In my role as Member Advocate at IIABNY I am tasked with developing the best method(s) of communicating with agents to keep them aware of things that may affect them as well as all that is available to them.
When it comes to communicating we get plenty of feedback. Agents tell us they are inundated with e-mails and what we send many times gets a very quick perusal or may even be deleted without being read. This is especially true at this time of the year when so many agents are heavily involved with placing January business. We could try going back to faxes and “snail mail” however that seems counterproductive and also has additional expense associated with it. Another school of thought is to post everything on our website and use it as a focal point for communication. In addition to what medium to use in communicating with agents we also struggle with how frequently we can communicate (send e-mails). Is daily too much? What about several times a day when there are several important items coming from different areas? If you use the website as the focus point do you rely on agents to check regularly for new postings or do you send them an e-mail (remember that’s what we are trying to avoid) telling them something new has been posted.
As you can see it is a significant problem without an easy solution. Admittedly we share this issue with every business or organization as well as the various Social Media platforms. The problem is there is a wealth of information circulating and it is all vying for agent’s attention.
For this very reason newspaper and magazine circulation is down or has gone electronic. Traditional book publishing is heading electronic as well. No wonder people’s e-mail inboxes are overflowing or that they choose to either delete everything or opt out of many communications. Everyone is feeling the effects of information overload!
In a past column I wrote about the unhealthy trend of agents not wanting to get involved politically and professionally. When you couple that with a serious problem of not being able to effectively communicate with agents you have a recipe for disaster.
Our business is a relationship business and most agents would agree with that. You have relationships with your carriers as well as your clients. It’s also important that agents have a relationship with their peers so they can discuss common problems and mobilize quickly when an issue arises. The inability to communicate important issues to agents as well as to rapidly gather their support on an issue puts us in a very risky situation. This is especially true now when so many regulators and legislators on both the state and federal fronts are looking to place significant controls on your business.
A solution is not easy and part of the issue lies in your name and who you are. As INDEPENDENT agents and brokers you decide how your business will run. For many that translates into limiting what communications are read and deciding not to interact with their peers at meetings and on issues. Unfortunately, when we operate this way we are easily defeated. When we operate from a position of strength, working as a group, we have much more clout and our voices and concerns are more likely to be heard and taken seriously.
Our goal is to help agents be successful in running their agency and provide them with some control over issues that impact them. That means determining an effective way to communicate information to agents as well as figuring out how to get (new) agency principals and staff working on issues, to get agents interacting with each other and to rally everybody when we need their support.
As I sit here in my office in Syracuse, sequestered away from the day to day issues you are experiencing, I don’t have the answer. That’s not surprising as the answer needs to come from you, the agent. So do me a favor, take a few minutes and share your ideas with me. Tell me what you think is the solution to these 2 interrelated issues. Send your answers to me at jdeapo@iiabny.org and I will share them with everyone in a future column. This is your chance to speak your mind and offer a solution to an industry problem, don’t pass it up!
