Interpersonal Relationships Promote Your Agency’s Growth

Relationships are the currency of commerce. Without them, no one buys or sells anything. These interactions might involve interfaces or individuals – but the end result is always the same … a product or service and money (or barter) changes hands. For insurance, it always involves a premium, of course. Personal relationships, and the lack thereof, can impact such mercantile transactions for the people involved, depending on their nature.

Online-Only Relationships

Are communications between unseen businesses, friends, likes, connections, followers, etc., on social media actual relationships – or are they mere Potemkin villages along the digital highway? Is shopping for a policy at a safe virtual distance, via a mobile insurance app or website, a boon to the P/C industry? Is it becoming the new normal? Is insurance acquisition enhanced when humans are only tangentially involved in the process? Do these online-only business relationships render old-school person-to-person insurance sales and service obsolete?

Person-to-Person Relationships

Fortunately, people are never obsolete. When there is direct person-to-person contact between the buyer and seller, there’s a bond between the transacting parties that can last for moments or for years. The latter is why some longtime insureds become lifelong friends. Ditto with company underwriters, marketing reps, and executives. Multi-year business dealings often evolve into work friendships. Such realities don’t translate as easily into the digital-only world.

Group Relationships

These relationships are similar, but they aren’t strictly person-to-person. It’s because the members and leaders within them are subject to change, while the group itself remains constant. As such, it’s a dual track relationship. One track (the leadership) agrees to do business with you, while the other manages it day-to-day (the group’s functionaries). Handled right, it’s a win-win relationship that continuously contributes to the stability and growth of your book.

Family Relationships

Then there’s family. Insuring a relative is potentially problematic in countless ways. Routine underwriting, loss control engineering, pricing, service, and claims are all under the microscope when family is involved. It’s why many agents don’t insure kin. These “easy” sales can be a distraction that adversely impacts your growth by sapping your energy. Fortunately, you have far more insureds and prospects than you have relatives.

You Can Do Both

Digital-only insurance relationships are primarily driven by the economies of scale. Essentially, it doesn’t really matter who buys and who cancels as long as your volume is up and your loss ratio is down. This distribution system is accepted as the future of consumer insurance – but it doesn’t have to be for your operation. Your agency can do both. You can establish a strong mobile/digital presence, while simultaneously maintaining and germinating person-to-person client and supplier relationships. The fact that digital is growing doesn’t automatically mean that you have to instantly abandon what’s brought you this far. There’s still plenty of space for both.

Something Special

True interpersonal relationships make it significantly easier to cross-sell, upsell, gain referrals and retain business. They also make it easier to look past minor issues – caused by either party – that might otherwise generate friction. So never overlook the value of the personal touch, as it’s rewarding on multiple levels. It helps to make an industry that is based on “selling nothing” into something that’s really special.