Your Local Agent Matters!

•                    
•                     LOCAL AGENT


•                     ONLINE AGENT


•                     CALL CENTER

                     

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I have people ask  me about this all the time. "Do I really need a local agent when I can go online at 2 a.m. in my jammies to buy my insurance? It is all the same anyway...."

Oh, hold on sister!  It is not all the same and the first instance you will find out is at claim time! When you are stuck on the side of the road because you didn't understand that you should have gotten Roadside Assistance or that no, you actually declined Towing when you were choosing your coverage online. PIP?  I don't know what that means, so I must not need it. Or maybe you didn't know you had to list ALL the drivers that work for you and drive your business vehicles. 

Or when you go to the Dealership "just to look" and then drive off the lot 2 hours later and assume the dealership will call us. They don't.  We see you at in the pick up line at school or the grocery store and say "oh, you got a new car - I love it!" then check we get back to the office to see if you have called in to update your auto policy. Nope... different carriers give you different amounts of time to get the  new vehicle added to your policy. 

We see you get new toys on social media and then we call you to see if they are ready to add it to their policy!  How do we know that?  Because being in the community is all about relationships! When we have a relationship, you are excited to call and tell me about that new car or we see on social media that your teenage boy just got his Drivers license! 

I get that it is appealing after watching the late show to just jump online to check insurance because you saw a commercial.... just to look and then before you know it, you have a new policy but not sure what coverage you have on your home or vehicle.

Call Centers do not care. They aren't your neighbors and you won't run into them at the store or church. Does that make them bad? Of course not, but if a relationship is important, then that may not be a good option for you.

What about Self-Servicing your policy? We do have some people that will go online to add or delete a vehicle. The issue with that is that you may or may not have chosen the correct coverage. For example, if you currently have Liabiltiy only on your old car and then go purchase a new car and then just switch out vehicles, you could end up with Liabiltiy only on your brand new car!  Not ideal!  Also, when you self service, we as your agent, are not always aware of what you did and then when you call us, we do not have any notes or documentation in our management system showing what you did.

The last few years have taught many hard lessons in insurance and here in Texas, we had lots of lessons.  Policies getting Non-Renewed through no fault of the insured. The carriers have changed their guidelines and unfortunately, policyholders were caught unaware.  People moving in from out of state had no idea of what the Texas home insurance market looked like and were just shellshocked with the restrictions, deductibles and premiums.  With us being in the Dallas / Fort Worth Metroplex, we were hit even harder along with the Houston area.  Call Centers, agents in other parts of the country that are licensed to write here don't know that. They don't know that it hailed golfball size hail this past weekend in certain parts of the Metroplex.  Local agents do.

Between coverage gaps, lack of personal relationships and not feeling like the agent is looking out for you, maybe it is time to talk to your local agent. Take back your insurance and let us have the opportunity to walk you through the process, educate and explain what you  have vs what you need.   We do have your back and want you to understand your coverage for your personal and your commercial insurance!

And I will see you at the grocery store!