Independent insurance agents in four states, when asked to rankcarriers' performance for a survey, gave low marks to those withtechnology difficulties and had high praise for carriers who werehelpful and accessible.

The Professional Insurance Agents of Connecticut, New Hampshire,New Jersey and New York State, who polled their membership, said itwas the second year in a row that the Mayfield Village, Ohio-basedauto insurer Progressive has scored in the top rank among the fourstates.

Glenmont, N.Y.-based PIA said the Company Performance Surveysshowed The Hartford, OneBeacon and Travelers scored in the top 10in three of the state surveys for the second year running.

A total of 1,094 agents, with 556 participants in New YorkState, provided responses, with each scoring an average of fivecompanies in this year's survey.

PIA's New Hampshire unit, based on its poll, awarded honors lastmonth to the Andover Cos., Acadia/W.R. Berkley, MMG Insurance, Mt.Washington Assurance Corp., Peerless and Progressive during itsJoint Education Conference.

It is the fourth year for the PIANJ survey, the sixth for PIANY,and the seventh for PIACT.

PIA said each survey used the same methodology but includeddifferent national and regional carriers depending on their marketpresence and agency representation in each state.

The trade organization noted that agents in the survey werequick to congratulate companies for technology improvements, buttheir comments also revealed the competitive costs for companiesthat fail to keep up.

While companies' Web sites remain important, agents also havebegun to compare companies on their real-time functionality–or lackthereof.

A Connecticut agent said about one company: “Technology must beimproved. Real-time Web-based rating and endorsement processing[are] needed to compete with other carriers.”

Describing a high-scoring carrier, a New Jersey agent said, “Ifthey would start using real-time, they would be the perfectcompany.” Another reported comment from New Jersey, about anational carrier: “Their new platform for real-time is outdated andclumsy.”

PIA said comments from New York agents made clear that theirbusiness decisions rest on ease of interaction with companies'technology.

One survey critique of a national insurer said, “Need better Website. Too difficult to use–causing us to not write business withthem,” PIA related. And another said of a New York domesticcarrier, “Advanced automation capability would allow us to writemore business.”

PIA said there was an evident trend among the top scoring firmsconcerning the “treatment of agents” category dealing with itemssuch as support for the independent agency system, compensation andcommunication.

Mt. Washington Assurance, in Concord, N.H., according to oneagent surveyed, is “always available and able to answerquestions.”

Lawrenceville, N.J.-based ARI Companies provides “unmatchedaccess to my underwriter and management,” said one respondent.

New York Central Mutual Fire Insurance Company is “alwayswilling and always able to get someone on the phone to help you atall times,” according to an agent.

At Dryden Mutual of Dryden, N.Y., the “staff is very helpful andfriendly,” it was noted.

PIA said the comments indicated that a preference for goodtechnology to speed business transactions does not imply agents arewilling to forego personal relationships and accessibility at theircarriers.

Independent agency personnel were asked to rate carriers on 16performance items in areas including product and pricing, treatmentof agents, marketing support, technology, claims handling, serviceand underwriting.

Respondents were asked to provide separate ratings for personaland commercial lines in some cases where a company operates them asdistinct business units. The survey was conducted earlier this yearvia the associations' Web sites as well as fax-back surveyforms.

The top 10 scorers in Connecticut include: AIG Agency Auto; TheHartford (commercial); The Hanover Group (personal); Chubb(personal); OneBeacon (commercial); OneBeacon (personal); Travelers(commercial); Travelers (personal); Peerless (commercial); andProgressive.

New Hampshire's top 10: MMG; Mt. Washington; Peerless/LibertyMutual; Harleysville; Acardia/W.R. Berkeley; Concord Group;OneBeacon; Progressive; Commerce Group; and Chubb.

New Jersey's top 10: ARI; The Hartford; Travelers/NJ;Progressive; IFA Insurance Co.; Great American; New JerseySkylands; Chubb (personal); Palisades; and Norfolk &Dedham/Fitchburg.

New York's top 10: Selective; New York Central Mutual; Travelers(personal); The Hartford (commercial); Travelers (commercial);Progressive; Preferred Mutual; MetLife Auto & Home; NGM/MainStreet (commercial); and Sterling.

Each company received a private, full report on its individualresults and the June editions of the associations' PIA magazinecontain complete results of the surveys, including representativecomments by the companies' agents.

Results of each of the surveys are online atwww.pia.org/GIA/cps/.