The quick-service industry has been shaken up by the pandemic and restaurant operators have had to adjust to various new forms of doing business on the fly. Despite posting relatively impressive sales numbers, franchisees in particular have had to deal with the consistent rise in inflationary expenses, making it harder for their restaurant businesses to remain profitable. These complications mean franchisees are searching for any possible area in which to cut costs —and they’ve likely overlooked an important one.
“Quick-service franchisees should not ignore the mass-migration toward off-premise channels,” says Bill Strout, president of Intrepid Direct Insurance. “The rise in volume at the drive thru has led to a lack of foot traffic actually entering dining rooms. With that, the likelihood of a customer slip-and-fall claim, for example, drops considerably.”
According to Strout, a 20-year insurance professional, lower foot traffic in your restaurant should equate to savings when it comes to your insurance bill. “While nobody likes to think about their insurance more than they have to, owners should be acutely aware of how changes in business, intentional or not, increase or decrease their risk,” Strout says. “At the most basic level, the amount of risk your business presents is how an insurance company will determine how much you’ll pay for your general liability coverage. If your foot traffic decreases, your insurance premium should also decrease.”
This is the type of insight Strout and his team bring to their clients as the only direct insurance provider specializing in franchise-compliant coverage. Strout started Intrepid Direct Insurance in 2015 as a result of witnessing first hand regressive practices in the insurance industry that were working against franchisees.
Today, Intrepid Direct has nearly eliminated the application process for clients, reducing the number of questions to just a handful and introducing the ability to turn around a quote in just 15 minutes. Even large franchisees can expect to spend half the amount of time they are used to, saving important time and money in the process.
“There was so much paperwork and so little innovation when it came to helping operators get signed up for insurance,” Strout says. “I started Intrepid Direct Insurance with the goal of addressing that, and so far, it’s really worked—over 50 percent of our business comes from referrals.”
After just a few years, Intrepid Direct Insurance has built up an impressive reputation in the franchise industry with over 7,000 franchise locations insured. They have clients that range from owning a single location, to over 500 restaurants.
And while franchisees stand to save up to 20 percent with their direct-to-consumer approach, Strout says that they are steadily pivoting towards Intrepid Direct because of the company’s expertise.
“We’re not everything to everyone,” says Strout. “We’re proud to be the only direct insurance company that focuses exclusively on the franchise industry. It makes us agile and quicker to act on things that we’re seeing on the ground. Things like lower foot traffic and other trends…we have the ability to implement change and create meaningful results for our franchise clients.”
Franchisees can find out more about saving on business insurance by visiting info.intrepiddirect.com/QSRsecret.
