You Know It's Time To Switch Agencies When This Happens

It’s not usual that you wake up one day with an immediate urge to change agents/agencies unless;

• It’s (suddenly) an ex-spouse.
• It’s (suddenly) an ex-girlfriend/boyfriend.
• The agency has gone bust.
• The agent has left our world.
  
  The Best Time To Fire Someone Is When The Thought First Crosses Your Mind

But apart from the reasons above, you’ll know when to switch agencies/agents when the thought crosses your mind.

The reality is that insurance is considered a product. You need that reliability to ensure you get the support for claims, endorsements, and professional services when you need them most. Can you imagine not getting the support you need? Or worse, finding out the insurance does not cover you for that incident.

Inaccurate Insurance Advise

Other reasons to switch include incidents when advice given may have been inaccurate, which admittedly happens sometimes. It’s no secret that insurance is complicated. It’s not possible to know every darn thing under the sun. I can assure you that even the HODs and department VPs from the insurance providers themselves will sometimes need to cross-check with another department before they can answer your queries.

Having said that, insurance professionals have the responsibility to cross-check the facts and revert to the client if the information given is inaccurate. There are times when you need to own up. And this is one of those times.

Insurance Service Quality

Another is when the service provided is just plain slow. Or worse, it’s non-existent.

But there’s a difference here between slow and non-existent. Slow can be a result of bureaucracy and inefficiencies in the system. But at least you still get an update from the agency on the status of developments.

Non-existent is when your query just goes unanswered. And it stops there. That’s painful.

Working Relationship

That happens too. When you just can’t strike a good working relationship with the agency. There is nothing wrong with either of you. You are just polar opposites. In this case, it is not a bad idea to request for the agency to assign someone else to you. 

That Passive-Aggressive Feeling

If you get that feeling that there is some resistance to assist and support you. It’s time to consider moving.

We’ve All Been Through This At One Point

If any of the above relates to you, don’t overthink. It happens. Make a switch and move on. We’ve had times when we had to switch doctors, lawyers, accountants, bosses, employees. The list goes on. We don’t gripe about it. We don’t cry about it. Start over.

Fun Story - The One We Didn't Accept

Insurance agencies also have a nose for sniffing out bad accounts. We had a person call in to enquire about auto insurance renewal. After some fact-finding, we picked up that his current portfolio was handled by his nephew. He somehow eagerly wanted to switch (1st red flag).

Why would he not want to continue with a relative? That’s when things become opaque and when asked, he briefly mentioned that ‘something happened’ (2nd red flag).

So we provided him with an estimate anyway as a reference and advised him to head to any insurance outlet to renew. Too many red flags. Too many unanswered questions.

Our friend gets upset and makes multiple calls to insist we (the agency) take up his auto insurance renewal. We left it as that.

Next thing you know, he calls up the insurer and makes a complaint that we refused to accept his business (3rd red flag).

It’s a strange world we live in. 

Would you accept the business?