NSI Insurance Group: Always looking forward

Part 2 of 3: This winner of the 2022 NU Agency of the Year Award has a time-saving sales strategy.

NSI Insurance Group is headquartered in Miami Lakes, Fla., with additional locations in Kendall, Fort Lauderdale and Boca Raton. The firm is one of three winners of the NU Agency of the Year Award. Find out more about all three Agency of the Year Award winners during the upcoming webcast, “Planning for a Successful 2023,” which takes place on Nov. 15, 2022. Register for the event is free at propertycasualty360.com/webcasts. (Provided image)

Here are some of the factors that helped NSI Insurance Group achieve the honor of being named one of three 2022 NU Agency of the Year Award winners: A focus on implementing technology that enhances the consumer experience; creating a desirable and progressive work culture; achieving organic growth goals; and continuing strategic acquisitions.

What follows is a closer look at what makes NSI a fantastic place to work and do business.

Tech revolutionizes service

The Standouts: The three winners of the 2022 NU Agency of the Year Award fuse technical innovation with insurance expertise and the good old human touch.

NSI leadership astutely recognizes that innovative, service-enhancing technology is one of the greatest keys to success for insurance providers today and for the long run. With that in mind, the company has developed a proprietary solution, soon to be available, that evaluates and sells insurance policies from more than 20 providers in mere seconds. This solution allow insurers that may not be technologically inclined to produce accurate, timely and bind-able quotes rapidly online.

“We’ve built a proprietary search engine that allows homeowners to simply input their home address once to receive quotes, rather than having to call 20 different companies and repeat the same information to 20 different people,” says CEO and Owner Oscar Seikaly. “All the property characteristics are gathered instantly, saving clients, prospective clients and our sales agents countless hours.”

He added that the intention is to “revolutionize the way consumers approach home insurance in the state of Florida, the Southeast region and eventually the country.”

Chief Operating Officer Jim McCue adds that the agency continuously searches for technology that will allow agents to serve clients better and make the business as a whole more efficient. “Because of the complexity of the insurance market in Florida, this new solution is unique,” McCue says.

In recent years, NSI made the conscious decision to invest heavily in transforming into a digital and tech-enabled agency. (Provided photo)

Another notable tech development is a new agency management system that allows NSI to deliver enhanced servicing capabilities while significantly reducing operating expenses.

“Existing agency management systems are costly, archaic, and require substantial training,” Seikaly says. “We believe the efficiencies gained from our proprietary management system can increase employee servicing capacity by 25% to 50% and client retention by 10%.”

One standout feature of this system is its automated renewal workflow, which enables clients to have their policies automatically “shopped” 30 to 60 days prior to each renewal period. “This guarantees the lowest-cost option while requiring minimal input from the agent,” McCue says. The feature is currently available only in Florida, but will soon be moving to Louisiana, Texas, the Carolinas, and other coastal areas that are prone to disaster, such as the recent damage from Hurricane Ian.

“Premiums in Florida are very high compared to other parts of the country,” Seikaly says. “The Florida market needs to provide more choices to consumers, so they have the option to change if they want to.”

The company has made operationally strategic investments across several insurtech funds and startups, and is currently building the first comparative rating tool for high-net-worth personal lines business, which will decrease the divisions’ quoting time by up to 70%.

“We will continue to build, buy and invest in technology products that en­hance our servicing and sales capabilities across our seven business units,” Seikaly says.

McCue adds that it is a tenant of the business to always look ahead.

“The consumers and agents of the future will demand online solutions,” McCue says. “It is so important to make major investments in technologies like this.”

NSI is committed to retaining high-touch, personalized customer service even as it increases efficien­cies through technology. NSI routinely boasts a Net Promoter Score of over 70 (the industry average is 35 to 40), and has an enviable client renewal rate of 96%.

“We have set up our customer service team to support our technology solutions,” Seikaly says. “Consumers always want to be able to call and talk to someone, so we have made sure they can do so easily if they have questions at any point in the process.”

Progressive workplace

“Our industry is suffering from a mas­sive retirement of insurance experts,” Seikaly acknowledges.

Agency leaders believe their proprietary software increases employee efficiency and retention.

To ensure a continuous influx of top talent, leadership is laser-focused on making the company an attractive employer to prospective new hires. NSI makes a point to explain the many opportunities the insurance industry of­fers; communicate its commitment to the latest and greatest technology; and foster a fun, upbeat culture. (Recently, the firm was named “Coolest Office” by the South Florida Business Journal.)

“Younger people are looking for opportunities to excel,” McCue points out. “Insurance is becoming much more relevant as time goes on. Personal and business risks have become more complex and more pertinent, so it’s a great time to enter our industry.”

Young people also want to work at progressive firms. To that end, NSI proudly employs colleagues from a wide range of ethnic and racial backgrounds, religious beliefs, gender identities and sexual orientations.

“Miami and Fort Lauderdale are culturally rich, and our colleagues are a reflection of this environment,” Seikaly says. “We have colleagues from many different backgrounds who speak multiple languages.”

“We do business in more than 80 countries, so language skills are critical,” McCue notes.

Seikaly says these efforts pay off in community support. “We have a successful business and believe it’s our obligation to give back to the community,” he adds. It follows that NSI supports dozens of philanthropic and non-profit organizations focused on culture, the arts and social issues.

Growth — even during the pandemic

The resilience and creativity required to build a successful insurance business are on display amongst the winners of the 2022 NU Agency of the Year Award, which is sponsored by Nationwide. In addition to being showcased here, this year’s three winners receive a trophy and a panel spot during the upcoming webcast, “Planning for a Successful 2023,” which takes place on Nov. 15, 2022. Register for the event is free.

NSI is committed to setting goals and achieving continuous growth. Over the last several years, the company has conducted many acquisitions of other brokerages and expanded from its headquarters in Miami Lakes to add three locations.

“When we acquired companies during the pandemic, these companies did not have ‘for sale’ signs in front of them. We were not bargain shopping, we were finding owners who were willing to talk with us, and they were paid the right price, not given a lower value,” Seikaly says.

“All the owners are still with us,” McCue adds. “Like every business across every industry, we were affected by COVID-19. However, in 2020, instead of being reactive and plagued with indecision, we actually managed to grow business,” McCue explains. “This is a testament to not only the leadership team, but to every single employee.”

As the coronavirus insidiously wreaked havoc on every sector nation-ally and globally, NSI did not close its doors for a single day nor lay off even one employee. Instead, the company remained open and available to its clients, and actually hired more employees to service its growth.

The three winners of this award are leading independent agencies in the U.S. demonstrating strength in their variety of business.

The dedication NSI demonstrated to its customers during the height of the pandemic was downright heroic. The cruise industry, which was devastated by a global shutdown of operations, represented 25% of NSI’s revenue. Over a period of only two months, this was reduced to $0. NSI’s professionals spent countless person-hours assisting clients in getting their unearned premiums returned

“The level of service that we delivered certainly did not go unnoticed,” Seikaly says. “We retained the entirety of our client base and have had half of our revenue returned as the cruise industry has returned to normal operations.”

Ever moving forward, NSI will continue to develop and deploy methodical growth and marketing plans for all areas of its business, focused around utilizing its market position, relationships and community involvement to provide prospective clients with an unparalleled insurance experience. Of course, leading-edge technology solutions will support every one of the company’s efforts. And if a solution does not exist, NSI will create it.

“We believe that if you are not achieving consistent, sustainable growth, you are stagnating and will eventually be surpassed by your competition,” Seikaly says. “As such, we set a growth goal of 10% to 20% year-over-year for each of our departments. This goal is consistently met.”

Anna Maria Trusky is a Connecticut-based freelance writer.

See also: Virtus LLC: Courage, virtue and the insurance business