Author: ACT News Staff
"I could do my own payroll, but I choose not to. My time is better spent focusing on my insurance business," says Erin Odell, principal at Odell Insurance Agency in Bradford, Vt., a multiline agency serving personal lines, farms, mini-farms and small businesses in the Upper Valley of Vermont and New Hampshire and its surrounding communities.
"There will always be a need for insurance agents to explain coverages and to evaluate the exposures that a client faces. Consumers don't know all the ins and outs of insurance coverage, and in my experience, they don't really care to," Erin says. "Our clients trust that their agent is knowledgeable, experienced and technology savvy in order to make the right recommendations for their insurance protection. They might do a little research on a topic before talking to us, but mostly our clients see us as part of their household or business team, as their go-to insurance professional. Especially the executives—they focus on their business and leave the insurance protection to us!"
But don't think this trusted advisor emphasis means Erin and the Odell team ignore the value of technology. The Odell Agency, which does about 60% of its business in commercial lines, which includes farm insurance, attempts to make some of the basic policy functions easy for both personal and business clients, but mostly it uses its website to drive business to its personnel, because its agents are where the real quality resides. For example, Odell's website, which is succinct and easy to navigate, offers clients five great options using tiles, or click-on boxes, on its personal insurance landing page: Request a Quote, Make a Payment, Report a Claim, Track Your Home Inventory, and Frequently Asked Questions. There is also a live-agent "click for support" tile that goes to an email form after business hours. But don't be fooled. The 'Request a Quote' option doesn't bounce visitors to an automated rating/quote engine. Rather, it provides five different methods for contacting a real person for real advice. For payments, it is a little more automated, with links to carriers that accept online bill pay, which is what today's consumer expects.
If a new prospect or a seasoned current client wants to do a little research, the FAQ page is set up with easy-to-understand answers laid out logically by line of business: home, auto, flood, general questions, etc. And on every page, the agency's phone number, address, fax, office hours and social media are in the same, easily seen place.
"We want to generate the conversation," Erin says. "While some companies and agencies want to replace the human experience with artificial intelligence, we don't. We empower our clients with some online self-service tools—such as certs, ID cards and some other policy functions—by making sure carrier website information is available 24/7 through links on our site. But for quoting and purchasing, consumers really need a professional, even—I think—on such 'simple' policies as auto insurance. Do buyers really know what level of liability coverage they need? Do they know about the value of medical payments coverage? When it comes to commercial, it's even more complex, and when we are talking about farm insurance, then you have government forms for some programs, and the agent's presence on the farm is essential for proper coverage. It's labor-intensive and very personal. They want to see us and know us. It's all about trust."
Generating the conversation goes beyond current business at Odell. The agency is looking to the long-term future by engaging teens and young adults. In fact, it has a special page and outreach campaign specifically for the future generation of insureds. The agency reaches out to teens who have just gotten their driver's license with periodic mailings to explain insurance and by speaking at local high school driver education classes. "The Odell Insurance Agency brand is in their minds early and often," says Erin, "and our agency is there for them through the many stages of their lives."
"Agency clientele must be replenished over time, so we make the youth a priority," Erin says. "For instance, we send new drivers and their parents a welcome packet with explanations about insurance and other valuable information such as vehicle safety ratings and distracted driving prevention. We make the connection and 'touch' them at important points throughout their young adulthood to help them with their knowledge and responsibility and to keep our brand in their mind. When they finally go to buy renters or auto insurance or whatever their first policy is, Odell is hopefully the first call they make or the first website they visit.
"We communicate via Facebook, Messenger, and texting with our clients. We adapt to their way of interacting and new social norms. Our staff is accustomed to this way of communicating in their own lives, so making that transition to their professional lives was easy."
That doesn't mean the agents conduct official, legally binding business via these platforms, but they are able to communicate more easily and conveniently for the client by being conversant in all these media channels. Each is used for its own purposes. For example, over the July 1 weekend, there were severe storms in the Northeast that caused flooding and other damage. Here's what Odell did on its Facebook page:
To all of our Odell Insurance policyholders, if you have questions about damage to your property from the storms this weekend, the office phones will be answered Sunday from 9am-11am and Monday 8am-10am. We welcome your calls and questions during that time. You can always call and follow after-hours emergency instructions for a claims emergency!!
And elsewhere on that Facebook page, Odell provides testimonials, safety tips, information about holiday hours, local human-interest news, and advocacy. Its LinkedIn page provides links to its staff, which helps it with its overall professional persona.
The agency also offers life insurance to all clients, an area where online and direct writers have made substantial efforts to garner business via radio call-in numbers, TV ads, search engine placements, and social media tracking advertisements. Though that isn't typically a primary line of business at a small P&C agency, Odell does quite a bit of cross-selling to accommodate this need for clients in personal, farm and business. And though it doesn't command its own page on Odell's website, life insurance is mentioned along with disability and umbrella on all its other pages. The key for Odell is being relevant across all sectors of clients' lives—in products, service, advice and communications.
"I am a firm believer that, as long as the consumer mindset that insurance is protection and transfer of risk prevails, the downtown, small, independent insurance agency will continue to play a vital role in the economy of today and that of the future digital society," Erin says.
"Advances in technology create new opportunities, foster multifaceted levels of collaboration, strengthen the agent-client relationship, and improve the agency's financial bottom line through efficiency and automation. Technology is our friend, not our competition.
"The strategic approach of the small independent agency must adapt to meet the ever-changing and complex multigenerational consumer needs, including modernizing channels of communication, enhancing product offerings and elevating customer service capabilities, but the small independent insurance agency's identity will stand the test of time; protect your people and remain an integral part of every American household's daily life."