News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

‘The Ripple Effect’ Is Theme of Fourth Insurance Branding Conference 

SPRINGFIELD, VA (June 6, 2013) — Specialist branding firm Aartrijk has opened registration for its Brand Camp 2013 event for insurance brand decision-makers via its website at Aartrijk.com/BrandCamp.

Brand Camp 2013 will be held November 4-6 at the historic Hotel Monaco in downtown Baltimore near the Inner Harbor. The hands-on conference — the fourth such event — is designed for management and marketing leaders at insurance carriers, agents and brokers, industry trade associations, and service providers.

The Brand Camp 2013 theme is “The Ripple Effect,” which recognizes that insurance brands “are creating motion in the marketplace while also being affected by the movements of customers, distributors, competitors and other forces,” said event chair Rick Morgan, Aartrijk’s senior vice president.

“Brand Camp will equip insurance brand managers — consumer marketing professionals, agency and broker principals, carrier executives, and member organization leaders — with the knowledge and confidence to choose strategies to create positive ripples in their markets.”

The event provides the forum for solution-focused discussion of marketing challenges facing insurance organizations, said Morgan. “It isn’t just the topics we’re covering,” Morgan said, “It’s in how the topics are investigated. Attendees themselves share short presentations, case studies, ideas and questions to spur meaningful conversations.

“Our goal is to have every attendee return home with specific action steps to enhance their brands, sharpen their marketing approaches, and more effectively interact with employees, business partners, customers and prospects,” Morgan said. “With the varied backgrounds of the people who attend Brand Camp each time, what results is a unique set of insights and concepts that inspire brand decision-makers and business leaders.”

Starting in 2009, Brand Camp has welcomed more than 200 insurance professionals to uncover new marketing approaches and refresh their outlook on effective strategies and tactics. Topics have included video, social networking, blogging, mobile applications, publicity, content, design, brand identity development, brand alignment, employee engagement, brand valuation, advertising and demographics — all from the perspective of how insurance firms should evolve to leverage them.

ACT is indebted to Jason Hoeppner and his firm B.H. Burke & Co. once again this year for conducting this social media and marketing survey and for customizing the results for ACT so that it focuses on just the agent and broker results.  ACT also wants to thank the many organizations that helped promote this survey to the agents.  The survey was conducted in late 2012.

The results are encouraging to because they show a clear forward progression in agency usage of social media.  There is a lot more work to do, of course, in continuing to publicize agency success stories, to bring more agencies onboard and to enhance their use of the media.

The survey does reveal one huge opportunity area for the industry and that is to convince more agencies to measure which of their marketing dollars are bringing a return for them.  As Chuck Blondino, Safeco Insurance, pointed out in his excellent ACT article, Grow Your Agency & Improve Your Marketing by Tracking Key Metrics, those agencies which are growing the fastest track exactly where every piece of business comes from.

Download the Survey Results Here:

BHBCo 2012 Social Media and Online Marketing Survey_AgencyResults (Final-022513)

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I have been working with the awesome Kim Woodbridge over the past few weeks to accomplish both some visual and structural updates to this website. My goals in the process were to:

1. Move more important action items to the forefront of the site.
2. Move from FeedBurner for subscribers to Aweber.
3. To eliminate unneeded plugins.
4. Implement better use of SEO on pages and blog posts.

Action Items - I have taken lessons from my marketing friends here. The Search and Social Media information is all now contained in the header of the site. In this way, it is seen immediately and is on every page of the site. Visitors can more easily find what they are looking for or engage with me immediately. I have also added my Google+ and Pinterest links.

AWeber - My friend Ryan Hanley wrote about changing to AWeber in this article several months ago. I have been using Feedburner to manage my RSS and email subscribers. I decided that I needed to move to a fully customizable information delivery system as I continue to expand the functionalities of my websites.

Plugins - Plugins are great tools. However, they need to be reviewed from time-to-time. Some plugins are not maintained and may become problematical when there are updates to WordPress. New plugins with more functionality appear everyday. Too many plugins can slow down your site. So from time-to-time I review these and eliminate those not needed any longer or replace with better plugins.

SEO - Also know as Search Engine Optimization is what drives a search on the web to find you. I have not been diligent in managing this on pages and post. While my website comes up as the #2 item in the search, my blogs & pages no longer follow right under that search as they used to. Thus more is need to get more real estate on the page.

A website is not once & done. It should always be growing, remaining relevant and improving.

What have you done to update or improve your website recently?

Getting a Grip: How to manage your independent agency’s social media
(Friday, February 15, 1:00–2:00 PM eastern time)

Social media has provided many independent insurance agencies with a powerful new marketing, communications & branding tool which is powering growth for them.  But how do these agencies successfully manage their social media initiative?  This webinar will provide “best practice” advice from agents and other industry leaders on how to successfully manage a social networking initiative and provide options for making social media management easier for your agency.

This interactive panel of industry experts will answer your questions around such topics as:
How do I budget time on social media?
Where do I get content?
Who should manage my firm’s social media?
How do I protect myself from negative comments?

Webinar participants include:

Rick Morgan, Aartrijk Group, Moderator

Ryan Hanley, The Murray Group

Chris Paradiso, Paradiso Financial Services & Insurance

Katie Peet, State Auto

Mike Peterson, Project CAP

Angelyn Treutel, SouthGroup Gulf Coast

Mike Wise, Web Wisedom LLC

Jeff Yates, ACT Executive Director, Host

Please click here to register for the webinar.

*********************

Jeff Yates

ACT Executive Director

jeff.yates@iiaba.net

406-586-0304 (Home Office)

571-214-1025 (Cell Phone)

703-706-5402 (IIABA Office)

www.iiaba.net/act

As I expand the use of my iPad mini into my business life, I look for ways to make it easier to get information into the device. The idea that I have to carry both a notebook computer and an iPad to conduct business is becoming less attractive to me … if I need both, what’s the benefit of the iPad? So, after some encouragement from MY customers who question why I’m selling them automation but carrying a composition book, here is what I have found so far.

There are at least 5 ways to get information into an iPad:

1. by voice,
2. by virtual keyboard,
3. by stylus (handwriting),
4. by digital pen / voice recorder (like LiveScribe), and
5. by physical Bluetooth keyboard.

While there is a place for each of these technologies, my needs (taking notes when talking with customers and updating our internal systems with customer discussions) are pretty straightforward. If you are in a lecture or technical discussion and need to ensure that everything is captured concurrently, a digital pen with a recorder would be a wonderful tool. If you are an author or professional dictating notes, the voice app seems very compelling. I cannot type well on the virtual keyboard and it takes up too much screen real estate. So, for me, the choices came down to stylus or physical keyboard.

I tried the stylus route first, and decided on the Bamboo Pocket Expandable stylus. It has a solid feel, is extendable, had a dongle to store it in your headphone jack, and has a firmer tip than the mushy ones on the Targus.

Then, the choice moves on to what software to use for Handwriting recognition. My top choices were MyScript Notes Mobile and 7notesHD Prem. Both were capable and friendly but I realized I would need for them to “feed” a program to store my notes. Both have integration to Evernote which seemed to be a common platform for almost anything.

 After a week or so of trying, I got very little better at having it recognize my handwriting in a way that was faster than tapping it out on the virtual keyboard. 7 Notes is better at “on the fly” translation and can use cursive or printed text. It uses a box at the bottom of the screen and moving forward once the box was full of text was jerky and unintuitive. Notes Mobile allows you to write out an entire screen then does an “export as text.” Corrections are made after the translation to text and I liked that a bit better. In the end, though, both technologies were much slower and error-prone than any other form of data entry. Although it sounds great in theory, in practice it was too slow and tedious to be usable.

I then found Evernote also has another way of getting handwritten notes translated to searchable text. There is a special Moleskein pad that you can snap a picture of the writing with your digital camera. It does not translate to text but does allow you to “find” notes you’ve written through Optical Character Recognition (OCR). I liked this and it seems like a good thing but not practical for my use. Searching my notes isn’t enough for me to justify its use.

After this, I decided that the fastest way to do entry would be by physical keyboard and chose several to test. My assumption that a keyboard sized to fit the Mini would be impossible to type on; but that I would try. My assumption was correct – as much as I like the HandHeldItems Aluminum cover / keyboard, the only way to type was to take my hands off the keyboard and watch as each key was pecked out. Not at all practical for touch-typing but a small notch above the virtual keyboard.

HandHeldItems Keyboard

The other two keyboards I tried use VERY different approaches. One, the Logitech iPad keyboard is very nice – it comes with a stand and is in NO WAY a case for the iPad. It was WONDERFUL to type on but in my mind it’s still just “something else to carry” and drag out before I can start a client discussion.

Logitech Keyboard

The winner to me was the Zagg MINI 9. It is a true case and slightly larger than the iPad mini. It is professional looking, and is 90% the size of a full-size keyboard. It is easy and accurate for touch typing. Downsides are that there is no closure on the case, it’s fairly heavy, and it does not have the magnetic shutoff when the screen is closed. If I were a typical reviewer, I would tell you that I had typed this on that keyboard. In fact I did not but could have.

Zagg MINI 9

So, to get to this point, I had chosen the Zagg and Evernote as my preferred combination. This gives me faster data entry, no extra stuff to carry, and a data entry platform that can be used on iPhone, iPad, laptop, and web. Getting the notes to Salesforce was the final hurdle. I decided on Zapier.com – which allows you to designate an Evernote folder as your “work stuff,” monitors when you add new documents to the folder, moves and attaches it to Salesforce as a note (other integrations options abound). In my case matches the TITLE of the document with the person’s name where the note goes.

I did not test the voice options for this particular use of the iPad mini. Talking to my equipment  while visiting and working with a client would not be practical. However, I am sure this would be a practical option in a number of business situations. My preferred recording app if Dragon Dictation.

So, I’m off to start the year with new technology and a “streamlined” work process. As we meet during the year, feel free to ask me how it’s going. You’ll know if I pull out a Composition book that I’m still looking for a better way!

What are you using to enhance your business experience with technology? Let me know if you have questions about my experience or tools.

About this article: The author studied the differences between high growth agencies in his territory and those that were not growing or growing only marginally. He determined that a key differentiator for the high growth agencies is that they tracked and acted upon key metrics relating to the origins of their business, close ratios, revenue and policies per client, retention and average client tenure. Based upon his research, the author then outlines the twelve key metrics agencies should track to maximize their marketing efforts and grow their business. He also lays out how agencies can generate those metrics.

About the author: Chuck Blondino is the Northwest Region Marketing Director for Safeco Insurance, Member of Liberty Mutual Group. Chuck wrote this article for ACT and he can be reached at Chuck.Blondino@Safeco.com. This article reflects the views of the author and is not an official statement by Safeco Insurance or by ACT.

New Business
Item 1: Total new business items
This is fairly easily tracked through agency management systems.  Most can say how many new policies were written.  But it gets tougher from here.

Item 2:  Where each new policy comes from
Here’s the big one.  The most important question each person must ask on every call is, “How did you hear about us?” Everyone knows it. Without this, everything else falls apart. You can tell where the business comes from, which advertising dollars are most effective, where to focus your efforts and more, just from this question. Once asked, then the tracking begins. The more detailed you get, the more you’ll learn. Here are 10 basic tracking categories:

Total new business items –

1. from cross sell efforts
2. from client referrals
3. from mortgage referrals
4. from real estate referrals
5. from walk ins
6. from phone books
7. from print ads
8. from website
9. from Facebook
10. from other

You can also track on a much deeper level. You can break out referral leads by each producer’s clients. You can track referrals by individual mortgage companies, real estate agencies, title companies and credit unions. This helps you understand which centers of influence are high quantity referral sources and thus where to spend time enhancing relationships. Or you can view the low production sources, so you can either change focus or drop the lead source completely.

Item 3:  Close ratio by category
Learning your close ratio by category can also be a big boost. It’s clear where you should spend your time if you know, for example, that your close ratios for mortgage companies and certain captive agent referrals are near 80% and other methods are at 25%,

Some of these agents who track close ratios know that their client referrals are closing around 70%, while other agencies know they close client referrals at 35%. Digging further, those with the higher close ratios are only considering true client referrals to be those where the person referred is calling for a quote. Agencies with the lower close ratio are accepting any name and phone number given by a client as a referral, but this means that the prospect may or may not be ready to look into insurance at the time you call, and the agency is spending resources to continue to call and follow up on each lead. Both methods can work, and several agents say that they want to encourage the behavior of giving any referral. But if you are tracking everything, at least you’ll know which ones are most effective.

Item 4:  Monthly close ratio by producer
This is an excellent training tool. If you know your agency closes referrals at 55%, but that your three producers are closing referrals at close ratios of 70%, 50% and 35%, then you’ll know where you should focus your sales training internally. Sounds easy, but you can’t do this if you don’t track close ratios!

Average Revenue per Client

Item 5: Total premium
Another easy one to track. This needs to be done for all personal lines in the agency, not just by carrier, so compile the totals and read on.

Item 6: Total policies
Also easy to track by totaling all of your policies by carrier into one agency number.

Item 7: Total number of clients
This equates to total households. Pull the total number of addresses from your agency management system to get this tally.

Item 8: Average number of policies per client
Divide total policies into the total number of clients to get this number. This is one of the most helpful statistics you have to tell you how your team is cross selling your book. A rough average of number of policies per client to use is 1.6. If you’re averaging 1.4, you know that one of the first things you should do is a big cross sell effort throughout your book. Cross selling boosts both new business and retention, so if your average policies per client are 1.6 or less, you should focus your marketing efforts here first.

What is the high end ceiling for average policies per client? Very few agencies average 3 or more policies per personal lines client. It’s challenging to move your book one tenth of a point in this category. But if you track it monthly and can see growth over 3 months of 1.72, 1.73, 1.74, you know you’re making solid progress on cross selling. If not, you may want to do some cross selling mailings with phone call follow ups. Or it may show a need for you to do more internal sales training on cross selling to protect your clients properly.

Item 9: Average premium per policy
To find this amount, divide total premium by total number of policies.

Item 10: Average revenue per client
This is more challenging, but it’s the jewel of tracking numbers for every agency. To determine the average revenue per client, multiply the average premium per policy by average policies per client. For example, if your average premium per policy is $1000, and your average policies per client is 1.6, then your average premium per client is $1600.

Now multiply your average premium per client by your average commission. For example, $1600 average premium per client times your average commission of 13% would equate to average revenue per client like this: $1600 x .13 = $208 average agency revenue per client.

What is a good target range for average revenue per client in personal lines? Heavy non-standard agencies selling mostly monoline auto will be in the $140 to $180 range. In low catastrophe areas, average preferred agencies will see $190 to $240. In more affluent areas or places with increased catastrophe exposure, the average revenue per client is higher, averaging $280 to $325 per client.

Once you know this number, and you know where your business comes from, you can easily track your return on your investment. Agents who know these numbers are shooting for a 1 to 1 first year return on all of their marketing. For example, if you’re spending $1000 per month on phone book ads, and your average revenue per client is $200, then you know you need to write 5 new clients each month to get a 1 to 1 return. If you’re not, then you may want to consider shrinking your marketing in that area. If your newsletters are driving a 1 to 1 first year return or better based on the increased referral traffic, then you know your marketing there is paying off.

Retention

Item 11: Retention for your entire book each month
To determine your monthly average retention, you’ll need to know:

– Total policies from 12 months ago
— Total policies as of the last month end
— New business total policies written over the past 12 months

For example, let’s say 12 months ago you had 1000 policies. At the end of the 12 months ending last month, you had 1150 policies. Subtract the 250 policies you wrote new over the 12 months from the ending total of 1150, and you kept 900 or 90% of the original 1000. (Be sure you’re not counting rewrites as new!)

Is focusing on retention worth it? Here’s how to find out. Multiply your current annual revenue by your current retention rate. Do that over 10 years. Don’t add in new business; just see what happens to your current book over 10 years. Then multiply the same starting annual revenue by a retention number 3 points higher over 10 years, and calculate the difference.  Here’s what it looks like for a $1 million revenue agency that moves it’s retention from 88% to 91%:

Item 12: Average length of time clients stay with you
Determine the number of years each client has been with you. Tracking in whole years as opposed to months is easier when you start. Add up all the years clients have been with you (this will be big). Then divide that total and divide by the number of clients you have. This will give you the average length of time clients stay with you. Excellent marketing tactics should deliver a $1.00 return for every $1.00 spent or better in the first year, but you get a much stronger picture for how profitable your marketing is when you know how long you retain your clients on average.

Keep tracking each of these metrics and you’ll enjoy seeing how your monthly report card can drive growth and stronger profitability.

Twas the night before Christmas (12:01 A.M. 12/25) and all through the house (single family, joisted masonry, E.C. 3, territory 44, PC 5) Not a creature was stirring not even a mouse (through pride of ownership and excellent maintenance.) The (flame retardant) stockings were hung by the (contractor installed) chimney with care In hopes that St.Nicholas would soon be there (in spite of dead-bolt locks and central station alarm system.

The children (ages 4,8,14 & 16) were all nestled snug in their beds (check  MVR on 16 year old)  While visions of sugar plums danced in their heads (must check for druguse.)  Mama in her kerchief (scheduled heirloom) and I in my cap (no slave to fashion) Had just settled down for a long winters nap (check employment – is insured sleeping all day?)

When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter (check into condition of premises, housekeeping etc),  I jumped out of bed to see what was the matter. Away to the window I flew like a flash,  Threw back the curtains and tore open the sash (intentional destructive  act – no coverage. Also, as far as we know, insured only wearing a cap in front of uncovered window.)

What to my wondrous eyes should appear.

But a miniature sleigh and 8 tiny reindeer (note to check if sleigh rated business use and corporate owned). With a little old driver, so lively and quick,  I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick (order medical on 600 year old driver; notify life underwriter for possible rating). More rapid than eagles (check MVR for speeding violations) his coursers came,  And he whistled and shouted and called them by name (possible aggressive driver?):

Now Dasher (turbo equip?) now Dancer (classic?) now Prancer (check

lifestyle) now Vixen (definitely check lifestyle),  On Comet (possible muscle deer)  on Cupid (lifestyle again) on Donner(4×4) and Blitzen (possible drinking problem?)

To the top of the porch to the top of the wall (check for structural damage also look into height exposures), Now dash away, dash away, dash away all. (also old man climbing walls either  in great shape or overly medicated?) So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,  With the sleigh full of toys and St. Nicholas too (check for possible  retail delivery classification of autos).

And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof.

The prancing and pawing of each little hoof (check for shingle damage also classification of operations, roofing is a prohibited class). As I drew in my head and was turning around, Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.

He was dressed all in fur (scheduled items) from his head to his foot And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot (part time job as firefighter??). A bundle of toys he had flung on his back (Check to see if insured has safety committee, check lifting training) And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.

His eyes how they twinkled, His dimples how merry, His cheeks were like roses, His nose like cherry (order updated medical report, possible drinking abuse).

The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth (note – do not give non-smoker discount) And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath (check batteries in smoke alarms to make sure operational). He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf (overweight for height) And I laughed when I saw him in spite of myself.

A wink of his eye and a twist of his head

Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread (stranger enters past alarm and insured not worried?? Possible moral problem). He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work, And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk (review workplace for ergonomic compliance). And laying his finger aside of his nose (obscenegesture?)

And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose (check operations, chimney sweeps are prohibited classification, look into GL PD deductible.)

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,

And away they all flew like the down of a thistle (not likely with fat man and sleigh full of toys. Check GVW for proper classification, Light/Service/Local seems unlikely). But I heard him exclaim as he drove out of sight, “Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!” (Check hours of operation, 24hr service operations prohibited. Also check into seasonal nature of business).

ORDER NEW LOSS CONTROL – DIARY FOR 07/01/02 TO DISCUSS WITH AGENT.

(I THINK THEY FORGOT ABOUT THE ANIMAL BITE EXCLUSION ON THE REINDEER.–MUST HAVE BEEN WRITTEN BY A hurried UNDERWRITER!!)

About this article: Independent Agent Mike Foy asked his daughter Lauren, currently in college, to comment on a recent Independent Agent article, “Marketing to Millennials,” by Michael Fleischner (MarketingScoop.com). Lauren provided a very interesting perspective as a future insurance consumer on how she views and uses social media, commercials and the Internet to shop. She also comments on the continuing importance of personal relationships. 

About the Author: Lauren Foy is a sophomore at University of Rhode Island and can be reached at lauren_foy@yahoo.com. Lauren wrote this article for ACT and based it on an email she wrote to her dad, an independent agent, to assist him with the millennials’ perspective with regard to social media and marketing. The Agents Council for Technology (ACT) is part of the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America, Inc. ACT’s Web site is www.independentagent.com/act. This article reflects the views of the author and should not be construed as an official statement by ACT. 

Engage on a Personal Level
Another point the author made was to “Communicate on a personal level.” This is an easy thing to do with blogs or Facebook, etc. I have become a “fan” or “liked” a few companies that I never see again. I have done the same to others, which now seem to haunt my Facebook. I think a medium level of posts is good.  If you are on someone’s Facebook home screen too much with uninteresting comments, you are more likely to get hidden. However, I can think of two companies that I see on my Facebook a lot and I am more likely to consider them when I am in the market. The way they do this is by posting relevant posts and doing it on a consistent, reasonable basis. 

One company usually posts a fact, story or comment relevant to their product and ends the post in a question. This gets a lot of feedback and then is likely to show up on more people’s home screens. Don’t ask me how to take this skill from a sales company and make it relevant to insurance, but this is just one idea. My generation feeds on being “heard” and finds it so appealing that we give more attention to the social media sites that try to engage us. 

I learned in my persuasive writing class that the best way to be effective in a blog setting is to use a question at the end so readers will feel like they have a say in your opinion and the topics covered. A good way to use this technique is by making a point with your question or crafting one that will get a lot of response from both sides. This will help to get positive feedback as well as some insight into the opposing side. 

Be Consistent & Creative
Two additional points made in the article are also good ones: be consistent and creative. These qualities help capture the attention of an otherwise preoccupied generation. While we are always multitasking, it is hard to pay complete attention to the radio (online or live) or the TV while trying to do homework, or whatever we might be doing. So consistency and repetition are good tools to use. Creativity will always help a website when dealing with my generation. 

Also, I am always drawn to the website that looks more professional and attractive. For a generation that has grown up dealing with the Internet, a functional and appealing website shows that the business is viable. 

Info & Contacts Must Be Easy to Find
One point missing from the article, which is very important to understand when dealing with my generation, is that for the most part we expect instant gratification. Everyone grew up with the Internet getting faster and faster, providing answers to everything at our fingertips. With the invention of online radio, DVR/TiVo/Live Rewinding and Pausing features, the iPod and the prevalence of smart phones, my generation grew up having everything we wanted whenever we wanted it. I think this is a very important and sometimes negative aspect of my generation. 

Since we are so technologically literate, we have access to hundreds of websites selling the same thing. We have the knowledge to navigate our way through a website, but I doubt most of us have the time/patience. We gravitate toward information, forms and products that we can find now. I think this is an important aspect to marketing, because you can draw all the attention you want to your website, but if it is not easy to navigate or to find a way to contact someone, I think a good many prospective customers will drift to their second choice.

How I Use the Internet to Shop
I use the Internet for almost all of my shopping. If I am at a shopping center and I need something, I will buy it there, but most other times, I will just rely on the Internet. I have always found it more convenient to go to a website for what I might need than to find a store. Websites usually are easier to navigate, have more options and are faster than traveling to a store. Generally I will start with a website that I have used before and have had a good experience with. If I have a longstanding relationship with a company, I usually will just trust that they have the best price and not look any further. However, if it is a new website or one I have not used a lot, I will tend to look around the Internet for a better deal, and if I can’t find one, I will come back to the first one. 

I think that my generation would rather not take a day to travel around and price shop when they could just get the same amount accomplished in a much smaller period of time on the Internet. Many in my generation would rather do something on the Internet than pick up the phone and call. As a generation, we seem to be more comfortable with the Internet than with a phone call. 

For the most part, I have found the Internet to be a reliable buying outlet, so there has been no reason to use another means of shopping. A few unappealing encounters can teach an Internet buyer to look into the company before buying from them. It is easier for a company to lie about their product when it is being presented on a webpage. This is where the relationship with a company comes into play. If you have bought a product with them that wasn’t what it said it was, then a bad relationship is created. 

Growing up with the Internet makes it so much easier to use this resource to go shopping, do homework or anything else we might need. 

Personal Relationships Are Still Important
Personal relationships are still important for some things. I look at these relationships in a similar way to a website, in the sense that if I had a positive relationship with a store or service, then I am more likely to return again. If the experience was negative, I will not return. There are a few things that I will never buy online, one of them being a cell phone. I got my first cell phone from a sales representative, Stan, and I have returned every time I needed a new phone or anything else cellular. On the other hand, there are companies I will never return to based on bad experiences. I am currently in the process of cancelling one of my debit card accounts because of such bad customer service. 

Customer service is where people establish relationships, and if the goal is to attract Internet users to come into an office or even pick up the phone to speak with a person, relationships play a huge role. Going back to the example of Stan, I have many opportunities and online resources to buy a cell phone or accessories on a website, but due to the strong relationship with the store personnel, I am always drawn to return there rather than go to the Internet. These personal relationships give the customer a respect for the opinions and suggestions of the service representative that one cannot get from a website or a customer service representative in a call center. 

In a perfect situation, there would be a strong relationship with the personnel of the business, coupled with the support of a functional website and/or mobile app. Providing that personal relationship enhanced by these online tools is the best way to get my generation off the Internet and into the office. 

My cyber friend, insurance agent extraordinaire, Mom, community leader, blogger, soon to be published author, Insurance Goddess – Carrie Reynolds, agreed to share this recent post with the Insurance Ecosystem readers. This post shows the importance of being involved with your clients in various forms of media. Follow Carrier at Insurance Goddess, Twitter, Google+ or Facebook.

Have you ever had an insurance claim? What was your experience like? I truly believe that claim time is the true test of an insurance policy- it’s then that you actually “see” your policy go to work for you.

I’ve seen lots of interesting claims, but a recent one absolutely blew me away. Not because of what happened (high winds knocked a large tree branch on a home), but because of how we received notice of the claim and how it subsequently unfolded. Take note, as I think this is pretty ground-breaking and something most insurance companies can’t even comprehend yet. I can still barely absorb how it happened. 

The day it happened, I was sitting at my desk at Alan Galvez Insurance and just happened to glance at myTwitter feed (I always have Facebook and Twitter open as communication sources). I saw one of our customers, Tera, had just posted the following- ”Well, it finally happened. That old tree hit our house.” The next post was from her husband Jon telling her to give me a call. I responded via Twitter asking Tera the extent of the damage and also telling Jon (he was at work), that I was on the claim immediately. Tera also tweeted me a photo (at right) so I could see the damage- the branch had gone through the roof and rain was coming into the house, You can see our conversation by going to my feed, and starting 10/26, looking for tweets between me and @Teradawn.

Amazingly enough, a contractor friend (and the insured’s neighbor), was at his wife’s store next door to my office. I ran over and said “Allen, I need your help.” I told him the situation and asked him to please make temporary repairs as well as provide an estimate for permanent repairs. Within 15 minutes he was at the insured’s house. If you’re local and need some remodeling/contracting work, I highly recommend Allen Snyder of Snyder Home Repair. He does excellent work, is reasonable and very trustworthy. You can reach him at 937-592-4699.

I also called a tree removal service that had done work for us in the past. Within an hour, they arrived and made plans to get the branch off the house (it was ultimately determined that a crane would have to be rented and removal would occur the next day).

 As I was making arrangements for these various services, I kept Tera in the loop, again via Twitter. I told her who was coming, their names and what was going to happen next. Within 24 hours the tree was off the house and Allen was busy fixing the exterior and interior damage. Tera and I communicated back and forth as to what else she needed to do to facilitate the claim (submitting estimates, etc.) It’s now a week later, and they are well on their way to having their house good as new.

In all fairness, it was just dumb luck that I happened to look at my screen and see the post right after it happened. And having the contractor next door was some serious luck. However, I don’t think it changes two valuable lessons I learned from this experience:

• Whether you’re an insurance agent or a company, you need to be utilizing the various social media platforms as a communication source. Your customers are using them and you need to be there as well. Customers now dictate how they want to communicate with you, not the other way around. Listen up or risk losing out.
• The value of building a strong network can never be discounted. By having Allen do work for me personally as well as establishing a friendship with he and his wife, we’ve developed a strong bond. So he had no issue with grabbing his tools and running immediately over to Tera and Jon’s house. Try this tactic with a random contractor in the phone book, and see the response. I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t be the same. So having a trusted network IS everything.  
• A corollary to the second point is that without a local agent, there is no way this claim could have worked out as quickly or as well as it did. Agents have networks and connections. They know who to call, what to say and will even roll up their sleeves and pitch in when necessary. We’re expediters, advocates, translators and even hand holders. Do you think the Geicos of the world can say this?

What do you think about this crazy turn of events? Are there other lessons that consumers or those in insurance can take away from this experience? This was a first for me and I’m interested to hear your reactions. I think this is just the beginning folks………

One of the computer upgrades I’ve eyed for several years is the Solid State drive for my laptop. As you probably know, the hard drive is a (very sophisticated) mechanical device. As such, every time you need a piece of information the drive spins around to find the place or places where it is stored and provides it to your program. Drives can spin faster than used to (from 5,400 rpm to more than 10,000), but there will be always be a lag time for retrieving information. This results in your having to wait for a response.

As memory prices have fallen, manufacturers are now producing storage devices that do not use a hard drive. These devices, called Solid State Drives (SSD) can store information on memory chips rather than on disk drive platters. Unlike the working storage memory on your computer, they are non-volatile in that they don’t lose data when the computer is turned off. Retrieval of information is near-instantaneous and, as a bonus, they are very lightweight and require MUCH less power than the motors in a disk drive. 

I took this on as a Saturday project and purchased a drive with just a bit less capacity than my mechanical drive (about $200). The web site for your computer or laptop will help make sure you order the right drive. It also included software to “clone” my existing drive and a cable to connect the two drives during the cloning. The process was very simple; I just connected the new drive to the USB port and ran the cloning software. In my particular case, the hard drive was encrypted and required an extra step, but for most users that would be not an issue. Once complete, I removed the old drive and slid in the new drive. 
The software moves your operating system and all programs and data. The system now boots up in half the time, and any program I start kicks off instantaneously. I get an extra hour of battery life and a lighter computer. As a bonus, I can now use the cloning software to make an exact backup to the mechnical drive weekly so it is a disaster recovery backup. 

A highly recommended upgrade, now that the prices had fallen to affordable levels. It’s a great time and frustration saver not having to wait on my drive!

What upgrade do you want to do and why? Or what upgrade have you done? Are you pleased or disappointed.