Findings regarding individual firms are being kept confidential. However, National Grange Mutual, not surprisingly, chose to disclose its ranking after Deep Customer Connections advised the company where it stood.

Close to 600 agents responded to the survey that was conducted over the summer, said Paul Croke and Nort Salz, principals and founders of the consulting firm.

They said their aim in conducting the survey was to examine the question what is the most important element in an independent producer's relationship with his carrier. The answer was summed up in the idea of ease of doing business. This concept and the basis of the ten questions agents were asked in the survey were formed from conversations the consulting group had with agents.

From a list of 100 companies, agents were asked to choose the five they worked closest with. They were asked to rate how important such issues as dealing with agency personnel needs, underwriting, providing services and information, handling claims, and giving support were to them. They were then asked to rate how well their five selected companies dealt with those issues.

Mr. Croke and Mr. Salz said, overall, the results showed a significant gap between agent expectation and company performance of as much as 20 percent in some cases. However, there appeared to be markedly larger differences between regional and national carriers in some areas. National carriers were closer in meeting the expectations of agents in areas of technology and support, where, overall, regional carriers showed wide gaps in those areas.

On these 10 questions, National Grange, a subsidiary of The Main Street America Group, headquartered in Keene, N.H., and Jacksonville, Fla., far outshone its fellow carriers. In seven out of 10 categories, National Grange exceeded agent's expectations. It equaled agent's expectation in one category and missed meeting agent's expectations by less than one tenth of a point on the 4 point scale in the remaining two.

Mr. Salz said there were other carriers who met or exceeded agent expectations in a few areas, but had significant gaps in other categories. Only National Grange showed an outstanding level of consistency.

This is the first such survey the firm has done, they said. The firm is using its survey in meetings with companies to show them where they stand in respect to their agent's expectations. As consultants, they said, they are looking to advise carriers on how they can improve this dynamic with their agents.

Mr. Salz said the firm is not releasing the data publicly because some response underrepresented carriers and could lead to a misunderstanding of the results.

Mr. Croke said once the survey has built up a history of data, and they feel more confident in the results, the firm would consider releasing the results on individual carriers publicly.

"We don't want this data to be treated lightly," said Mr. Salz. "We don't want this data to be abused; we want it to be contributive to carriers improving their operations."

Information on the survey is available by e-mail from Deep Customer at [email protected].