Marketing Our Agency
Marketing for our Athena Insurance and Financial Services is a vital part of keeping up with the competition. Today more than every Big Business is looking for a way to cut out the wise and experienced insurance agents and “outsource” the sales and services to other locations and facilities. The transition has been slow and not so evident to consumers as the generations transcend from older consumers to the younger ones.
It will be up to the Parents of ole to tell the stories of how good of an agent they have and to adhere to what customer service ‘should’ be and let not they way of “them” take the good agents away and replace them with computer programs and less than adequate personalized “people to people” relationships. Do not let them think that an iphone is a relationship, texting the only means of communication and that script handwriting is old school. Take hold … take heed.
Where will your insurance customer service call go?
At the heart of our services is the constant ability to talk to your dedicated insurance agent and broker or your customer service representative. Athena Insurance and Financial Services knows nearly every single customer by voice or by name. We are not a large organization we are a personalized agency.
Next, many United Stated Customer Call centers are outsourcing customer service calls to other Countries. This means in many respects a “difficulty” in understanding language accents and Americanized slang terms. We here it all the time from customers that have had similar experiences.
No one to take ownership of your problem. We have had clients complain of services from other companies where they never get to talk to the same person more than once.
At Athena Insurance and Financial Services when you feel lost in getting an answer to your questions you can ask for the founder and broker Steve Valencia. There are some exceptions when Steve will refer you back to a billing department to reconcile your payment with the billing but he will still talk to you if the problem is not solved an look into the matter personally or assign your case to his “right-hand” Customer Service Representative to assist. He is here for you. Just read some of the personal testimonies of others.
Furthermore, many are competing directly against the very Agents they appoint
Since 1980’s the Insurance Companies have done everything under the sun to get rid of your experienced agents and agencies. Here are some examples: The have cut commission on many of the home and auto policies to “half” of what they used to be. During this same time customer still want the time it takes to have complete reviews on a regular basis.
Direct writers. Many companies have opened their own direct writing call centers and online shops to sell insurance directly thus bypassing your personal agent all together. And then their are the banks.
As Banks push to sell you insurance we have had experiences where client have “paid” twice the price for similar insurance because they felt their load would have been denied! That is just about extortion like. But, the same borrow who wanted the loan would not file a complaint. After all a Bank can call your loan at any time? Is this correct!
Google. Can you imagine a “Jetsons” type of scenario where a drone hovers around your home. Your home pictures and plastered on google maps (maps.google.com) and price quotes come directly by email or text on your mobile device. And, here is the sad part. They can probably do it cheaper that most direct writers in my estimation. Just an opinion. But when people shift to the lower price and then run in to trouble or need an insurance expert… where will he be? And when you no longer get the counseling you need.. it will be the fault of those people that sold their agents down the river for a buck. Kind of like what has happened to many American jobs right?
Insurance Carriers are also raising the bar and cutting agent forces
Since my jot in the insurance industry we have seen the traditional agency system begin to disappear. Agencies like Allstate and Farmers no longer operate the way they used to in the 80’s. Many large insurance companies have cut their sales forces by the thousands. What is their game plan? To invest in companies like Google? To partner or purchase banks and “make you an offer you cannot refuse?” Buyer be wise. Express your opinions about have a personal agent before it’s too late and let the Geicos and eInsurances of the world dwindle. After all the customer is still king and queen. At least until all the experienced agents are gone the way of the Samurai.
If the consumer can save money then what is the concern?
Knowledge and experience of the lack thereof. That is the concern. I can provide you with example after example of where citizens have been put at risk due the inexperience of customer service representatives that do not know both personal lines and commercial lines. I will provide you with some examples and them point you to some “tests” that you can try to verify my facts.
Vehicle use with contractors and other similar types of tradesmen. I have quite frequently come across people that have personal lines insurance but really are walking a tight rope on having coverage when there is a claim. It is up to you to read your policy! YOU! The policy is not the DECLARATIONS page. The policy is a multi-paged booklet that is the contract that you and the insurance carrier are held to in a court of law. Now, I invite all of to call your company and ask them for a policy duplicated if you do not already have. Once you receive it look at the index page. I want you to go to the “exclusions” page and start reading. As a contractor, if you are not getting queezy in the stomach, you should begin to understand how “not insured” you really are.
Next, as contractors you are quite familiar with the term “Additional Insured.” I want you to pick up the phone and say… ” I am working for another contractor and he requires that I add him on as an “Additional Insured.” Is there a fee for this and can you do it? Ok.. wait for it! Wait for it! In most instances this is where this daunting feeling comes across that you have been in harms way for many years and no one.. ever explained this to you. Did they?
When you only have a computer prompt to provide you with “help pop-ups” what will you do?
Just like phone prompts that cannot provide you with the answers you need what are you going to do when all you have is a “help-popup” that provides you with a brief description of what the question that you are answering means. You “see” “your” applications are what a claim adjuster and the insurance company will be looking at when you claim is settled or denied. If consumers along with insurance companies continue to cut corners on service and buy direct or through e-insurance types of centers the agencies and your agents with experience will become a rare commodity.
Make the Wise choice and have peace of mind
Currently the price differences between choosing a broker and going to an e-insurance type of outlet are very slim. But the percentage of people that are buying to just save a few dollars are growing.
Our Marketing Strategies with Radio, Post Cards, Referrals, Internet and more
How do we plan on staying in business with all this competition? Good question. Glad you asked.
First, we provide the personalized service that many others do not. And, as insurance brokers we do not charge brokers fees on any of our Directly appointed carriers that offer direct billing. We do charge broker fees on Agency bill service accounts. If we do charge a broker fee we fully disclose this to you in writing.
Internet Marketing
AthenaInsurance.com
Athena Insurance and Financial Services main site. This is the Mother ship of sites if you will. This is where we post news and create the pages and form for your prospects and clients to use for quotes, information and more. This site also provides links to other sites that focus on a particular sector of insurance needs. “Specialized sites” such as California Farm Insurance.
CaliforniaFarmInsurance.com
California Farmers and Ranchers know when they come to this site that it is almost all about their particular needs. It’s interesting how many search engines will allow the sales and placement of ads or the purchase of keywords without even checking to see if the Advertiser offers that product! Silly right? For example take Google.com. Type in the keywords California Farm Insurance and view the results. Now, depending on where you are physically located your results may vary.
Pay careful attention to the “paid” advertisers and the non-paid advertisers. Pick up the phone or click on the links and see if any of those paid advertisers even offer farm and ranch insurance quotes. Hmmm . Drop me a line. I would like to know what your experience is like. You would think that a company that has a name like.. well that indicates they insure farmers would really insure what? Farmers! lol
USfarmInsurance.com
S Valencia International is a privately held proprietorship under which the broker promotes business directly sites that specialize in certain services. USFarmInsuranc.com is one such site. The broker for Athena Insurance and Financial Services came up with this directory site to allow those insurance agents that do offer farm and ranch insurance products to subscribe and together we can get to the top of the search engine lists and display to the public the kinds of farm products and services that we offer.
WhatsHappeningToday.com
WhatsHappeningToday.com is a social networking site where people who hold events can link event happenings to their business listing for less than 17 cents per day. (based upon 05/05/2016 date pricing) The site is gaining great visibility and has the potential to become one of best used site on the planet. WhatsHappeningToday.com is using a vast approach to marketing including radio, post cards, face-to-face sales presentations, Facebook, Twitter, Google plus, Banner placements, billboard advertising and direct mail.
From this site Athena Insurance and Financial Services will offer it’s insurance services such as Winery Insurance, Farm, Tavern, Restaurant, Lodge & Resort packages and more. This method of advertising will expand the reach of Athena Insurance and Financial Services footprint into may States within the United States, Mexico and Canada.
WhatsHappeningTonight.com
Similar to WhatsHappeningToday.com .. WhatsHappeningTonight.com will become a vital platform from which to promote our valued insurance services.
AmericanContractorExchange.com
Look out Angies list here we come! Athena Insurance and Financial Services has been writing insurance for the construction industry. We love contractors! We have the insurance markets to provide them with the prices and services they need. But for years we struggled, like most, with the limitation of budget and placement of our ads. AmericanContractorExchange.com is our answer to the problem. By the end of 2017 we should have an entire database of almost all United States Contractors, Material Suppliers and more.
From this site Athena Insurance and Financial Services will be able to advertise it’s products and services into several States.
EverythingAgricultural.com
EverythingAgricultural.com will become a blog farm and muti-site social network for the Agricultural industry. Consumers will be able to create their own web sites and blogs. From this site we will advertise our Farm and Ranch insurance products and more.
Marketing for Athena Insurance and Financial Services is a challenge as is staying in the competition against the very businesses we utilize. I pray that the wise citizens of our Country will see the value of wise and ethical insurance agents and not pass them by for few dollars adding to the dissolution of wise and caring agents to the e-insurances of the World.
Only time will tell.. will you make the “Wise choice and have Peace of mind?
Kind regards,