Allstate is losing agents AND customers left and right and the leadership is doing absolutely nothing to stop either of those exoduses. Soon there'll be nobody left to do the work but then again, there'll be no customers left either. I can't figure out what's the end goal here but it can't be any type of turnaround, not with the current strategy.
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Agents are a thing of the past when direct is the way to go. People want to be able to call anytime or buy insurance online, not wait for an agents office to be open only during certain hours.
Allstate just missed the ball on that entirely
There are 50,000 independent agencies selling Allstate now vs 7500 exclusive agents.
The writing is on the wall that Allstate is for sale
I don't know how they are losing customers when they are beating other carriers rates left and right. My brother was with progressive until last month when he switched to Allstate, significant savings between home and auto, 2 years ago when he looked there was no savings.
@1lhy+1ewsWpnu 50% is far less than last year, 5 years ago, 10 years ago, etc. It's a dying business model and good riddance!
@dea+1ewsWpnu I don’t understand when you are saying disappearing (with respect of course). Every GEICO sign or flyer you see says “LOCAL AGENT” which are captive agents. Progressive writes almost 50% of their auto business through agents and more than that in their home products which wasn’t always the case and has grown that business quickly. Progressive has even piloted EAs as well. Price is king followed by service/advice. Allstate likes EAs because they are less dependent on price to sell and will put up with bad technology because they don’t have a choice which means they have price flexibility (profitability) which is also their downfall because they struggle to sell in other distribution channels. When you are paying agents 9% renewals (or a future 7%) and the business has a 10-12% better loss ratio and 2-3 year longer life span it is superior deal for Allstate than direct financially. I didn’t even mention the other expenses related to a call center which would eat at those margins. I am not making the case that Allstate shouldn’t play in the direct channel but I am saying that the products, technology, and leadership are broken. The EAs make for a great scape goat but aren’t the problem.
@yay+1ewsWpnu you say current, but that is days that is probably a decade or longer old. If there were that much of an advantage to the agent model, you wouldn't see it literally disappearing from every major competitor.
I do agree with the judging leadership based on pricing sophistication and technology. That is what will allow Allstate to compete with other companies on a more level playing field, regardless of whether direct or through an agent.
Don't forget about all the employees we're losing, and I mean turnover not layoffs. I'm in the Law Dept and just this week we got two more announcements of executives leaving the company, and we've had several resignations come in from Staff Counsel. And it's only Tuesday of the week between Christmas and New Year's, which is usually very quiet.
There is something you need to understand about the CURRENT insurance market. “High Value” customers want an agent and “Low Value” customers could care less either way. It doesn’t mean this statement correlates perfectly as customers blend into these categories. The truth is that the EA channel, especially without a costly new agent program, is an absolute cash cow for the company. Right now, they are supplementing the direct channel with the EA channel otherwise they would just create a new company called “Allstate direct” just like progressive and be forced to acknowledge the high claims/service cost of our current direct model along with a low value market. Many of you that are eager to rid the agent model don’t understand different “value” of customer that these channels bring and the cost associated. I think over time this will change but at a much slower rate than you realize and not to the level that you would expect. The only way that Allstate grows is pricing sophistication and well executed technology advancements. The leadership team should be judged on both of these categories as they are a part of the TG plan. If they cannot start to execute on these items well within the next few years new leadership is needed.
They aren’t telling anyone besides those in the inner circle what the real plan is. Could it be they want market share of the India drivers ? Start insuring them ? That’s about all that will be left. USA drivers don’t want Allstate. The times have changed.
Losing agents BY DESIGN and headed to a Direct model. But, as usual, Allstate is super late to the game. The clown car show of Tommy and Glen continues, painful to watch, more painful to endure.
I think it's only a matter of time before agents are kicked to the curb. It's an expensive business model that makes it impossible to compete with direct sales predominant carriers.