Page 163 - The UnCaptive Agent

136 THE UNCAPTIVE AGENT

percent of the time. According to Matt Masiello, CEO
of SIAA (which over thirteen percent of all independent
insurance agencies belong to), independent agents only
use service centers twenty percent of the time. That is
a significant and stunning disconnect between sellers
and buyers!
As you start and build your agency, you must decide
whether you want to swim in the flow of progress and
success or trap yourself in the stagnant backwaters of
the past. Creating self-service options for insurance con-
sumers is easy. You can, and should, provide options on
your website using technology available from your auto-
mation vendor. It isn’t expensive to create your agency
app, but it might be a better solution to make it easy for
clients to download their insurance carrier’s app directly
from your website. Making this part of your new client
onboarding experience is a good best practice. Of course,
as mentioned above, you should consider service centers
for their customer self-service capabilities as well.

It’s the Client’s Choice – Not Yours!

One last point about client service in general. The
decision about how a policy is serviced is no longer the
agent’s choice. It’s the consumer’s choice. The smart
agent will not get in the way of insurance clients get-
ting what they want. It’s important that the agency
provide all avenues of service to their clients, including
self-service. This now includes insurance company ser-
vice centers for both personal and commercial lines, as
well as the personal attention of service people in the
agency. The modern agent will not only offer all three
means of service but will also have a plan to educate
new clients and enroll them in the service method that
they want at the time of the sale.