The last time I filed a claim I called the insurer, and I wouldn't be surprised if you did, too. Or if you're part of the younger, tech-savvy Gen Y, you probably visited the insurer's website, which now accounts for nearly one-fourth of an insurer's interactions with policyholders.

Despite the growing popularity of this channel, however, local agents and brokers remain the key drivers of overall policyholder satisfaction.

Agents and brokers play a vital role in creating the meaningful connections that increase policyholder retention, reduce expensive calls to customer service and boost referral and renewal rates among existing policyholders. And between the increased Web usage by baby boomers and the proliferation of smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices among users of all generations, customers increasingly desire personalized communications including quotes and proposals, policies and policyholder notifications via the web, SMS, mobile apps and email.