In 2017, NU forged an alliance with the National Association ofProfessional Insurance Agents (PIA) and Flaspöhler |NMG to conduct the inaugural Independent Agent Study — aresearch project designed to annually take the pulse of independentProperty & Casualty insurance agents throughout the U.S. andprovide revealing insight into the demographics, books of businessand challenges they face, and reveal their most highly ratedcarrier partners.

Today, we look at the findings around how respondents rate theirlevel of satisfaction with their commercial P&C carrierpartners, and the various criteria by which producers perceive thequality of those commercial carriers.

When asked what indications of quality they value most in acommercial P&C carrier, 64.3% of our study respondents said“ease of doing business,” which was the No. 1 response. That wasfollowed by “fair, timely claims handling” (46.1%) and “strong,knowledgeable underwriting” (38.7%) “superior customer service”(37.4%) and “consistent underwriting” (36.5%).

What do those numbers reveal? That independent agents want toserve their clients quickly, effectively and with minimum agony.Carriers would do well to consider in their own workflows what canbe done to better facilitate meeting those goals.

When asked to rate their overall level of satisfaction with thecommercial carriers they use, 36.8% of respondents said they were“very satisfied” while 52.5% said they were “somewhat satisfied.”While only a small percentage openly said they were unsatisfied,that “somewhat satisfied” segment warrants further listening bycarriers. Food for thought: What can be done on both sides toimprove those relationships?

Flaspöhler has long conducted its own larger annual study ofagents (the Flaspöhler | NMG Producer Study) on behalf of keyP&C carriers, which use the results to help them best meetagent needs. The data included in the study featured in NU and onPropertyCasualty360.com this month are extracted from Flaspöhler'slarger research study (upward of 300 pages), which the firm makesavailable to rated P&C commercial lines carriers. (Contact[email protected]for more information.)

Stay tuned to PropertyCasualty360.com throughout the month as weshare the findings of this in-depth study of America's independentagents.