AgencyZoom: set up lead pipelines, automations and renewals

AgencyZoom setups usually go wrong the same way. Automations get built first and lead sources last. A month later, referral leads get the same cold internet-lead emails as everyone else, texts go out at 9 pm on a Saturday, and the renewal pipeline is creating one ticket per policy for a client with five policies. The order you build things in matters more than any single setting. This guide goes in that order: system settings, lead sources, the sales pipeline, lead intake, stage automations, then the renewal pipeline.

What you need

An AgencyZoom plan. AgencyZoom’s pricing page lists three plans for independent agencies: Essential $149/month, Growth $199/month, Pro $349/month, each with 7 seats. Annual billing is 20% off. Prospecting, onboarding and renewal automation are listed on all plans. Two-way texting is Growth and Pro only. The Service Center is Pro only. AgencyZoom’s help describes renewal pipelines as service pipelines, so confirm with Vertafore which plan you need for the renewal setup in step 7 before you count on it.
Admin access. System Settings and My Agency pages are admin-only.
Your AMS integration connected, so policies and expiration dates flow into AgencyZoom. Renewal pipelines can’t create tickets without them.

Step by step

1. Set system timing and unsubscribe text first

Go to My Agency > System Settings > Automation. By default, AgencyZoom sends automation Monday to Friday during business hours, with weekends and holidays excluded. Check:

Business hours and time zone. Set them to where your clients are, not where your server is.
Calendar days vs business days. This changes every delay you build later. A “day 5” step is a week later on business days. Pick one and tell the team.
Holidays, plus any custom dates (your office closure, for example).

In the same area, AgencyZoom requires unsubscribe text in automated messages. Email unsubscribe text must include [[UNSUBSCRIBE]] and text unsubscribe text must include [[STOP]]. You can add your own wording around those. A text version I’d use:

[Agency name]: Reply STOP to opt out of texts. [[STOP]]

Under the TCPA, a “stop” reply has to be honored, and you need consent before you send automated texts at all. The settings help, but they don’t collect consent for you. Your web forms and intake calls need to ask, and you need a record of the answer.

2. Create lead sources and categories

Path: My Agency > Lead Sources. Add a category, then sources inside it. A small-agency starting set:

Inbound: Website, Call In, Walk In
Referral: Client Referral, Realtor, Lender
Purchased: each vendor by name
Internal: Rewrite, Cross-sell

For Rewrite, check Excluded From Sales. AgencyZoom’s help explains that excluded sources don’t count on the dashboard or in New Business reports. Otherwise rewrites inflate your new-business numbers.

Lead sources matter because automations can be filtered by source. A referral from a client gets a warm personal note. A purchased internet lead gets speed and persistence.

3. Build the sales pipeline

Path: My Agency > Pipelines > Create Pipeline > Sales/Leads Pipeline. The default stages are New, Contacted, Quoted, Sold. I’d add two, using + New Stage to the right of Sold, then dragging them into place:

New
Contacted
Info Complete (everything needed to rate is in hand)
Quoted
Proposal Reviewed (producer has walked them through it)
Sold

For each stage you pick what to capture: Sales Opportunity, Policy, Notes or Appointment. Then Save, confirm user access and switch the pipeline on.

“Info Complete” is the stage that stops producers quoting from half an application. “Proposal Reviewed” gives you a natural E&O checkpoint. Nothing with a price and coverage summary goes to a prospect until a licensed producer has looked at it.

If you write both personal and commercial, AgencyZoom lets you mark a sales pipeline as personal or commercial. Build two rather than one with twelve stages.

4. Connect lead intake with assignment rules

Path: My Agency > Integration > Web Lead Integration > + Web Lead Integration. Pick the vendor, then choose the Lead Source, optional tags, the destination Pipeline and Stage, and an assignment method:

Round-Robin to All (everyone with the role)
Assign to a Specific Individual
Assign to Members in Assignment Group

AgencyZoom then gives you a webhook URL or email address to hand to the vendor. Some vendors appear twice in the list, once for email delivery and once marked “(Webhook)”. Ask the vendor which one they support.

5. Add stage automations, filtered by source

Path: Lifecycle Automation (rocket icon), select the pipeline, click the stage, then Add Automated Step. Options include email, text message, task, to-do, call, notification and reminder. Each step can be filtered by lead source and tags.

For New, internet leads only:

When	Step	Content
Immediately	Text (only if consent captured)	“Hi [first name], this is [producer] at [agency]. Got your quote request, I’ll call you shortly.”
Immediately	Task: Call	Producer, due today
Day 1	Email	“Here’s what I need to finish your quote”: the missing items list
Day 3	Task: Call	Second attempt
Day 7	Email	“Still want that quote?”

For New, Client Referral source: a single task for the producer to call within 4 business hours, plus a thank-you email to the referring client (written once, approved once).

For Quoted: a task for the producer to review and send the proposal, then a reminder email on day 2 and a call task on day 5.

Every touchpoint has an on/off toggle (blue is on, grey is off). Build new steps switched off, test them on a fake lead with your own email and phone, then switch them on.

6. Use tagging to stop the wrong sequence

AgencyZoom added the ability to tag a lead or customer as an automation step. Use it for exclusions. For example, when a lead moves to Sold, tag it client. Then filter your prospecting automations so they skip anyone tagged client. When something misfires, AgencyZoom’s troubleshooting article says to check the touchpoint’s lead source, tags, timing and carriers first (Lifecycle Automation > touchpoint > 3 dots > Edit).

7. Set up the renewal pipeline

Path: My Agency > Pipelines, find your renewal pipeline, 3 dots > Edit, then Settings. AgencyZoom offers prebuilt Renewals and Surplus Renewals pipelines. AgencyZoom’s help says renewal tickets are generated from the factors you set in the pipeline. Check how many days before expiration yours are set to create tickets, and whether that’s counted in business or calendar days (step 1).

Two settings to check:

Multiple policies. The checkbox “If a customer has multiple policies, only enroll the highest value policy.” If you uncheck it, choose “Create 1 ticket for all policies” or “Create 1 ticket for each policy.” For personal lines households, one ticket for all policies keeps the client from getting three identical emails.
Assignment. Account-level and policy-level assignment are separate options, so you can send tickets to the account’s producer or CSR.

Then add renewal automations to the pipeline stages: an info-request email when the ticket opens, a CSR task a week later, and a task to review the renewal offer. My 90/60/30-day cadence guide has wording. As with sales, an email that shows the renewal premium or recommends a change should be a task for a producer to send, not an automated email.

8. Watch due dates weekly

AgencyZoom added a Service Request Due Date filter with next 30, 60 or 90 days. Each Monday, filter renewal tickets due in the next 30 days that are still in an early stage. Those are the ones about to slip.

Common mistakes

Automations before lead sources. You can’t filter by a source that doesn’t exist, so every lead gets the same sequence.
Ignoring business vs calendar days. Every delay is off by a few days, and nobody knows why.
Texting without recorded consent because the integration “has their number.”
One ticket per policy for multi-policy households, so clients get duplicate renewal emails.
Turning on new touchpoints untested. Test on a fake lead first.

When it’s worth getting help

AgencyZoom is flexible enough that most problems are setup order and exclusions, not missing features. If your automations have grown into a tangle, or you’re setting it up next to an AMS for the first time, my AgencyZoom page covers how I handle it. The cost calculator will show whether the cleanup is worth paying for.