Google Compare is something new. PL and CL rater are years old, so what’s new here, Vertafore? Sounds to me like the same thing with a different marketing message.
Have you ever heard of upgrades Bill? Vertafore has come a long way with their PL Rater and info has to only be entered once to quote all our markets. It is fairly easy to see which carrier will do the best for the customer and all that has to be done is bridge into the carriers system to finish a quote for accuracy. Many times, a prospect seems to forget tickets and/or accidents and that becomes known when you finish a quote.
Well, this is not entirely true… Vertafore has come a long way buying out competitors and starting charging $$$$ for their products. Same with FSC:
Vertafore has acquired Moorpark, Calif.-based StoneRiver FSC, a subsidiary of StoneRiver Group that provides rating and management systems.
“The acquisition of FSC demonstrates our ongoing commitment to delivering point-of-sale solutions that allow independent agents to increase revenue and efficiency by providing faster quoting and better service to their customers,” Euan Menzies, president and CEO of Vertafore, says in a statement. “In addition, we are particularly pleased to address the need to increase agency sales productivity with the industry’s first sales management system, FSC Pipeline, which is uniquely designed to enable producers to manage their prospects and close business faster.”
In Vino???? Are you trying to criticize Vertafore for being successful in this business? Surely, you aren’t one of those wealth redistribution guys we see so often on these blogs. I really don’t care how big they are or who they acquired as long as they provide an operating system that is quite good, interactive and easy to use by my employees.
Spoken like someone unfamiliar with Vertafore. They aren’t and haven’t charged us more for upgrades/new versions. All we get is a notice they are doing the upgrade, usually on a weekend which won’t bother us and we are good to go on Monday.
With Vertafore, it’s hard to believe the rater is going to be free forever. It could be free for now. But then they will charge an arm and leg for the services. Their (Vertafore’s) pricing policy is terrible and unfair.
What a stupid statement In Vino. No one said their PL Rater was free, but they don’t charge extra for updates we get a few days a year. Yes, we get charged a monthly fee for PL Rater. It is worth it with the one entry system and the ability to merge/recover data from existing customers to re-quote when we see untenable rate increases from a company.
The best clients don’t rate on their own, they go to Insurance Agents to handle it for them. This compare stuff is for minimum liability clients, most who get liability only anyway. I am not sure why so many are excited about the worst business one can add to their agency. If you are not getting 5k+ per account a year, you are working for a very low rate of pay.
The best clients go to an Independent Agent and don’t go online to get a quote on their phone. The Vertafore PL Rater is a time saving tool in the operating system so a CSR can get quotes from multiple carriers in a few minutes. In prior years, a CSR had to go to each company website to quote something up and that was time consuming, laborious and inefficient. My CSR’s can get a bunch more done in a shorter time and they love it.
IJ I think you forgot to mention Vertafore customers in CA have the ability to show quotes on their own agency websites in the same fashion as Google. Google actually copied them. I’ve been Using WebFSC on my site for years and get about 30 great leads a month from it. Plus the customer is doing all the data input for me!
Our website also gives potential customers the ability to input info for quote and we get a few that way. Most often, they hit the button asking for a quote and we have to follow up with them for needed info. More often than not, these people have no current insurance and little or no credit and not exactly the ideal we are looking for. They often end up in Progressive due to their record.
Looks like a lot of kool-aide drinking going on here. If we are expecting retail sales agents to support, endorse, or say anything positive about Google compare, we are all living in fantasy land. Google isn’t going anywhere, and all each of us can do is control our reaction to this. Either sell more, sell harder, add more value, expand your LOB’s, etc. The days of sitting collecting RN commissions are gone.
With regard to CL and PL rater, how long have these products been in the marketplace? Y’all have said YEARS, which is my point. Where is something NEW, besides maintenance releases and small product enhancements? I’m looking for new innovation, and I don’t see that from the Vendor. This isn’t a conversation if you like the vendor or not, it’s about innovation and moving forward. Are they helping you move your agency forward at a reasonable cost? From what I see my monthly bills continue to go up, but where is all the new stuff? Maybe if we had more new stuff and the industry was moving forward Google wouldn’t see such an opportunity and launch Compare.
Bill – You make an excellent point. Compare was launched because as an industry we are lazy and lack innovation. Look at how easy it is to buy from Amazon? Every agent should see this as a wake-up call. Those who do not…they won’t be commenting here in the future, as they will be out of business. I already see client needs changing, and this will only continue.
Compare was launched hoping to gain market share, not because the insurance industry was lazy. We have seen any number of these schemes over the years and we are still here writing, renewing good customers. Let them write the riff raff cell addicts and see how fast their results deteriorate.
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Have you ever heard of upgrades Bill? Vertafore has come a long way with their PL Rater and info has to only be entered once to quote all our markets. It is fairly easy to see which carrier will do the best for the customer and all that has to be done is bridge into the carriers system to finish a quote for accuracy. Many times, a prospect seems to forget tickets and/or accidents and that becomes known when you finish a quote.
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
In Vino???? Are you trying to criticize Vertafore for being successful in this business? Surely, you aren’t one of those wealth redistribution guys we see so often on these blogs. I really don’t care how big they are or who they acquired as long as they provide an operating system that is quite good, interactive and easy to use by my employees.
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Spoken like someone unfamiliar with Vertafore. They aren’t and haven’t charged us more for upgrades/new versions. All we get is a notice they are doing the upgrade, usually on a weekend which won’t bother us and we are good to go on Monday.
I was told form my rep the upgrades are free to all FSC Rater customers!
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
What a stupid statement In Vino. No one said their PL Rater was free, but they don’t charge extra for updates we get a few days a year. Yes, we get charged a monthly fee for PL Rater. It is worth it with the one entry system and the ability to merge/recover data from existing customers to re-quote when we see untenable rate increases from a company.
The best clients don’t rate on their own, they go to Insurance Agents to handle it for them. This compare stuff is for minimum liability clients, most who get liability only anyway. I am not sure why so many are excited about the worst business one can add to their agency. If you are not getting 5k+ per account a year, you are working for a very low rate of pay.
The best clients go to an Independent Agent and don’t go online to get a quote on their phone. The Vertafore PL Rater is a time saving tool in the operating system so a CSR can get quotes from multiple carriers in a few minutes. In prior years, a CSR had to go to each company website to quote something up and that was time consuming, laborious and inefficient. My CSR’s can get a bunch more done in a shorter time and they love it.
IJ I think you forgot to mention Vertafore customers in CA have the ability to show quotes on their own agency websites in the same fashion as Google. Google actually copied them. I’ve been Using WebFSC on my site for years and get about 30 great leads a month from it. Plus the customer is doing all the data input for me!
Our website also gives potential customers the ability to input info for quote and we get a few that way. Most often, they hit the button asking for a quote and we have to follow up with them for needed info. More often than not, these people have no current insurance and little or no credit and not exactly the ideal we are looking for. They often end up in Progressive due to their record.
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Compare was launched hoping to gain market share, not because the insurance industry was lazy. We have seen any number of these schemes over the years and we are still here writing, renewing good customers. Let them write the riff raff cell addicts and see how fast their results deteriorate.