The difference. You can watch ads with cartoon characters or you can have a real person educate you about your decisions. Every idea that Progressive had came from agents that resonated in our offices with the Territory sales manager. Super store, driving ability, and quotes of our competition. These are all thing that I know many of us discussed with TSM’s. I guess they took the idea and ran with it??
I know you may have discussed these ideas with your TSM but your TSM has zero input on how the direct side of Progressive is operated. In fact, Progressive doesn’t think it can learn anything from agents valuable enough to incorporate in their direct business.
If Progressive would stop trying to compete with their own agents, but instead promote the independent agent force which built the company, their results would be much better. Study after study shows customers prefer to rely on the expertise of a knowledgeable agent. But instead Progressive is continually trying to get customers go direct by offering them a lower cost product than what the agent can offer a customer. Not to mention their reps try to get customers cancel the policy written by an independent agent and go direct. I had a situation where a customer call Progressive after hours to change his vehicle. The rep told him he can get a better rate by going direct. So the customer cancelled the policy he had with me and took a new Progressive policy over the phone.
You are absolutely correct! I had a client in my office the other day and I gave him a Progressive quote. He told me that he got a much better quote from Progressive Direct. So, with him sitting right in front of me I did a quote for him on line. The Progressive rate was almost 30% cheaper. Their system has the ability to know immediately if an agent has already quoted the business. One of our employees has a brother that we had insured with Progressive. He got a quote from Progressive direct that was much cheaper (I forget by how much but it was significant) I’m afraid that was not an isolated incident. They offer a growth bonus but how can you grow with them when they are unfairly competing with you? It seems they made a decision just a few years ago to go in the direction they are going. The last paragraph in the news story says it all. They expect their agents to trust them but they don’t realize trust is a 2 way street. They say they can offer better rates on line because there’s no agent commissions to pay but look how much they are spending on advertising compared to 4 or 5 years ago.
The difference. You can watch ads with cartoon characters or you can have a real person educate you about your decisions. Every idea that Progressive had came from agents that resonated in our offices with the Territory sales manager. Super store, driving ability, and quotes of our competition. These are all thing that I know many of us discussed with TSM’s. I guess they took the idea and ran with it??
I know you may have discussed these ideas with your TSM but your TSM has zero input on how the direct side of Progressive is operated. In fact, Progressive doesn’t think it can learn anything from agents valuable enough to incorporate in their direct business.
If Progressive would stop trying to compete with their own agents, but instead promote the independent agent force which built the company, their results would be much better. Study after study shows customers prefer to rely on the expertise of a knowledgeable agent. But instead Progressive is continually trying to get customers go direct by offering them a lower cost product than what the agent can offer a customer. Not to mention their reps try to get customers cancel the policy written by an independent agent and go direct. I had a situation where a customer call Progressive after hours to change his vehicle. The rep told him he can get a better rate by going direct. So the customer cancelled the policy he had with me and took a new Progressive policy over the phone.
You are absolutely correct! I had a client in my office the other day and I gave him a Progressive quote. He told me that he got a much better quote from Progressive Direct. So, with him sitting right in front of me I did a quote for him on line. The Progressive rate was almost 30% cheaper. Their system has the ability to know immediately if an agent has already quoted the business. One of our employees has a brother that we had insured with Progressive. He got a quote from Progressive direct that was much cheaper (I forget by how much but it was significant) I’m afraid that was not an isolated incident. They offer a growth bonus but how can you grow with them when they are unfairly competing with you? It seems they made a decision just a few years ago to go in the direction they are going. The last paragraph in the news story says it all. They expect their agents to trust them but they don’t realize trust is a 2 way street. They say they can offer better rates on line because there’s no agent commissions to pay but look how much they are spending on advertising compared to 4 or 5 years ago.