Peter Drucker, legendary management and marketing guru, once said, "The purpose of a business is to create and keep a customer."

I frequently travel across the country to meet with agents and brokers who tell me about the increasing number of challenges they face as they work to grow their businesses — businesses that serve a vital role in their communities. I've had the opportunity to understand these issues first-hand, which is the first step in creating stronger partnerships and helping agent and broker firms keep their communities safer and more protected.

Based on what I've learned from leaders of firms across the country, there are four key ingredients to creating successful relationships in today's evolving financial services environment.

|

Responsiveness

Agencies, carriers and brokers alike know all too well that customer retention in the insurance and financial services industry is becoming an increasing challenge. Carriers that promptly respond to the needs of a broker are carriers that grow with brokers. A strong relationship is important, but this alone may no longer be enough to retain customers as their expectations for prompt, technologically driven solutions grow.

Recommended For You

Want to continue reading?
Become a Free PropertyCasualty360 Digital Reader

Your access to unlimited PropertyCasualty360 content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:

  • Breaking insurance news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
  • Weekly Insurance Speak podcast featuring exclusive interviews with industry leaders
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical converage of the employee benefits and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, BenefitsPRO and ThinkAdvisor
NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to asset-and-logo-licensing@alm.com. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.