I started this blog series about how to choose an agent, telling you about the hype you hear from every agent, usually in a confident, friendly manner: “I have many years experience. I represent a large, old, financially stable company with 24 hour claims service. I’m an independent agent, and I can shop the home & auto insurance market for you (except I don’t tell you I don’t represent some of the biggest & best companies). I put my customers first. Yadda, yadda, yadda.”

There are lots of well-established, financially strong insurance companies. Most companies have 24 hour claims reporting. Almost all of the reasons agents tell you why you should insure with them are not unique, and they are common among all insurance companies. If other companies offer the same benefits, why shouldn’t you choose the company with the lowest price?

Some agents do add value with the service they provide, and this blog post will show you how to recognize this value, and allow you to tell the agents really putting their customers first, from the majority of agents merely claiming to put their customers first.

Unfortunately, most agents selling auto & home insurance don’t add much value for the customer. Let me tell you what you should expect as a minimum level of acceptable service, and how to recognize good agents from potentially bad agents.

1. Does your agent or your agent’s staff members return phone calls promptly?

Insurance agencies can be very busy, and get a lot of phone calls. Don’t be put off if you sometimes get your agent’s voice mail. But if you frequently, or always get your agent’s voice mail, and no one returns your call, or they call you after a week, you have to wonder if your agent is interested in helping you when you need it. If your agent is slow to respond when you are trying to buy a policy from them, imagine how service will be if you need to file a claim, or have a service problem?

Good agencies return calls promptly. Bad agencies call you back weeks later, or ignore your call completely.

2. Avoid agencies with lots of employee turnover.

Some people don’t like it when they always talk to their agent’s employees, but never speak to their agent. This is not unusual, or something leading to poor service. Some agents start out as a one person office doing everything, but as their business grows, they move to managing the business, and hire staff to sell and service the agency’s customers.

Employee turnover is going to happen, but if every time you call your agent you are talking to a new employee, it is not a good sign. New employees are more likely to make mistakes, and a constantly changing staff is an indication of bad management. If an agent can’t keep their staff happy to retain them as employees, you have unhappy employees. Unhappy employees do not provide good customer service.

You don’t want your account constantly being serviced by a new person prone to mistakes, only to have the new employee turn into a dissatisfied employee looking for a new job within a year, with the cycle starting over again when the employee leaves or gets fired.

3. Good agents set proper customer expectations and follow through with their promises.

Does your agent or your agent’s staff follow up properly? Maybe you called to add a newly purchased car to your policy. The agency staff member says they will call you tomorrow once it is processed to tell you the new price, and how it will affect your billing. Do you get the call the next day? Does your agent or staff deliver on their promise and expectations they set with you?

If you have a problem with a claim, and your agent tells you a claims representative will contact you in the next few days, does your agent follow up with you to make sure the claims representative contacted you?

Telling you to expect something and not having it happen, is not something which should occur frequently with a good agent.

4. Does your agent or agency employees explain your coverage, coverage options, and discounts?

You call your agent to add a car and ask for full coverage, or the same coverage as your other car. Does your agent remind you of your coverage limits & deductibles? If your agent adds the car and gives you a price without discussing coverage at all, you are likely to be disappointed or upset when you have a claim.

Good agents review your coverage, so you know how you will be covered if you have claim.

If you find an agent handling all the things mentioned above properly, then they are doing their job. If you can depend on an agent to help you when you need help, it may be worth it to you to pay a little more, if the agent does not have the lowest price for the coverage you need.

How can you take a good agent and make them better?

Demand a review of your coverage at least once a year. Many agents are busy running their agencies and do not conduct annual reviews with their customers. Some agents do a quick review, but it’s more of an excuse to sell you other insurance products.

The smartest thing you can do to make sure you have the insurance coverage you need at a reasonable price, is to follow my steps to make sure you do your own annual insurance check-up, and a policy review with your agent or insurance company is an essential element of it.

Remember, shopping your insurance each year, even if you have a great agent, is part of the process. You can have the best agent in the world, but if the company your agent represents does not have the coverage options you need, your agent can’t properly cover you.

I’ve found myself in this situation, working for a company that did not offer coverage I consider important, such as Personal Injury coverage and higher Ordinance & Law limits on home insurance policies, Uninsured Motorist coverage on umbrella policies, and more than $1,000 basic Loss Assessments coverage on condo insurance policies. Even independent agents, representing many companies, may not represent the company with the coverage you need.

As I remind my readers constantly, shop for coverage & price with all the leading companies each year, then find the best agent (if a local agent is available) representing the company with best combination of price & coverage for you.

My next post will tell you what questions to ask any potential agent, and how their answers will help you find the best agents.

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