How did you get into insurance?
I was a student-athlete while at college. Unfortunately, I suffered an injury where I lost my athletic scholarship. I took a job at a local pet store and found I enjoyed being a resource to animal lovers. I became involved in various areas of the business, including managing the store’s operations as well as earning a certificate in animal nutrition. I felt good about being able to guide people’s decisions and helping them protect the health of their pets.
After several years, I was looking for a new challenge, so I applied to be an agent at Rick Gerety + Associates. Rick Gerety + Associates is a local, community-based agency with a culture that emphasizes the importance of strong relationships with our clients and our community.
After being hired, I was excited to bring the curiosity I demonstrated while serving pets and their owners to the insurance industry. My role was to complement our existing culture as well as build out modern techniques for outreach and community engagement (e.g., social media and digital marketing).
As an agent, I serve a wide variety of clients. I am particularly keen on helping individuals with their car collections (a personal interest of mine) and pet insurance, an area where I have expertise.
How do you engage with your existing and prospective clients?
As an agency, we communicate through a wide variety of channels; before the pandemic, we would primarily look for ways to get involved in-person locally. In-person meetings and events were great ways to reconnect with current clients, meet new people, and build a strong sense of local community involvement.
During COVID, it has been a challenge to find ways to gather safely, so we began to focus heavily on communication to our insureds through physical mailers and postcards as well as expanding our use of social media.
Social media is a great tool to keep up with your client network’s life changes and touch base with those people when the time is appropriate. It’s all those little, personalized touches that keep us relevant to our clients’ lives. We firmly believe that our relationships with our clients need to be organic and personal if they are to succeed. If we are not invested in our clients’ lives, and we don’t see them as unique individuals, they have no reason to be invested with us as their independent agency.
How do you use technology in your day-to-day?
Our agency uses an AMS to manage our internal data, including client contacts. Our AMS supports download and upload capabilities to insurer systems. We can store notes about the client, which improves the level of service we can offer. Our system also has modules for digital marketing, which supports drip marketing and automated messages.
As much as we try to avoid client turnover, some clients may choose to leave our agency. We record why they are leaving and where we can improve. Our system reminds us to follow up with the former client to try to earn back their business.
What advice do you have for agents just entering the industry?
I often think of Vince Lombardi’s quote, “Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence.” There are three things I would recommend for a new agent: Commit to being an agent, build your knowledge base, and be realistic with your goals.
It is critical to get started and dedicate hours to your pursuit. I sometimes hear how folks begin part time—that can be an uphill battle. Finding success in this industry requires commitment and long-term planning. I try to focus my work 2-3 weeks out so that I can make time when I have an opportunity to meet with a prospect or service a client.
Insurance material can be complicated. It should be every agent’s goal to communicate in simple, easy-to-understand language. Agents need to understand what they are writing. If you don’t understand the technical aspects of insurance, you will write a bad policy. If you do that too often, the industry is not for you.
Aim for perfection but set realistic goals. It takes years to build a strong, high-quality book of business. It is going to take a lot of time and hard work to get there. Set high expectations and always aim for perfection for yourself and clients; it will help drive your business in the right direction quickly. New agents should also understand that you won’t write everyone you quote, no matter how great your service or your product is. Heck, you’ll even lose some of those clients along the way, but remember to be empathetic and human to your clients, especially when they leave. You don’t know what is happening in their lives, and the better terms you leave on, the better that conversation goes when you try to get them back.
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