Agents: Your business clients look a little different now
Restaurants, bars, hotels and others are not only coming back from the pandemic but adapting in exciting new ways.
Many small businesses are coming through the pandemic and creating new opportunities for insurance agents. The situation was very different in March and April of 2020 when everything was a challenge. Last year, for most business owners, keeping the company running was paramount, and insurance was the last thing on their minds.
David Louie, president of New York-based general agency David J. Louie, Inc., which focuses on Asian-owned businesses, felt the pandemic’s financial pinch early on.
“The types of businesses affected were our core businesses,” he says. “One of our largest classes of business is restaurants.”
Louie says that agents had to step up to the challenge, quickly pivot from sales to service, and initiate phone and email chains to business owners just to check in. For Louie, such services even included translating pandemic restrictions from English into Chinese.
Live, work and learn
Agents are facing a different scenario now. Businesses are coming back. Since March 2021, Semsee has seen significantly more submissions from service-type businesses such as hotels, restaurants, salons and dentists.
At the same time, however, many businesses look different than they did before. This creates new insurance opportunities for insurance agents.
There are also challenges. The pandemic has forever changed how agents and carriers are looking at their markets. The days are gone when you could file a new product or coverage information away and bring it to market three months later. While some of these changes were already occurring, COVID has accelerated the shift.
Businesses are evolving to meet consumer demands. At the same time, technology is accelerating both the solutions agents and carriers are using with clients and with each other. The combination of market shifts and new products is driving the need for greater communication between agents and carriers.
There are a variety of ways carriers and agents can take advantage of these new markets.
Look at markets like a consumer.
Agents are consumers of services, from food to salons, so why not integrate trends into your market approach/? It can be really helpful to look at service businesses in your area and consider how those changes may impact risk. Some changes are simple: Are restaurants serving food outside? Are they doing more deliveries? I’m seeing both of these things in New York, for example. Nearly every restaurant has outdoor seating. What does that do to their coverage?
What’s more, in many cases, commercial kitchens have nearly doubled in size. And as we know, a great opportunity can also create new exposures.
For Sean Doherty, an agent with Brookhaven, Penn.-based The DeFinis Insurance Agency, this market-based approach meant passing on auto body shops, where he has experience, and focusing on bakeries. Doherty, who is working to build his small commercial book by cold calling, found that many bakery owners had laid off people and were working in the shops themselves throughout the pandemic and reachable by phone. More importantly, they were willing to talk about their insurance needs.
Optimize technology.
Technology plays an important role. First, agents should be using technology to understand business changes on both a macro and micro basis. There may be new organizations, for example, popping up to support new businesses. Agents may find opportunities to sell insurance when businesses are being set up, such as partnering with legal or accounting systems, for example.
Secondly, agents — and carriers — should be considering new ways to use technology to connect with the end-users. These might include landing pages that speak specifically to types of businesses, such as food trucks that also do events. Or technology solutions can automatically develop e-newsletters or digizines on topics that are of interest to specific target markets. And, most importantly, both carriers and agents should be using technology to eliminate redundant and slow workflows, so agents can both process more volume and create more time to consult with clients about risks.
Create more carrier connections.
In this business environment, agent-carrier connections are more important than ever. As Doherty explained: “I’m in more contact with the carriers that I write for. I think the cycles are moving faster and faster. I used to get an email and read it. Now I talk to carriers weekly to understand what they want to write.”
Carriers realize that they need to do a better job of communicating to agents about new markets and appetites — more quickly. As businesses evolve — sometimes seemingly overnight — it’s critically important for agents to have a greater understanding of carrier appetite and changes to appetite, specifically all the things that accompany pricing and coverage.
The rise of niche products.
Niche — or new — products are important for carriers to get in front of agents quickly. According to Doherty, “We’re targeting Main Street businesses, but looking to supplement those businesses with many of these newer products, like cyber.”
Businesses are morphing. There are more outdoor events. I went to a party recently, and instead of catering, there was a food truck for the guests. It was likely a truck that used to service midtown office workers for lunch. All of these new business ideas create different risks. We’re already starting to see insurance companies tacking on new products to existing offerings, like BOP or workers’ compensation. This is a trend that’s going to continue.
There are a variety of things small commercial agents can be doing right now to drive growth as many businesses are coming back.
“It has been extremely challenging,” Louie notes. “But businesses are coming back. More importantly, agents have always been resilient. We’ve weathered other challenges before. In New York, this has included 9/11 and Hurricane Sandy. We’ve always worked with businesses and the community and come back stronger.”
For insurance agents focused on the small service business market, it may just be the start of the Roaring Twenties — a time in which restaurants, bars, hotels and others not only come back but adapt to market changes in exciting new ways.
Philip Charles-Pierre (philip@semsee.com) is CEO of Semsee, an InsurTech that provides automated small commercial quoting solutions for independent insurance agents. He has a long background in creating digital solutions to help small and mid-sized businesses succeed. Before he was CEO of Semsee, Philip worked in the real estate sector as SVP of Distribution for Smarter Agent, a mobile search and discovery tool used by leading real estate franchises such as CENTURY 21, Sotheby’s, Keller Williams, Berkshire Hathaway, and ERA. In addition, Philip has worked at Site59, Travelocity and Starwood Hotels focused on building B2B platforms.
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