You either want to have a beer with him or squish him……..that cute little gecko with the cockney accent, those “good hands” holding your family and the company jingle that you CAN NOT get out of your head once you’ve heard it. All of these marketing plans have two things in common: they were created to pitch an insurance company and the insurance company is a direct writer. Finally, I’m getting to the point of this post: to introduce two types of insurance company systems and why I chose the independent agency system.
The two types are direct writers (employees of the company who write their policies directly with Allstate, State Farm, Geico) and the independent agency system. Although all of the companies on both sides of the system are professional, have high levels of integrity and care about their policy holders, I chose to go with the independent agency system because I love choices. As an independent agency we can offer our clients a number of companies from which to choose to find the best fit, versus one choice from a direct writer agency. At time of claim, my clients can contact us to help with the claim and work with them and the company, including changing companies if we need to. In this situation, the direct writers’ agents hands are tied and they have limited leverage options.
If you were going to buy a home, would you look at just one house before making your decision? No. A good realtor will show you several good options. So, when you insure that beautiful home you just purchased, why would you choose from anyone offering just one insurance company?
In my agency I wanted for my clients that which was important to me. So that, at every step of the insuring process, my clients have choices.