How did you get into insurance?
I started in the industry as a personal lines agent before joining Selective Insurance and developing my expertise in commercial insurance as a commercial underwriter. It was a great experience, but when I had the opportunity to move back to my hometown of Richmond, VA and become a commercial agent in a family-owned agency, I took it. After growing a diverse book of commercial business, I launched Spherient Advisors with two additional business partners. Together we provide a complete offering of health, retirement, and risk advisory products and services for our commercial and personal clients.
What opportunities do you see for agents and carriers to improve your customers’ experiences?
Creating greater transparency in customer interactions, from both agents and carriers, would help to improve the overall customer experience of our clients. Both parties want to create an excellent customer experience. However, keeping each other informed about insights and sentiment of the customer can be a challenge; this lack of communication could potentially damage the value proposition of an agency. As agents, we want the carrier to reaffirm our importance and include us in the conversation when communicating to the policyholder. The more we can use technology to drive efficiencies, the more important it is for us to have insights on the digital experiences that our clients are accessing.
How do you use technology and data to add value to your clients?
Technology enables me to become an advisor to their business, providing risk mitigation strategies that drive value. For instance, my alma mater, Selective Insurance, has a telematics program for commercial fleets called Selective Drive. Selective Drive provides a plug-in that connects to a car’s phone charger; the driver also downloads an app for their phone. The program offers geo-fencing as well as vehicle maintenance management, and it is very adept at measuring distracted driving. I can leverage the data and insights from programs like this to educate and advise my commercial clients on behavior and techniques to more effectively manage their risk and dollars.
As a young agent, how do you leverage your internal systems, like an agency management system?
We run one of the two leading agency management systems in the market, which I may reevaluate at some point. Currently, I am not using all the functionality that we are paying for. Our goal for investing in technology is to become more efficient in gathering data from our carriers so that we can be more effective in developing insights about our clients that help us grow the agency organically. Ultimately, we want to focus on building strong relationships with our clients, and when technology can help us demonstrate the impact of our efforts to educate and advise, it becomes a critical tool to our success.
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