps that split: a prospect with a coverage question mid-quote wants the person who built the quote. The practical setup is two Android handsets paired to one Android Texter account, the producer's line for quotes and binds and the front-desk line for service, both landing in one web inbox with sends pinned to the right device. The quick-reply set a producer actually uses is four shortcuts: the document list, the e-signature nudge, the renewal-date question, and the after-hours reply.
The quote-to-bind sequence
Each message has a trigger, a wait, and a no-reply action. The wording assumes the prospect gave you their mobile number when they asked for the quote and agreed to texts then; consent is covered later.
Text 1: the quote lands (same hour you build it)
Send it within the hour, before the email, because the text is what gets the email opened.
Hi Jenna, it's Carlos at Blue Fork Insurance. Your auto quote is done: $1,184 for six months, 100/300 liability, $500 deductibles, both cars. Full breakdown is in your email. Anything you'd change before we go further?
Wait two days. A reply here is usually a deductible question, and answering it is the real sale. No reply: Text 2.
Text 2: one concrete question (day 2)
Do not ask "have you decided." Ask something answerable in a word.
Jenna, quick one on the quote: I set the comprehensive deductible at $500 to match your current policy. Want me to show you the number at $1,000? Most people are surprised how little it moves.
Wait three days. The question lets a silent prospect re-open the thread without committing. No reply: Text 3.
Text 3: the date the number stops being true (day 5)
Carriers re-rate after a set window, and a new ticket or a new car moves the premium. Tell them the real date.
Jenna, the $1,184 quote holds through Nov 2. After that the carrier makes me re-run it and the number can move. If you're leaning toward staying put, no problem, just tell me and I'll stop texting.
Wait five days. This one gets replies because it gives permission to say no, and a "no" with a reason is worth having. No reply: Text 4.
Text 4: close the file, ask for the x-date (day 10)
The last outbound. It says you are stopping, and asks for the one thing that lets you come back later with a reason.
Jenna, I'll close this quote on my end so you're not getting texts about it. One favour: when does your current policy renew? I'll run fresh numbers two weeks before and send them once. If I don't hear back, I'll leave it there.
If they reply with a date, put it on the contact record and schedule one message for fourteen days before it; scheduled sends take an exact timestamp, so it goes out on the right morning without anyone remembering. If they do not reply, the file closes. Four texts in ten days is the whole sequence.
Getting the documents in: the bind chase
Every day between "yes" and "bound" is a day another quote can land, so send the carrier's requirements as one message the moment they say yes, and accept the photos by text.
Text 5: the list
Great, let's get it bound. I need three things: a photo of your driver's license, the VIN for the Highlander (the sticker inside the driver's door is fine), and your current policy's declarations page. You can send all three right here.
Wait one day. As each item arrives, acknowledge it and restate what is still missing ("Got the license and the VIN, thank you. Still need the declarations page"), so the thread itself is the checklist.
Text 6: the e-signature and the payment
The signature request goes out by email from the carrier or the e-sign tool; the text is what gets it signed today rather than next Tuesday.
Jenna, the application is in your email from DocuSign, sender Blue Fork Insurance. It takes about two minutes. Once it's signed and the first payment goes through, you're covered from Nov 1. Reply DONE when you've signed and I'll confirm.
Wait one day. No reply: resend with the first line changed to "Checking the signature request didn't land in spam." One more day, then call. A three-day-old request has been forgotten, not refused.
Text 7: bound, and the cross-sell
Only after the carrier confirms the bind. Nothing in a text should say "you're covered" until it is true.
You're bound. Effective Nov 1, policy ending in 4471, ID cards in your email now. Screenshot them for your phone. You mentioned you own your place: want me to run the homeowners with the same carrier to see whether bundling changes the number? Just reply YES and I'll have it tomorrow.
That last line is the 45% versus 20% gap from the J.D. Power study, and it costs one sentence.
What a producer's week looks like in the inbox
Monday is the open-quote pass: every quote thread with no reply for two or more days gets its next message, sent from the inbox with a quick reply. Tuesday and Thursday are document days: open each bind-in-progress thread, check what has come in, send the missing-items acknowledgement. Friday is bind day: anything with a signature outstanding gets the Text 6 resend before noon, because an effective date that slips over a weekend is how a prospect ends up with a gap.
After hours, an auto-reply rule answers every inbound in seconds: "Got it, thanks. The office opens at 8:30 and Carlos will reply then. If this is a claim or an accident, call the claims number on your ID card."
What to do with silence
Silence after Text 4 is a closed file, not a dead one. Every prospect who gave a renewal date gets one scheduled message fourteen days before it. If they never gave a date, re-run the quote thirty days after it expired and send once. If a trigger came up in the conversation, a new car, a move, a teenage driver, schedule a single check-in for that month. What you do not do is add a fifth text. A prospect who has gone quiet after four has told you something.
What to measure
Three numbers, all in the threads you already have: quote-to-first-reply time (if most replies come after Text 3, Text 1 is not asking a good enough question), quote-to-bind rate by lead source, and days from "yes" to bound, which is the number that moves most once photos come in by text.
Consent, opt-outs and the lines you do not cross
A quote follow-up encourages a purchase, so treat it as marketing for consent purposes. The FCC's rules at 47 CFR 64.1200 define telemarketing as a message sent "for the purpose of encouraging the purchase or rental of, or investment in, property, goods, or services," and require prior express written consent for telemarketing sent with an autodialer or prerecorded voice. Collect texting consent on the quote request itself and keep the record with the quote. Whether a given message falls inside those rules depends on how it is sent, and this is not legal advice. What is certain is that Android Texter changes none of it: P2P SMS sits outside the carriers' A2P 10DLC registration regime, and the TCPA applies in full regardless. Purchased leads are a harder consent question with their own article, and texting a current client about a new line is covered in the established business relationship post.
Opt-outs are not a judgement call. Under the same rule, a reply using "stop," "quit," "end," "revoke," "opt out," "cancel" or "unsubscribe" is a revocation that must be honored within a reasonable time not exceeding ten business days. An auto-reply rule should confirm and suppress the number the moment the word comes in. Our opt-out rules article covers the edge cases, including "please stop texting me" written as a sentence.
Two agency-specific lines, about errors and omissions rather than the TCPA. Never state coverage by text before the carrier has bound it; "you're all set" on Thursday with a bind that fails on Friday is a conversation you do not want with your E&O carrier. And a driver's license photo is personal data: move it into your agency management system and handle it under your state's rules.
Where Android Texter fits, and where it does not
An independent agency is not a high-risk sender. Most can get an A2P 10DLC campaign approved, and a large agency sending tens of thousands of registered messages a month through its management system's built-in texting should probably keep it. The case for Android Texter is ownership and simplicity for an agency sending moderate volume from phones already in the producers' pockets: no brand registration, no campaign vetting, no campaign fee, no aggregator, and the number on the prospect's screen is the one on the producer's business card. Two paired handsets give you both lines in one inbox, inbound MMS puts the license photo in the thread, scheduled sends cover the x-date list, and the REST API can fire Text 1 when a quote is marked complete. The consent, the records and the opt-outs are yours, as with any provider.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many follow-up texts should I send after an insurance quote?
Four, over ten days: the quote itself, one concrete question at day two, the expiry date at day five, and a close-the-file text at day ten that asks for their renewal date. Then stop, and schedule a single re-quote text for two weeks before that renewal.
Can a prospect send their driver's license and VIN by text?
Yes. A photo arrives as an MMS in the same thread and the inbox shows it inline. Treat it as intake only: move the image into your agency management system and handle it under your agency's data rules rather than leaving it in the thread.
Do I need 10DLC registration to text quote follow-ups from my agency?
Not when the messages leave a handset you own as person-to-person SMS, which is how Android Texter routes them. A2P 10DLC is the carriers' registration regime for aggregator traffic such as Twilio. The TCPA's consent and opt-out rules apply either way.
Why ask for the x-date if the prospect has gone quiet?
The x-date is the renewal date of the policy they already have, the one moment a year they are open to switching. A single re-quote text fourteen days before it, scheduled the day they give you the date, is worth more than any number of extra follow-ups now.
Run the quote chase from your own number
The sequence works from any phone. Android Texter puts it in a web inbox with quick replies, scheduled sends, both lines in one view, and an API that sends Text 1 the moment a quote is built, with no 10DLC registration and no aggregator in the middle. Pair a handset at androidtexter.com and run next week's quotes off it.