Crush Competition By Getting Personal, Agents Told

Mr. Candage is president of Portland, Maine-based H.E. Candage Inc., an insurance training and management consulting firm. The account of his remarks was provided by IIABA.

Mr. Candage argued that independent agents and brokers have an innate advantage over many larger companies because they can offer the personal service that their larger competitors cannot or will not offer.

The major players generally operate with a "transaction-based" service model, wherein systemic efficiency is often maintained at the expense of the "human touch," he said.

It is the personal relationship, Mr. Candage said, that wins the trust?and the business?of potential customers. Mr. Candage noted that to be successful, an agency or brokerage firm must excel in three broad areas:

? Understanding their culture and the cultures of their insurers.

? Knowing the skills necessary to provide excellent service.

? Managing behavior within their organization.

By establishing relationships of trust, he said, independent agencies and brokerage firms can learn what their customers expect and can behave to exceed customers' expectations. This understanding wins or retains the customers' business.

"Currently, the larger distribution entities, save a few, are cultures practicing transaction-based customer service rather than relationship-based customer service," Mr. Candage said.

"The message I'm trying to convey is that real customer service is based on building relationships. American consumers value relationships," said Mr. Candage

To illustrate his point about what customers expect, Mr. Candage pointed to two large companies that he said have grasped the concept of the importance of personal relationships between agents and customers.

"What are the No. 1 and No. 2 distributors of personal insurance products? State Farm and Allstate," Mr. Candage said. "They do it through an agent in every town. That's what people want?personal relationships."

Mr. Candage said he has heard from many consumers that they will leave a larger company that provides more impersonal service, because their individual needs are not met. They often have a sense, he said, that the larger company will not "be there for them" in times of trouble.

The reason that one-on-one personal relationships work, Mr. Candage said, is because it places the customer's individual service needs ahead of a process. Larger companies that rely on process often must resort to a "one-size-fits-all" method of dealing with customers. Independent agencies and brokerage firms can overcome their competition by providing greater flexibility.

"You have to develop in your employees a way of thinking about managing customers' expectations, rather than a lockstep process," Mr. Candage advised.

Founded in 1896, the Big "I" is the nation's oldest and largest national association of independent insurance agents and brokers, representing a network of more than 300,000 agents, brokers and their employees nationally.