Insurance is something we all need and are most often required to have. I’ve known this to be true, from the time I bought my first car in high school, to the first job where I got promoted to a managing position and had to deal with worker’s comp claims. And although I’ve always known that insurance is needed, I had never really taken the time to think about it outside of a necessity. Mostly it appeared as a bunch of words on paper that I understood around 50 percent about. That all changed about a year ago.
In 2018 I had the opportunity to start a new career path in the Insurance realm, albeit as a marketing coordinator for an independent insurance agency. I had no real knowledge about the industry, outside of what I previously stated above. That being said, I was excited to jump in, meet new people, and start working towards beefing up the agency’s social media sites, website and marketing strategies. Here is what I wasn’t expecting to find along the way.
Independent insurance agents are not the insurance company! I always thought that both were the same entity. Now that may sound naïve, but the way I always looked at it, the agent worked for the company, thus they were the company. That simply isn’t the way it works. An independent agency’s agents are just brokers. They don’t work for one company in particular, they have a pool of companies they can choose from when helping you buy insurance. Which leads me to my next realization.
Independent agents are here to HELP YOU BUY insurance. They aren’t selling it to you. They are literally looking at your needs, comparing it with the companies in their pool, and finding the best options to suit those needs. When you take a step back and don’t look at it as them “selling” you coverage, but helping you “buy” coverage, it gives you a whole new perspective. They are no different than a financial advisor who would tell you where to place your money. They are going to help you place your insurance budget into the correct areas, or as I like to call them “buckets”, so that money is actually in that “bucket” when you need it. Now, you don’t have to take all their suggestions on where to place coverage, just as you don’t have to follow every piece of advice that your financial advisor gives you, but the information is still given to you so that you can make an informed decision. There is no online form that you walk through alone and at the end hope that you’ve checked every button needed and read all the fine print. You have a guided advisor the whole way through.
All of the above is extremely helpful on its own, but where these agents really shine and helped me see their value is when it comes to claims. There are so many different scenarios that can come into play when dealing with claims. Who is at fault, was the right coverage in place, this detail from the police report is a little ambiguous, etc. The agents I work with go to bat every day for our clients. They are on the phones non-stop with adjusters, underwriters, clients, other insurance companies, all just to make sure that your quality of life isn’t affected by a claim. They put in the work and the hours beforehand to make sure you have the right protections in place, and they ensure that those protections are there and seen through to the finish line when it comes to you filing a claim. It’s like having your own personal bodyguard making sure you don’t get hurt and looking around the corners for what might be coming your way next. It truly is amazing to see the care and attention to detail they show our clients every day. They love their jobs and helping people, and until working for an agency like this, I never really understood that part of it.
Independent Agents are here to help you buy insurance that will best protect your quality of life in the event of a claim. And, it’s not just The Dickerson Agency’s slogan, it’s their way of life.
Written by Matt Lutes