“Particularly among the midsize carriers, there was a recognition at least five years ago that part of the way they retained business and built new business was by making themselves easier to do business with,” he says. “We used to market ourselves that way when we went up against national carriers. Part of our pitch was we were easier to do business with. That didn't just have to be technology or automation, but personalized claims service, easier to get a hold of, and more responsiveness.”

Petersmark feels some large carriers—but certainly not all—have reacted to that strategy by working toward that same goal.

“I think [large carriers] have definitely moved in that direction, but not as quickly,” he says. “There are a couple carriers that are arrogant enough to believe they don't have to worry about it because [premium decisions] are all about price to them. If they return a good dividend every quarter it's all hunky dory.”

Smaller carriers and midsize carriers have learned to become more nimble in comparison to the larger carriers, which Petersmark describes as the difference between trying to turn an aircraft carrier and a destroyer.

“It's a little easier to turn the destroyer, but a lot of midsize companies have larger-company attitudes, cultures, and personalities,” he says. “You can't just snap your fingers, but they still are able to get things moving quicker and that goes right to price. If they can drive down expenses internally and pass some of the process onto agencies then you can afford to be more competitive on price.”

Agency Systems

Petersmark believes the solution providers that market agency management systems have made it easier to interface with carriers' systems, but the two sides remain far away from having a real integrated Web platform that both carriers and agencies can use as a common repository.

“That's probably where this world needs to go, but the problem is a lot of the vendors still have a vested interest in selling what they sell,” he says. “Some of the Web-based products make it easier to interface, but carriers will still have portals and if the portals were built the right way you could do some relatively seamless data population in both systems, but there still ended up being a fair amount of duplication.”

On the carrier side, many of the portal systems they developed ultimately interface to legacy systems on the carrier's back-end, so the data is connected to the old policy system.

Seeking Help

As for the carriers offering assistance to their independent agents in the area of social media, whether the agency chooses to accept that help usually depends on who is running the agency. Many older producers have no interest in that type of technology, even for marketing purposes, while others clamor for it.

Petersmark points out that agencies have to be aware of what their clients want and need, though.

“[Social media] is certainly more ubiquitous, but it can only go so far,” he says. “When you are dealing with mid- or large-commercial accounts and there is a lot of money at stake, social media is good for some quick marketing, but those retained customers are not the target. Those are the clients you are going to spend human time with to meet their needs so you make sure you get that half a million premium dollar next year.”

Mobile Technology

Many carriers are trying to figure out what to do with mobile technology and, not to Petersmark's surprise, carriers are being forced to do that by their customers and their employees. “If you think of the next generation of insurance customers,” he says. “They have almost an expectation that mobile apps will happen. The technology exists to do that, it's just more processes within carriers and agencies in figuring out how to apply that stuff.”