will get a real agent when he grows up. I
have two homes, four rentals, one umbrella, a personal article policy, multiple life policies, a boat policy and
five cars insured. If you think I want to mess with all that online and not save any money doing it you are crazy. Geico
doesnt pay an agent a commission, they pay
a temporary customer service rep the equivalent. They just aren\’t less expense, and when an insured tries to solve a problem with an online company they switch to us. Agency is still the best value for the client, the company and
the agent. Good agents, with good agencies, have nothing to worry about.
Not from insurers hell bent on stupidly changing the model, and certainly not from the Geicos. Do they really want me to enter into a legal contract over the phone or online?
the
What they don\’t address is how many clients purchase an online policy and then rush back to the agent as soon as they have a problem. Insured\’s do not understand what an agent does for them and that is because of the utter failure of the independent agent system on educating the public on what they do for them. If you watch the ads on TV you would have every reason to believe the only thing an agent does is kick back and collect 15% and adds no value to the process. Hopefully companies will get off their duffs and counter these ads before we lose even more market share, more agencies and more jobs!!!!!
I think you\’ve got it pretty well nailed. I get a great deal of clients whose immediate prior insurance was purchased online, and they found that when they had a problem or a claim that they had no one they could easily and consistently call for help.
– Able to quote multiple companies in house, where an individual would have to take the time to do that themselves. I know there are sites that claim to quote multiple companies and have an agent call you, but I never recieved any calls from those agents. An agent is also much better able to advise clients on which company has the best combination of price/coverage/service.
– An agent can help make a claim be processed much more smoothly than an individual is able to do on his/her own. If an adjustor is slow and not returning the claimant\’s phone calls, the agent can easily go over the adjustors head and have the supervisor speed things up. The agent can also resolve any ambiguities in the claim.
– An agent can (or should be able to) actually read and understand an insurance policy, which I doubt 99% of the personal lines insurance buying public does.
There\’s more, but I\’m on lunch. Other agents are probably busy selling.
Independent companies have done a poor job of selling \”full-service\” policies at competitive rates. If everything were purchased by price alone, Starbucks would not be around. Our companies don\’t want to promote us as they are waiting to go direct again (to cut us out) when the market is ready.
By-the-way, the only reason web sales are up is because Geico (backed by Buffet\’s millions)is selling price only. When the lizard has to spend it\’s own money for ads and claims catch up, people will flock (slither) back to agents in droves if they aren\’t saving money.
They say the number of policies purchased on line increased 58%. To arrive at a % they must know the amount of policies purchased. Interestingly they do not provide that figure. I don\’t think our firm ever lost an account to an on-line purchase. We also advertise on-line and the accounts we attract this way are not the best! Initially I was concerned of this type of competition, but not anymore.
Only a couple of insurance companies will be successful selling policies online. There are thousands of insurance companies. The online sellers are in a bidding war right now trying to get to the top of the search engines. They are competing with other big brokers and online quote companies. Also they are paying millions with comercials to get you to go to their sights. Meanwhile the independent companies kick back and let their agents sell their policies and they focus and being an insurance company.
I realize this is not regarding on-line, however I\’m answering your question as to what value agents provide. I\’m from PA and had my wife call GEICO for a quote. All they asked her regarding coverage were her limits and deductibles than gave her a quote for Limited Tort- no um/uim and limits of 300/300/50 and 500 ded comp & coll and asked for her credit card info so they could issue the policy. After my wife explained that she has 500/500/100, Full Tort, 500/500 UM & UIM, 100,000 FPB, and the same deductibles, GEICO\’s quote went from 10% less to 35 % more. Then my wife told them she also has an umbrella and would like a quote. This party could not help but transferred her to another. After waiting 15 minutes with no answer she hung up. Now let me ask you; in whose hands would you rather place your financial security in? In fact dealing on-line or over the 800 number in MOST cases cost more. CASE CLOSED
C\’mon guys. We buy on line because you can\’t reach a live agent over the phone who has any idea of what they sell. Can\’t get a live voice, good luck on a return call. Seems like every retailer is looking for the big account, not just a small HO or auto policy. Your service stinks and you will continue to lose business to the computer
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will get a real agent when he grows up. I
have two homes, four rentals, one umbrella, a personal article policy, multiple life policies, a boat policy and
five cars insured. If you think I want to mess with all that online and not save any money doing it you are crazy. Geico
doesnt pay an agent a commission, they pay
a temporary customer service rep the equivalent. They just aren\’t less expense, and when an insured tries to solve a problem with an online company they switch to us. Agency is still the best value for the client, the company and
the agent. Good agents, with good agencies, have nothing to worry about.
Not from insurers hell bent on stupidly changing the model, and certainly not from the Geicos. Do they really want me to enter into a legal contract over the phone or online?
the
What they don\’t address is how many clients purchase an online policy and then rush back to the agent as soon as they have a problem. Insured\’s do not understand what an agent does for them and that is because of the utter failure of the independent agent system on educating the public on what they do for them. If you watch the ads on TV you would have every reason to believe the only thing an agent does is kick back and collect 15% and adds no value to the process. Hopefully companies will get off their duffs and counter these ads before we lose even more market share, more agencies and more jobs!!!!!
I think you\’ve got it pretty well nailed. I get a great deal of clients whose immediate prior insurance was purchased online, and they found that when they had a problem or a claim that they had no one they could easily and consistently call for help.
Nobody\’s responded to this post yet because they\’re all out trying to figure out what exactly the benefit of the agent is…
There are plenty of benefits to an agent…
– Able to quote multiple companies in house, where an individual would have to take the time to do that themselves. I know there are sites that claim to quote multiple companies and have an agent call you, but I never recieved any calls from those agents. An agent is also much better able to advise clients on which company has the best combination of price/coverage/service.
– An agent can help make a claim be processed much more smoothly than an individual is able to do on his/her own. If an adjustor is slow and not returning the claimant\’s phone calls, the agent can easily go over the adjustors head and have the supervisor speed things up. The agent can also resolve any ambiguities in the claim.
– An agent can (or should be able to) actually read and understand an insurance policy, which I doubt 99% of the personal lines insurance buying public does.
There\’s more, but I\’m on lunch. Other agents are probably busy selling.
Independent companies have done a poor job of selling \”full-service\” policies at competitive rates. If everything were purchased by price alone, Starbucks would not be around. Our companies don\’t want to promote us as they are waiting to go direct again (to cut us out) when the market is ready.
By-the-way, the only reason web sales are up is because Geico (backed by Buffet\’s millions)is selling price only. When the lizard has to spend it\’s own money for ads and claims catch up, people will flock (slither) back to agents in droves if they aren\’t saving money.
They say the number of policies purchased on line increased 58%. To arrive at a % they must know the amount of policies purchased. Interestingly they do not provide that figure. I don\’t think our firm ever lost an account to an on-line purchase. We also advertise on-line and the accounts we attract this way are not the best! Initially I was concerned of this type of competition, but not anymore.
Only a couple of insurance companies will be successful selling policies online. There are thousands of insurance companies. The online sellers are in a bidding war right now trying to get to the top of the search engines. They are competing with other big brokers and online quote companies. Also they are paying millions with comercials to get you to go to their sights. Meanwhile the independent companies kick back and let their agents sell their policies and they focus and being an insurance company.
Agents have nothing to worry about!
I realize this is not regarding on-line, however I\’m answering your question as to what value agents provide. I\’m from PA and had my wife call GEICO for a quote. All they asked her regarding coverage were her limits and deductibles than gave her a quote for Limited Tort- no um/uim and limits of 300/300/50 and 500 ded comp & coll and asked for her credit card info so they could issue the policy. After my wife explained that she has 500/500/100, Full Tort, 500/500 UM & UIM, 100,000 FPB, and the same deductibles, GEICO\’s quote went from 10% less to 35 % more. Then my wife told them she also has an umbrella and would like a quote. This party could not help but transferred her to another. After waiting 15 minutes with no answer she hung up. Now let me ask you; in whose hands would you rather place your financial security in? In fact dealing on-line or over the 800 number in MOST cases cost more. CASE CLOSED
C\’mon guys. We buy on line because you can\’t reach a live agent over the phone who has any idea of what they sell. Can\’t get a live voice, good luck on a return call. Seems like every retailer is looking for the big account, not just a small HO or auto policy. Your service stinks and you will continue to lose business to the computer