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In my opinion, insurance agents are entirely too nice to consumers.   Normally, my insurance blog posts are warm and fuzzy.  However, the public needs to know that being an insurance agent is more than filling out a few forms and saying, “Please sign on the dotted line.”  In fact, being an insurance agent is more about service, duty, honor, and respect.  If this is starting to sound like a military job, then read on.

Every day, I arrive and immediately follow up on a ton of leads. In many cases that involves fighting with a commercial underwriter that has taken a week to return a rate for a business insurance quote.  Regardless, just as most insurance agents, I start my day refreshed and ready to go.  I check my social media circles to see if there are any new birthdays, deaths, or illnesses.  After responding to my clients requests, I study the insurance industry in order to stay abreast of the changes in the personal and commercial insurance world.  Then the phone rings or an email lead comes from this very website.

Usually, the potential client has performed some type of Google search, and maybe they have even gotten a rate or two.  As a result of their watching Allstate and Geico commercials, they feel like they know what hey want and need.  For the prospects looking for personal auto or home insurance, their goal is to get a lower rate than they had last year.   In today’s environment, if you’re like most insurance agents, you know writing an insurance an insurance policy at a lower rate without compromising coverage is more difficult than ever.  To make it more difficult, we write lowe rates only to wait 30 to 45 days in order to get paid the $100 commission on that policy.  In many cases, a prospect’s single focus of saving money goes contrary to everything an insurance agent believes in.  Insurance agents understand that a client’s desire of saving money even if it means rejecting coverages that are vital to properly covering a client goes contrary to everything an agent believes in. Most insurance agents worth his (or her) salt believe their job to vital to helping live safe and secure lives. To help you understand, consider the following scenario:

In 2011, a referral client called me to discuss her auto insurance rates. Ultimately, she chose a policy that removed the personal injury protection from her auto insurance.  On several occasions, I asked (even begged) her to reconsider her choice of saving $5 per month.  She based her decision solely on the fact that she considered herself a safe driver.  While this client has never caused an accident, what is preventing someone else from causing a severe accident?  This is where the story gets hairy.

Shortly after purchasing her auto insurance policy, my new lcient was involved in a severe caused by another driver.  As a result, I got the nightmare call.  She asked me what coverage she had for her medical injuries because she injury in an accident caused by another driver.  Once again, I explained that because she rejected personal injury protection in order to save $5 per month, she was unable to file a claim for personal injury protection while she waited for the other insuracne company to handle her claim.  Again, I explained the benefits of the coverage she rejected.  Luckily, she remembered the conversation.  Upon realizing that her saving $5 per month cost her $10,000 in benefits, she added personal injury protection after the fact.

Once things settled, we later joked about the accident.  One day, she called herself a cheapskate.  Lightly responded with the following question, “Did you think I wanted to make $6 in extra commission that badly?” Remember, my job is to protect my clients, my carriers, and my agency.  She realized that my sole purpose for explaining coverage was to ensure that I adequately protected her.  I hate she learned the hard way.  Now she is a client for life.

While I have cases that worked out the other way, the mantra of every insurance agent should be to protect our clients, the insurance carriers, and their insurance agency.  We protect our clients regardless of the rate they pay for insurance.  In fact, I often joke about protecting my clients from their bad decisions.   Placing our clients in a position that compromises their protection is our worst nightmare.  I never want to get a call from a client asking, “Why didn’t you tell me that?”   If I someone asks me to define an insurance agent’s job in one word, I would use the word, “SERVICE”.

So, the next time you talk to your insurance agent, consider this.  Most of us remain in the insurance business because of an overriding sense of duty to our clients.   In property casualty, we hope to collect enough policies at $100 commission in order to one day retire knowing we did a good job providing great coverage, great rates, and great service.  Therefore, the next time you talk to an insurance agent asking him to find you a lower rate, remember the hours spent finding your lower rates on your car insurance.  When that agent comes back with a lower rate with better coverage, remember that insurance agent took a pay cut to earn your business.

I love each and every insurance client.  Next time your agent answers a question, please say, “Thanks”.  That goes a long way.