So I was playing around with on-line quoting and of course had to use Geico. Recently, now about 3 months late I received a well done email. Obviously now part of a drip campaign. This is not remarkable but what was there certainly is.
FANTASTIC. First of all it is a very cool tool. Clean screens, easy to use, etc. But why is this important?
BECAUSE THE COVERAGE THEY OFFER IS NOT AS GOOD AS WHAT YOU DO!
One thing that seems to continually bother me is when the wealthiest people and companies choose not to really do the world some good. When they choose profits over people. When they are genuinely in a position to change an industry for the better which will increase their profits and genuinely help the American public and they choose not to. Baffled by it.
Why write today?
So I had recentlly read Losing My Virginity by Richard Branson and a smart friend, Chris Brogan, suggested Business Stripped Bare. So glad I followed two “rules” of mine;
**Heavy on industry thoughts
1. I think they can do so much of a better job driving business. Yup, driving business to them. Depending on where you look, several hundred million dollars are sent simply to get attention. That’s really all it is. Attention. Because once they get there, where is the follow through?
So I stumbled onto this article with the headline “Google’s entry into insurance should frighten agents” I am not sure that one statement could be further from the truth.
Disclaimer; I was not in the room when these comments were made. Like most articles there is limited space available and the reporter must choose what to write.
FACT: The insurance industry is old and not nearly as technically advanced as most of the places you spend money. Think of Amazon and Zappos
FACT: Google has a lot of money and a lot of smart people.
First draft, part 1 of about 12
**Written for my counterparts who consider themselves Independent Agents and Insurance Brokers***
So I regularly read a publication called Rough Notes. Kind of interesting, some value each month. They do a pretty neat thing each month, they publish a brief article from a much older issue. The one that caught my attention was titled “Producing New Business to Balance Cancellations” It’s a topic that I have been working on for over three years. Fascinating one to me and actually I have my own soluton. More on that later.
**GEARED towards brokers/agents, feel free to read on regardless of who we are**
1. So if you have a customer and the service/product you are providing has not improved but you are now charging more for it, is this right?
2. So last year you had 100 customers to start and ended the year with say 120. BUT 30 of those are completely new because you lost 10 of those you started with. Is this good? Why did you lose them? Was this avoidable?
So in a previous post I dove into some things I thought were not so good about the shopping sites I tried to use. Most of those comments were positioned from the consumer angle. Yes, a little slanted since I have been helping people with insurance for eleven years but still from the consumer angle. Well how about from the agent side
1. Its proven time and time again that the more policies a person/household has with an agent/company the more likely they are to stay. That being said, quoting one line of business will not cut it.
So it is time to take my own advice again. With renewals for auto and home insurance pending I decided to do some shopping. I’ve definitely written about what to do when your rate goes up but this time I did things a little different.
START; Unfortunately my home is basically unmovable, two claims in less than five years. So I look at what the rate will be without a multi-policy discount. But wait, it gets a little worse. I had a stretch in 2012 and early 2013 with three tickets. Not good. But, on a plus side, my wife’s two claims are now over five years old so they fall off.
Several times a month a new person hires me and I am shocked. See I know I am “good” and I know how to do a lot of things. But there is a recurring theme, there is really no reason why this opportunity should exist. There is no reason why this person should have called. But then again there are quite a few.
The one that set me over is something like this, husband and wife with the same agent for 20+ years. Husband and wife fit perfectly into dozens of companies; married, great credit, college degrees, home owners, clean records. He is also a business owner and the paths fairly regularly cross with the agent who should appreciate his business. Sounds familiar?