Someone whose renewal just jumped three hundred dollars sits down to shop it. They type the coverage and the town, see four carrier ads, a comparison site, and then the map. Whoever is in that map with recent activity and answered reviews gets the call. Whoever is not, does not.
You know the service your office gives beats a call centre in another state. That is exactly what stings. You are not losing on service. You are losing on being the name that appears at the moment somebody decided to do something about their premium.
So you buy shared leads instead. The same name sold to four agencies, everyone calling within ninety seconds, price the only thing anyone talks about. The month you stop paying, the pipeline stops with it — and you have built nothing you own.
Meanwhile the last post on your Google listing is from two summers ago, and the one-star review from a claim that did not go the client's way is still sitting there, unanswered, first thing anyone reads.