Keeping Insurance Interesting

Odds are if you are reading this, and aren’t my wife, you are in or at least somewhat related to the insurance world.  This means that you know how exhilarating and exciting our daily routines can be. Okay, okay, I kid. Insurance has a stigma of being a boring, greedy, and dull world.  I would completely disagree! Just like any other career, it could become monotonous if you let it. But like many things in life, it’s what you make of it and how you approach it. 

I’m good at keeping things interesting and making sure that my daily job always keeps me on my toes, but that is only part of my daily battle.  Another part of my job is keeping other people, mainly insurance agents, excited about insurance, especially when working with J.M. Wilson!  

There are many ways in which companies can keep things fun for both employees and customers, and make sure that you are keeping their attention.  Sometimes it can be a little more challenging in the insurance world. Especially in the Excess and Surplus lines business, our competition as a Managing General Agent is very similar to us. For the most part, we all offer the same lines of insurance, offer our customers access to essentially the same carriers as other MGA’s, and we all provide you with the best possible service and turn around your quotes in 10-20 minutes…. Or try to.

Standing out to our independent insurance agents is something we are always discussing, and trying to come up with more unique ideas to achieve.  We really do strive to go the extra mile, whether that is being out on the road seeing a newly appointed agent as soon as possible or keeping in touch with current agents as often as possible; an underwriter staying late and doing whatever they can to impress an agent by helping them bind a policy that is important to us both; or making sure we are always reinforcing to our agents how much we appreciate them!  There is an article I read from “The People Development Network”, on different ways businesses should try and develop their employees.  One point it makes is about going the extra mile, which I have found to be very true in insurance.  The article says that going the extra mile, “Attracts great energy back to you, what you give out, you get back. Newton said, “for every action, there is always an equal and opposite reaction”. This just goes to show that helping out an agent won’t go unnoticed and will benefit you in the long run!

Being visible is another way we stand out and do what we can to have fun with our agents.  We try to attend as many agency and industry conventions as possible. We will be there shaking hands, having conversations (Not strictly about insurance), sponsoring the Happy Hour, and always giving away an appreciation gift to one of the agents in attendance.  We attend open houses that agencies have for new buildings and office spaces, which is always fun! Whenever we are hiring a new underwriter, we will be sending out information on social media introducing them, and doing whatever we can to make them visible to any agents they might work with going forward.  Whether it’s a day of golf, going to a sporting event, or going to dinner and a happy hour. We will always celebrate our agents personally and show our appreciation to them!

Staying up to date with technology and trends is a great way to keep the attention of our agents.  We have specialized underwriters for certain hot trends in insurance like cyber or marijuana risks.  Technology is something that we are always striving to further ourselves in, so that we are as up to date as possible, and making sure we are doing what we can to provide the most efficient service possible to our agents.  Another reason that technology is important, is because a good portion of insurance is getting younger, and the younger people in the industry are going to want to work with companies that are moving forward with the changing tech and trends.  

This leads to my last point of standing out in insurance, I feel at JM Wilson we do a great job of continually getting younger with the hiring of risk management college students taking part in internships and eventually graduating and becoming full-time employees at JM Wilson Corporation!