What’s happening to those employees? In the short run, WFH. But after that?
29 replies (most recent on top)
Employees would love that. Hardly working now with a possibility of further decline.
wFH should stay forever. If the farm
Was really concerned about cutting cost keep employees at home , it a huge savings from an operational standpoint , safety and Employee well-being and saving hundreds each month in transportation costs let alone dealing with traffic. Oh, did I mention no more van pool.
@csck just another agent that keeps forgetting that GEICO is kicking our a– year in and year out with no agents.
As it should be, without the agency force SF would have ceased to exist long ago, at least any semblance of what it currently is.
I love how this became a conversation about agency and their contracts instead 🙄.
And while you are at it take a basic business course and maybe consider adjusting you expenses to work with your income level, you wanted to run your own show right? Then do it.
Maybe you should pull out the 97 contract in your credenza drawer and read thru it. I swear it’s like teaching 3rd grade here,
My homework has been looking at every pay statement for a few decades. When office expenses are 6.5 to 7.0%, and assigned commission is 7%. Or CCC written is 3% and you spend 10% fixing their mistakes. Well, you do the homework.
Initially yes, but not much less (2%) after 10 years the commission schedule is the same. Do some homework.
@3gks....agents have always been paid better for personally produced business than for assigned business. Always.
@axhf....MF reintroduction was a disaster. Simple transactions that used to take 5 minutes suddenly took multiple, hours long phone calls and would take weeks to finally clear. They would be done wrong and have to be fixed. About a third of my formerly happy MF customers just transferred their new Blackrock Funds elsewhere. Every company deals with Blackrock so it was easy. Much easier than ha doing a simple transaction with RBC. When agents realized they couldn’t even get things done for themselves or family, it was over. Nobody wants to have angry customers, way below industry pay, and serious complaints to handle.
And then there was new licensing and legal requirements. A low percentage of our customers were interested, so volume is low. This stuff is important. It’s not something that can be competently done on a very part time basis, when you’re frantically dealing with the other stuff that the customers do want.
Many of us would be very happy to do MF, as a main business, for reasonably competitive pay, and with systems that work. But that’s not what we have. State Farm should look into specializing agents for that, and it might be a good business for everybody.
So we have aprox 9000 registers reps , dropping daily. When will agency mandate this and will they rape the acts that the agent produced? I see a lot of issues with agencies that remain p/c only vs reg rep office that steps in and takes it all away.
About half of Agency 2000 agents are still on board. I’m one. It was a different kind of approach, and I’m glad they tried it because it gave me an opportunity to start out for myself. I didn’t have a lot of money but I knew how insurance worked and I knew how State Farm worked. It was still really hard, but it worked out OK for me. Those left are actually nearing retirement now.
At that time, the focus was not on external growth. Quite the opposite. TC decided it didn’t work and moved on. For many of us who are left it’s been a difficult adjustment. Still a good living, but they now want us to do something that is genuinely NOT what we were hired for, and not what we were suited to.
And.....and this one really bugs me. Nobody ever had an obligation to call you three times every month to pay your bill. Name ANY other company that does that. Don’t pay the electric bill- they just turn off your power. That’s a huge expense that agents have voluntarily borne forever. But the way they are paid now, they are looking to minimize expenses too. One of the best ways is to stop spending $8/month calling a customer for payment, in order to make the $5/month commission.
No. You’re wrong. You’re the type of customer that when we call for a coverage review, you say “I’m good. I’m all set”. Then when you have a claim and you have no umbrella, or no jewelry coverage or no water backup coverage etc etc you claim “no one told me”
Wrong, I have had one hail claim and one single car collision in 40 years, never hit another car on the road. I am State Farm’s dream customer. It would be nice if my agent would call me once in awhile to see if I’m still alive or is it just my automatic payments of premiums coming in. Since I went to auto pay I have spared him from that burden of having his secretary call to remind me.
Be grateful they do contact you when your bills are past due. People like you are the first to blame their agent and everybody else but themselves when they cause a wreck, and then have no coverage any longer because they didn't pay their insurance premium. Just sayin'.
As far as agents go once they snag your business that’s the last you hear from them. If you have a claim it’s routed to a call center. I have been a State Farm customer for 40 years and have had only two agents and they probably have contacted me 3 times in the 40 year span, unless a bill was past due of course.
To the poster who views gainco as competition for agents. SF bought them because they insure a market SF won’t tough, non-standard auto. It’s not competition, it’s a way to expand into a market we don’t operate in. Same with hi road, they are non-relational frequent shoppers, primarily in Gen Z, they don’t shop SF to begin with.
I’m not an agent, but can tell you they don’t affect agents, other than agents will have a new market to go after as agents will be able to write to gainsco.
It’s a pretty smart strategy. But I wouldn’t expect the paraprofessionals that frequent this board to understand.
Agent here, on 97 contract, still a very lucrative gig. The new contract not quite so much but if worked correctly there is still a lot of $$ to be made there also. What’s wrong scooter, still mad you did not make the cut? Yeah, I thought so.
If SF could have figured out how to sell direct agents would have already been toast. Truth be told agency is a pretty efficient way to sell and keep our business. Do you think the service centers can do that? Heck, they can’t even manage to write a renters policy without 3 errors. You should all find your closest agent and kiss his/her azz
Does anyone remember Agency 2000?
LOL, I feel for the people who got accepted for that and their own agenceis. I bet it's nothing like they expected. Do they even use that model anymore to groom agents? I dont think so because you don't hear much about it. I see ads in the newspaper/websites for agency sales people. The model wanted to only hire people from within the company, after also passing a personality test, and going to corporate training in Bloomington.
Why should customers pay for an agent? If technology provides the service function why have the cost of an agent. Agents should be comped for new business that they produce, not what is handed to them. Corporate spends millions each year providing leads to agents with a huge amount not even contacted. Look for corporate to step in and follow up and sell direct. IE.. new gig for CC or outsourced contact management firm. Gotta grow or gotta go.
SalesForce and third party affiliates (Marketing)
Corrupt and deception
Insurance amd Service sold out. Including the data
@1sky.....Not quite. They don’t want to PAY for an agent. But they still expect an agent to drop everything and provide service to them for free.
I see major cuts in agents comp in very near future. It’s a commodity now and most do not want an agent.
Humm ...notice that this announcement and the Hi Road expansion to other states are today. Today employees are impacted by office closure and tomorrow agents will be faced with parent company competition. Get ready agents this could be ugly.
They’ll be let go obviously. The old man in charge didn’t even blink an eye.
Columbia, Mo OP center is sublet.