Commitment to service fuels insurance agency success

We recently celebrated my daughter’s wedding. What struck me during the festivities was the strong feeling of continuity. Both sides were fortunate to have family from several generations present as well as longtime friends. But the group also included new friends, those made within a few years of the event.

We were fortunate to have guests from as far away as Australia and as close as across the street.

Continuity and relationships are two things that all the winners of NU Property & Casualty’s Agency of the Year Award have in common.

AHT Insurance, for example, was founded in 1921 in Leesburg, Va. That one location has spawned a national brokerage with eight offices and more than 200 employees. Now, David Schaeffer, president and CEO, is looking forward to the agency’s 100^th anniversary celebration.

David Gordon, president of the Gordon Companies, has spent 60 years in insurance. Gordon Companies marked its 50th anniversary by re-signing a client who has been with the agency since the beginning, and whose five generations of family members also have become Gordon clients.

And in 2012, after more than 20 years in the insurance industry working for others, Carrie Babij opened her own agency in La Quint, Calif. Desert Insurance Solutions was designed from the ground up, building on what Babij learned in her career as an advisor and consultant. She spent time forging relationships and continues to nurture them.

Customer service is key

The dominant theme across all the agencies that submitted nominations for this year’s award was a commitment to customer service. It’s refreshing to have nominees acknowledge that they need to have technology in place to meet client needs, but that the ability to understand clients’ needs is foremost. The personal touch remains significant.

I also was pleased to read that technology for these agencies is a tool that has to work well or they will replace it. When technology impedes the ability to meet client needs, these agencies look for other solutions, sometimes those we think of as old-fashioned. At the Gordon Companies, for instance, when a client has a claim outside of business hours, the call goes directly to Aaron Gordon’s cell phone. That’s the ultimate personal touch!

We’re told by startups and online insurance companies that they’re the wave of the future, that buyers aren’t interested in dealing with agents. But it’s clear from the profiles of our winners as well as the many nominations we received that independent agents aren’t going the way of the dinosaur. They remain trusted advisors to customers at the most important times of their clients’ lives: buying a car or a house, renting property, or starting or expanding a business, for example.

Agents also are part of the fabric of their communities. They sponsor Little League teams, volunteer at food pantries, and send their children to the same schools that their clients do. They’re part of “the fabric of our lives” as the old television commercial said.

Two years ago, we began honoring independent agencies for their efforts to help clients and remain relevant in the P&C world, which is continually changing. I think we’ve succeeded in our goal of showcasing independent agencies that are providing outstanding service to their clients, including stellar claims handling, employing new technologies, marketing their agencies, and growing their book of business.

I want our readers to see these stories and get to know these leading agencies, noting some of the best practices and adopting them in their own daily work. I want readers to recognize the great job others are doing, learn from them, and find some new ideas that they can use in their own agencies.

And that’s what is top of mind for me this month.

Keeping reading:

• The elements of AHT Insurance’s success
• How Desert Insurance Solutions secures optimum results
• At Gordon Companies, insurance is a family affair