NU's Mark E. Ruquet reported recently on a J.D. Power and Associates survey about overall satisfaction among auto-insurance consumers. The good news was that consumer satisfaction was the highest since J.D. Power began the service in 2000. The bad news, for some of us, is that interaction with an agent fell to the fourth position of importance. Auto-insurance customers ranked policy offerings as the most important. Other attributes that were high in the ranks were price, billing and payment, and claims service.

The J.D. Power research director said that the growth of more robust websites that can complete more complicated processes makes human interaction less important. But what about human intervention when problems arise? Do agents become more important then?

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In the last few years, after a few brushes with speeding tickets that of course were bogus, my belief in the importance of agents was brought to the test. My auto-insurance premium skyrocketed, and I felt lucky to have a good independent agent who began to look for options without my even having to ask. She further took it upon herself to broaden my coverage not only on my auto insurance but also on my homeowners'. And she did all of that at a price that was acceptable.

That agent is very important, and I would rank her as the most important element to me.