Case Study One

The Advantage of Not Running with the Herd

Our Business Model – Why We Are Built Around You

The trend for health insurance agencies is to cut back on their staff and run lean rather than rich.  The Medical Loss Ratio in the ACA put severe pressure on revenues tempting agents to outsource or cut service altogether.  Many also limited the scope of their practice to the most profitable segments of the market becoming niche players. This is even truer in the Bay Area where the cost to run a back office is prohibitively expensive.

This, in turn, has created the predictable service headaches.  A lack of personal attention by the agent creates compounded service issues such as getting passed around at call centers, sorting out problematic claims or grievances, and billing train wrecks.  And that is during the best of times. Because we deal with people’s health and money things are never simple and when things change it is often for the worse.

A Golden Opportunity

However, where some agents saw a problem we saw an opportunity.   By not only maintaining our staff ratio but increasing it, it put us in a position to take advantage of the brokers who operated on a shorter time horizon.  Not only does our well-trained experienced staff provide the highest level of service we are able to offer the ancillary products and services that are concomitant with group health insurance allowing us to know that our clients are always well cared for and ensuring quality control.

A Case in Point

A good example is that we still offer individual products such as IFP, travel insurance, LTC, Life, and DI.  We don’t advertise for the business but because we know our clients and they know us we are always in a position to help when they need it.  While we carry several of these products at a loss we don’t count our money at the table because we know that it gives us a competitive edge which helps with persistency, repeat business, and referrals.  So by tailoring our business model to support the needs of our clients, we are able to thrive and provide a high and sustainable level of service.

Why this matters to you

It matters because there is a lot more at stake than your business.  In addition to your employees, our clients have family members, friends, and people who are close to them that often need help or advice.  Health insurance and other related products are not a commodity and neither are the people who we insure.

So what does excellent service look like?  It is an agent who can help your son or daughter who is turning 26 and is losing their health insurance.  It is someone who will spend the time to work with someone that needs more attention than they are getting or are in a difficult situation.  It means someone who will be with you including when you retire and go on Medicare or your role at the business changes.  It means having an agent who will help you when you get sick and are using your policy and not just when they are selling you one.  Life happens and you want to work with an agent that will look after you and yours the same way you do.

*Most marketing gurus advise that it is always better to use real names and examples when doing case studies.  While we agree with that in principle, most of our best examples we could give would reveal private financial, business, and medical information so we keep it anonymous.