Exclusivefocus Spring 2013 - National Association of Professional ...

treating the typical garden-variety client
I remember as an agent the company’s
ridiculous thesis that low retention ratios
were caused by rude agents and their
staffs. Now really, how much sense does
that make Agents rely on new and renewal
commissions, not only to exist, but
to invest for their retirement, pay their
health insurance premiums and keep
their businesses running. The last thing
they want to do is offend their customers.
Regional employees – including claims
personnel – are on salary and have their
pensions and health insurance provided.
A little digression with those thoughts
in mind; company employees think
agents earn outlandish incomes. They
mistakenly equate gross agency revenues
with take home pay. Nothing could
be further from the truth; not only do
agents have to fund their own benefits,
but they must also pay rent, utilities, staff
salaries, insurance and much more. The
truth is, many company employees net
more in benefits and salaries than agents
do. But are they paid to run clients off
My contention is that intelligent people
don’t bite the hand that feeds them.
Conversely, claims adjusters don’t care
about commissions or retention ratios. I
know that our renewal ratios are below
national average, but what about customer
claims satisfaction I punched up
the stats published by JD Power. On an
industry average of 833 on a 1000 point
scale, Allstate scores 829, which is below
average. Chubb Insurance, another publically
traded company, scored 859, well
above average and a full 30 points higher
than Allstate. I dialed in their website
as if I wanted to make a claim. Immediately,
I was given a choice of an email
address or a phone number. See folks, if
you’re going to make a theft claim, Allstate
wants to ‘talk’ to you personally and
grind you down. Chubb seems willing to
let the facts speak for themselves. That is
but one of the reasons why their retention
and claims satisfaction are so superior
to Allstate’s. Agents see the company’s
dreadful PIF numbers; just imagine
how many clients Allstate agents lose
every year to these overbearing and inept
employees. Yet the company sees no
evil and hears no evil when it comes to
regional employees; it only speaks evil of
its favorite corporate whipping boy, the
Allstate agency force.
Allstate isn’t alone in allowing inept
employees to run off clients and prospects.
Consider Quicken. They allow
you to apply for a refinance loan entirely
by email. This is good for deaf folks, like
me. As wonderful as it sounds, the process
is tedious and takes time – lots of
time. In fact it took so much time that
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I had to postpone work on other projects
due to all the minutiae they wanted.
With all the hassles I was experiencing,
I thought there must be a better way.
Surely there were other companies I
could deal with, so I gave up on Quicken
and dialed into the JD Power website to
find out.
Guess what In terms of customer satisfaction,
Quicken was the best. So you
see folks, it’s whether you’re buying or
selling. Insurance companies are begging
for new clients and mortgage companies
can afford to pick and choose.
In another example, I wanted some
information from Prudential Skandia
on an annuity I’ve held with them for
years. My questions were complicated
and esoteric to people within the industry.
I’d sold the plan to myself years
ago. Being deaf, I didn’t want to involve
my wife on the call because we would
have to hand the phone back and forth
and something might get lost in translation.
So I carefully explained this over
my closed captioned phone to various
people throughout a 60-minute ordeal;
it was doubly arduous because they were
offshore and spoke with foreign accents.
Finally, they agreed to email me
an email address, promising to answer
my questions electronically. So a day
later, I got a response from a do-notreply
source which apologized for their
ineptitude. In their email, they gave me
a phone number to call. Go figure.
I hope Allstate and some of the folks
hiring these people are saving enough
money by keeping them employed to
make up for the clients and prospects
they’re running off. Oh, and my claim
As it wasn’t for a lot of money, and I
didn’t want the hassle, I simply gave up
on it. Just like one day in the near future,
I’m going to give up on Allstate.
I’d like to do an article about the reasons
why agents and clients are forced
to deal with inept employees while our
best and brightest move up the ladder or
move on to bigger and better opportunities
at Chubb, State Farm or elsewhere.
If you have any ideas along these lines,
I’d love to hear from you. But don’t call
the deaf Marine. Email me at Daverotundo901@
msn.com. Ef
38 — Exclusivefocus Spring 2013