Just Venting a Little People

[Insurance-Guy]

Well it has been quite awhile since I have posted but I have had a great week placed 4 life policies this is something I don't do near as much anymore! But something just had to ruin it and here it is for you:

I had a single mom that has been having trouble keeping up on her auto insurance payments. She has two young sons on her policy one that has two claims, and another one that is newly licensed and two cars with full coverage. We have re-marketed this account with several carriers and she is getting her best price where she is right now. At least one of the accidents is not counting against her with the company she is with. Well a couple months ago she calls because she said she needs to buy her other son a car or truck so knowing the situation I had personally went over several cars or trucks all pre owned 5-10 year old cars that were quoted with liability only you know 4 door family type cars or two wheel drive plane jane trucks to giver her a good idea of the cost for something that would be affordable. I say personally because I do know this lady quite well and honestly these types of things are usually handled by one of the 6 CSRs that are in the office but this is someone I see quite often. I absolutely love talking to my customers but it just doesn't happen as frequently as it used to since I have other issues that I seem to always to be dealing with since I purchased the agency almost 8 years ago. My advice was simple make sure that you do not have to carry full coverage on it since the other two vehicles have full coverage on them. Please get something that you can pay cash for so we do not have three full coverage cars with two young drivers one having two incidents. So I get a call on a Saturday morning needing a copy of her policy on my cell phone at 8 in the morning so I went ahead and sent her the info and just said make sure we have the car added on if she did indeed get it. So Monday morning the dealer calls to add the new two door sporty car that is brand new and needs full coverage on it! WTF. So the car was added on and the premium sure as hell went up a hell of a lot! So she calls and one of the super agents that I have that works with me took the call and goes over it all with her. "I can't afford that, I am going to have to shop around" Well good DAMN luck. We have run the quotes over and over and there aren't too many companies that will compete for business with a two young drivers, one with two incidents, one just licensed, and having two count them TWO sports cars with full coverage and a 4x4 dual cab newer pick up. I swear sometimes people get me. I have been doing this around 16 years and people kill me. I may sound bitter but honestly I am not it is just that the interaction I used to have was always 90% positive now since owning the agency it seems it is near the opposite. I get to talk to people when there is a problem or they are upset and I am trying to fix something someone else has screwed up! ERR...for all of those who are considering starting your own agency keep in mind sometimes it is easy to just worry about your own production and what you do than worrying about everything...and I do mean everything and not doing what you loved about the business. Anyway...thanks for letting me vent and get it off my chest! I feel better.

 

[djs]

Yep.... thats all I can say.... yep....


The one thing you could have done is when you were providing the sample quotes is to quote one with full coverage to really emphasize the difference, but hey, the car won't be around long anyway.....

 

[adjusterjack]

A word of caution to any insurance agent reading this.

NEVER refer to any insurance policy has having "full coverage."

There is no such thing. When something goes wrong all your customer is going to remember is "full coverage" and when something isn't covered better make sure your E&O coverage is up to date.

Oh, I know what you mean by "full coverage." Liability plus Collision and Other Than Collision (even that's not called "comprehensive" any more) as opposed to just Liability. But your customer doesn't know that. All your customer knows is what you "tell" them because they'll never read their policy.

The same goes for "All Risk." There's a good reason that the phrase rarely, if ever, appears in insurance policies anymore though people in the industry still use it erroneously.

As for your vent, no problem. It goes without saying that the insurance buying public doesn't have the sense that God gave a goose.

 

[Insurance-Guy]

A word of caution to any insurance agent reading this.

NEVER refer to any insurance policy has having "full coverage."

There is no such thing. When something goes wrong all your customer is going to remember is "full coverage" and when something isn't covered better make sure your E&O coverage is up to date.

Oh, I know what you mean by "full coverage." Liability plus Collision and Other Than Collision (even that's not called "comprehensive" any more) as opposed to just Liability. But your customer doesn't know that. All your customer knows is what you "tell" them because they'll never read their policy.

The same goes for "All Risk." There's a good reason that the phrase rarely, if ever, appears in insurance policies anymore though people in the industry still use it erroneously.

As for your vent, no problem. It goes without saying that the insurance buying public doesn't have the sense that God gave a goose.

Adjuster Jack I am talking to Insurance Professionals. They know the difference between full coverage and liability. As for my E and O it is paid in full each year and has excellent limits. My staff and I do an excellent job explaining and going over coverages and honesty unless an agent goes through every exclusion in a policy with someone and even then the general public will not remember at the time of a loss. The term full coverage is widely used by the auto industry around us and the consumers often refer to it as that. We do explain that they have other than collision and collision and rental and towing are optional etc so I get your point.

As an example I had a man come in yesterday telling me that his old home policy he used to have everything covered and the one our agency had sold him he just realized didn't cover flood. I said calmly sir your old homeowners policy didn't cover flood either and printed out and handed him a copy of the prior company's dec sheet showing on the front page flood was excluded. Told him we would be happy to give him a quote on flood insurance and he said no I don't want another policy.

Trust me I know where your coming from but we as agents have to explain things in ways the public understands them as well and most people ask for full coverage.

On a side note she knew how much her other two full coverage (I mean collision and other than collision) j/k cars were and that is why I illustrated to her how beneficial liability only would be on this one.

Having a drink :cheers:

 

[DHK]

"Full coverage"? Eh, even Bob Parr (Mr. Incredible) figured out how to help people.

 

[adjusterjack]

Trust me I know where your coming from but we as agents have to explain things in ways the public understands them as well and most people ask for full coverage.

I spent a lot of years in the agency business faced with the same issues. All I'm suggesting is that the phrase be avoided because, regardless of you explaining things in ways the public understands, all your customer hears is:

"Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, FULL COVERAGE, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah."

 

[Johnny Hooker]

When did using paragraphs become a lost art? Paragraphs are your friend.....

 

[Matthew King]

When did using paragraphs become a lost art? Paragraphs are your friend.....

Even better with paragraphs that have formatted bullet points!

 

[VolAgent]

I learned a long time ago to stop worrying about stuff like that. If someone wants to get mad at me for their mistakes, don't let the door hit you in the rear on the way out.

Either she finds a better rate or she doesn't. If she does, not your problem any more. Obviously she has no control or self-control. Her boys do as they wish. Or she doesn't find a better rate and realizes you're doing all you can for her.

It sounds like your loss ratio would be happier if she left anyway. With two sports cars and a nice new truck, odds are they are going to total one or more cars soon.

 

[Key2Success]

When did using paragraphs become a lost art? Paragraphs are your friend.....

Having a slow day or do you need a bit of fiber in your diet?

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Even better with paragraphs that have formatted bullet points!

Even better.....if you have nothing to share simply move on!