Customers Want What Local Agents Provide

Sometimes, independent insurance agents can get too sophisticated for their own good.

I was reminded of this recently. My agency is fairly large, and I like to think that it is on the cutting-edge in many areas, such as technology and the use of social media.

But every so often, someone will walk into the lobby of our building and say they need to purchase an insurance policy. Just like that. This is not a retro remembrance of the “good old days” — it happens more often than you think.

Too many of us get bogged down in our computer systems and programs. They are great aids to our businesses, but they are merely devices to assist us. If we turn our entire focus to these tools, we risk losing sight of what our customers really value: our ability to provide them with expert advice and choices in insurance products from many carriers.

And we provide more: We listen to our clients’ concerns, hear what they are saying, and respond to their specific needs. This differentiates us from e-marketing carriers who can be no more than a voice or digital signal on the other end of a line. We are here today, and will be tomorrow when they really need to see me.

Personal Relationships

Customers don’t come to us to be “processed.” They come to us for the personal relationship, advice and counsel that direct writers and captives are not equipped to deliver. Our customers care about price, but it is not the sole factor.

Research by PIA’s company council, The PIA Partnership, shattered some of the myths many of us had clung to: Myths like insureds don’t want to hear from us until renewal time.

Our research found that 69 percent of customers want to be contacted when their insurance agent or company has a suggestion to add coverage they may be missing or increase coverage when they may be underinsured. Eighty-one percent want to be contacted about saving money on their insurance; and 63 percent would like to receive contact every six months or less for a general review of their coverages.

Even with the latest advances in technology, insurance sales remain a people business. This does not mean that agents should reject innovation or attempt to do business in a world that no longer exists. What it means is that we need to have an accurate picture of the marketplace to succeed.

Sense of Community

Our customers want a sense of community, of belonging. Cutting-edge agents have realized that in many respects, social media is today’s Main Street USA. In the past, when people wanted to share pictures of a new grandchild, they would go to their neighbors’ homes with a stack of hard-copy photographs that had been developed at the local drugstore. Today, they post pictures to Facebook that are emailed, because that’s where their neighbors are.

Professional, independent insurance agents need to get back to what we do best: become involved again in the lives of our clients and our local communities.

Today, community involvement means more than joining Rotary or Kiwanis. Now it includes being on social media platforms, which have evolved into the town squares of the 21st century. Yet while the boundaries of what constitute local communities may have expanded, our communities are real, not virtual. We live in the real world, with real people who have real insurance needs, in a place that is local.

What drove this home were the calls I got from clients and friends after Superstorm Sandy, thanking me for insisting on coverage they originally wanted to reject. I would not let them make foolish decisions because I simply could not face them in church, in town, or anywhere had I let them down. This is what an agent does! I wonder what the outcome would have been had they bought online.

As always, agents are on the cutting edge of changes in how our communities are structured and how we communicate. But we are still local agents serving Main Street America — wherever Main Street happens to be.

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