ITB with Ashley Fitzsimmons - Know what your carriers and policyholders need in 2023... and how you can keep them satisfied!

Join Rick Fox for this brand new edition of Insurance The Brightway (ITB).

We are kicking July off with a bang as Ashley Fitzsimmons with the Ohio Insurance Agency Association (OIAA) joins Rick to show you what you need to be focusing on right now so your franchise keeps up with the demands of the carriers and policyholders in 2023! 

Learn how to keep things uncomplicated as we show you how to do "Insurance The Brightway!"

ITB is a weekly podcast brought to you by Brightway Insurance, the insurance franchising leader coast-to-coast.

Transcript

Rick:
Welcome back to another episode of the ITB Insurance, the Brightway Podcast. I'm the host Rick Fox and today royalty in the house, the self-proclaimed Beyonce of insurance, Ash Fitz is here. Ashley, thank you for being on the show. Ashley Fitzsimmons, who is the, let me read your title off here, director of professional development at OIA. Um, been there for a for quite a while now, but I know her more from all of her great stuff she just does in industry and I'm so happy to have you. Thanks for being on the show.

Ash Fitz:
Thanks so much for thinking of me. I mean, I always enjoy connecting with you. So it's even better when we can record it and make other people listen to it.

Rick:
Make them, yeah, force them. I force them to by sending the links. Now, I just love, people have heard me say this, I just love people in this industry who care so deeply about helping others in the industry. So you fit that category, Ashley, so glad to have you. And let's start the way we always start. I'd love for, I mean, I'm guessing a lot of my listeners probably already know you and know your story, but tell us your journey. How did, why are we here? How did we get here?

Ash Fitz:
I still ask myself that daily.

Rick:
Yeah

Ash Fitz:
I mean, I blinked in the last five years have flown by. I'll just

Rick:
Crazy.

Ash Fitz:
do the short synopsis, because

Rick:
Yeah.

Ash Fitz:
like you said, I think a lot of people have heard this over and over, but I started out in the family agency. I was the fourth generation, a small town, Scranton, Pennsylvania, north of there. And I just started going out and helping other agents expand their businesses and with customer experience help. And speaking at different conferences and I realized, man, there's a, I love helping clients, but there's a much bigger need out there for agents to be helped and to

Rick:
Yes,

Ash Fitz:
help them get out of the day to day and

Rick:
that's right.

Ash Fitz:
do things that they wouldn't otherwise be able to do.

Rick:
Yeah.

Ash Fitz:
So I ended up here now at the Ohio Insurance Agents Association, never thought I would live in Ohio. Turns out Columbus is pretty awesome. So

Rick:
It is awesome. I love Columbus.

Ash Fitz:
Yeah, so definitely it was a good move and yeah, I'm still here five years later, it's crazy.

Rick:
Well, I used to obviously used to come to Columbus quite a bit with, uh, when I was with Vertifor, cause of agency zoom being there, I think Columbus is awesome. Um, people that know me know my son is going to school in Cleveland this, this fall, so I'll be up back, back up in Ohio as much as I can, I'll probably have to drop down and see you guys down there. But, um, again, just excited to have you love your passion, love your energy. And I love the fact that whenever we talk and you, you nailed it. That. You know, let's record it and let people hear it. But every time we talk, I learned something from you as well. So, um, you and I talked briefly and I do, we always want to do like a pre set up for the calls. And I usually go into quite a bit of detail to make sure that I'm like, have somebody kind of framed up with what, what they, their, their spots that they want to talk about with you. It's very broad because I know you and I will just sort of riff on it. And But it's such an important thing that we're facing right now in our industry, which is customer experience. When you think about, and I've said this, and let me just give my two cents on where the pitfalls are. When you think about, especially since we had the pandemic and people were forced to use their computers and do things from home more, not only working, but just the, you know, delivery of food and groceries and Netflix every night and everything that happened, there's been such a change in the expectation of customers and what they, not like in their mind, they're like, I expect my insurance agent to do this. That's not the way they think, but when it doesn't match everything else in their life that they do is where I feel like there's this huge disconnect and a huge chance. not only for everyone to grow in this, but for those of you that can meet your customers where they want to be met the best, to give yourself a distinct advantage because the table stakes now have changed, like the ability to self-serve, the ability to receive a text. No one wants to be called at eight o'clock at night anymore. Like the change is so dramatic. And it was always there, but I think then it just got this giant spotlight on it with the work from home and the environment and people just spending so much more time on their computers and on their phones more than anything else. They got to this place. So when I say those things, this is kind of what you and I just briefly talked about, but I'm just going to kick it over to you now and say, agree, disagree, and then expand.

Ash Fitz:
Yeah, so I absolutely agree with you that expectations have changed. How, um, I do think that a lot of times in the industry, the insurance industry specifically, we, we don't necessarily follow the curve of everything else that's happening. So, you know, I, as an insurance agent ordered something this morning on Amazon. One of my connectors or adapters wasn't working. So I placed an order this morning and it was delivered 20 minutes ago to my office. Now that impressed me because

Rick:
Yes,

Ash Fitz:
I like the overnight delivery, but this

Rick:
that's

Ash Fitz:
was

Rick:
right.

Ash Fitz:
within hours to the office.

Rick:
That's crazy.

Ash Fitz:
But then, so we have that expectation where I need it now, but then we don't go back to our agencies and say, okay, this is what everybody else is experiencing, how do we make that process better? Because we just think we're insurance and this is what we have to do. But I'm not saying that we need to go and be the fastest and... the quickest and the most efficient because that's obviously we want to be efficient, but we don't want to be that super fast because that's when we slip up and that's when we do a disservice.

Rick:
Yes.

Ash Fitz:
The thing that was delivered to my front door today is not going to make that big of a difference in my life. Whereas an insurance agent is now protecting your life and when that house burns down, you want the proper coverage.

Rick:
Amen.

Ash Fitz:
So I really think what it comes into play now more so than ever is like you said, meeting your customers where they want to be met and also setting the expectation upfront. the expectation might be different than what they're expecting from Amazon or wherever else

Rick:
Right.

Ash Fitz:
they're coming from, but set the expectation upfront. And those that want to be your clients and those that you want as your clients will understand and meet those expectations. It's a two way conversation here, two way relationship.

Rick:
Well, and I think you touched on something there, which I think is important. If we have so many people and so many agencies, and especially when times are hard, where every piece of business is like a piece of gold, and you and I both know that that's not actually true. And you made a statement that is, if that is the expectation that you want to give and they want to receive, and if it's not, then maybe they're not for you. And that's okay too. And I think that's something that's missed is that. Like, oh, I just got a call for a 22 year old and he needs a renter's policy and he doesn't have a car. And I'm like, do I really even want to spend the time? Like, is that a, like, or they're so locked in on, I want instant service and you're a, I give you two, like give me two hours on anything we do and I'll get, which is still great.

Ash Fitz:
Exactly.

Rick:
And again, it's not a adapter for your computer that you got at Amazon. It's making sure that you're protected if something really bad happens. I think it's important that we also acknowledge you want to meet your customers where they want to be met, but they also need to line up with the relationship with how you are set up to serve that. Is that fair to say?

Ash Fitz:
Absolutely. And there's

Rick:
Yeah.

Ash Fitz:
an agency out there for everybody. Some agents

Rick:
Right.

Ash Fitz:
just like to churn and burn. They get the business in the front door and they don't know what's going out the back door. And there's clients that want that. And then there's other agencies that, again, build that relationship and want to hold on to that piece of business for a long time, obviously, and have people that trust them and trust the ability to protect them the way they should be protected.

Rick:
That's right. That's right. So, okay. So let's talk about that. So we talked about the, you know, I mentioned texts or self-serve portals or all of those things, and that becomes part of the norm in today's society. The other piece to this is, like, how do I like, so I've got to use technology so that not because I want to eliminate the personal touch, but because I have to move faster because of the expectation. So touch on the technology. One, but two to that is we keep the relationship, and this is what I always say to people, like look, if you're more efficient and you have more time and you can offload busy work, meaning I need an ID card, that's not an insurance conversation, you and I don't need to spend 20 minutes on the phone, that's not a relationship. But hey, my kid's almost 16, and we're about to put him on the, they've got the permit, we're about to put him on the policy, that's gonna be a different. conversation because we have to look at maybe different carriers and different limits and what do you want, how do you want to protect yourself? That's an insurance conversation. So in my mind, technology gives you the time to build the relationships. It isn't the relationship, but it, the efficiency of technology gives, creates the opportunity to have real conversations, thoughts.

Ash Fitz:
Absolutely. And I think really the biggest thing that anybody should take away from what I'm about to say, like for the rest of the conversation is don't overcomplicate it. Because it used to be when I was in the agency side, people would start talking about technology and my eyes would glaze over because I know that we need to use it. I am a huge proponent of technology and creating efficiencies and helping with relationships. But you know, I've never seen a demo that I didn't like. Everything looks amazing. And then it's, you know, you have to realize there's no magic pill. Everybody's going to tell you, you're going to plug it in. It's going to go and it's going to work. No. So before you go out and say, Oh man, this is going to be, you know, the one thing that changes the agency, maybe take a step back and say, okay, are we doing the basics even is our, is our website even up to speed? You know, can people find us there? Um, glove box. That's so easy. Plug and play with glove box. Get rid of those tier one. I

Rick:
Yep.

Ash Fitz:
need an ID card type of things. get your brand in front of the client instead

Rick:
Mm-hmm.

Ash Fitz:
of saying like, Hey, Rick, who's your insurance with? Oh, it's with Fitzsimmons insurance. I want

Rick:
Yep.

Ash Fitz:
you to say that not travelers insurance.

Rick:
That's exactly right. Exactly. And

Ash Fitz:
And I,

Rick:
it's

Ash Fitz:
you

Rick:
curious

Ash Fitz:
know,

Rick:
that the, because we're at the agency level and you mentioned that it's these shiny toys and people are trying things, but if you look at the carrier level, they're sort of horning in or putting themselves in front of your customers in a way that's very positive, like an app or an easy to use website, click here, click there, do that. But to your point. That's not a relationship with you. And so you have to grow, you have to take that one, take the bull by the horns and, and create a glove box is a good example. If you're on AMA, if you're a Vertifor customer using InsureLink, there's these different ways that you can put portals in place that again, it doesn't, it enhances your relationship with your customer because you have time to have real conversations instead of racing through important things. Because you've got nine other people lined up who need to change a number in the zip code of their lean holder versus let's have a real conversation about how we protect you and your family.

Ash Fitz:
And it doesn't even have to be glove box. Like it doesn't, I mean, they're, they're awesome.

Rick:
It's a great

Ash Fitz:
But,

Rick:
example, but,

Ash Fitz:
but

Rick:
and you're

Ash Fitz:
let's

Rick:
right.

Ash Fitz:
say like, even if they don't, even if you don't want to go on, adopt a new piece of technology right now, use a Google form.

Rick:
That's

Ash Fitz:
I used

Rick:
right.

Ash Fitz:
to do that with people for some car changes. If it was people that I knew were actually going to get me the information I wanted and was asking for,

Rick:
Okay.

Ash Fitz:
and they were into technology, I'd send them a Google form. And I'd be like, hey guys, fill this out. And that could, that you could do that with anything, with changing

Rick:
That's right.

Ash Fitz:
a lean holder, all of this stuff. And you can easily, you know, connect it to your AMS. So There's so many easy and free options out there that there's no excuse to not be doing them.

Rick:
So, okay, so we've given examples. I think when people think about this and you mentioned it earlier, every demo is cool and everybody tells you it works. And it is hard to kind of muddle through that piece, right? Like to say, is X right for me? Is Y right for me? So should I try Z? And think of it not only at the decision you're making, which is a hard decision, but then... What is that impact going to be on the others at work in your office? And not only will there be adoption, is it intuitive? Is it easy to use? Is there ways that that, like, you know, what the worst case scenario is, is we bought that and we put it in and nobody used it. And now you're paying for it and it's not working. And then it's usually having worked on the tech side, the, the response back from the agency is your software doesn't work. And it's like, Is that really what it is or was there an adoption problem and user error potentially? So I, I'm always, I just take that with a grain of salt, but when you're looking at it and you're talking to agencies, like it's a big step, some of these are big steps and, and they can get overwhelmed. How do we, other than like the conversations that we're having, then podcasts and things like, how do we decide? Cause if you've been in one insurance agency, independent insurance agency, you've been in one, they're all different.

Ash Fitz:
Mm-hmm.

Rick:
So how do we help the agent that wants to change, knows it'll be hard, and then gets bombarded by 50 options of what to do? How do we do that? How would you recommend people, like even how do they look at that?

Ash Fitz:
Yeah, I mean, we just went through the process similarly here at OIA when I was building out our learning portal. I had never dealt with a learning management system before, ever. So totally foreign to me. So of course, I just started Google. I start Googling things. There's

Rick:
Yep.

Ash Fitz:
hundreds of them. I just narrowed it down to 15. That seemed like they, they met the

Rick:
That

Ash Fitz:
qualifications.

Rick:
seems like a lot.

Ash Fitz:
And well, I was, trust me.

Rick:
Yeah.

Ash Fitz:
And, but I had, there were some specific qualifications that knocked a lot of people out. And then from there, I started reaching out to my counterparts in other states. to see, hey, do you guys have a learning management system? Many didn't, one of them fortunately did, and they had just gone through the vetting process,

Rick:
Yeah,

Ash Fitz:
vetting

Rick:
there you go.

Ash Fitz:
the majority of what, so that was just a fluke that it worked out that way. But what I would say is, ask the people around you.

Rick:
Yes,

Ash Fitz:
I mean,

Rick:
thank you.

Ash Fitz:
I hate to say it, there's only a handful of people that I've ever talked to that they're like, no, I can't talk to other agents. There's a handful of them. The majority of us can talk to other people. Big proponent of, I mean, and this is, I'm a little biased, obviously, But that's what we're here for.

Rick:
That's where

Ash Fitz:
We've

Rick:
I was leading

Ash Fitz:
used.

Rick:
you. That was where I was leading you with that question was I think that the networks and the associations that you can be a part of and the associations is very, very easy and very supportive. Even if you like, let's say they call in and they get you on the phone, you might not know the answer, but you know 10 agents that can help them.

Ash Fitz:
Oh, I'm gonna, yeah, I'll find the answer.

Rick:
That's right.

Ash Fitz:
100%

Rick:
Yeah. That's

Ash Fitz:
of the time I can find you the answer. I just might not know it off the top of my head.

Rick:
right. Well, if you're in Ohio folks, uh, and you're not associated with O I A, they're probably, I don't want to, I'm not going to say any names because it would be unfair, but top five easy for States to work with there. Uh, they, they do an, you know, shout out to Jeff Smith, love the people over there. Um, love, love what you just said, which is don't try, don't go it alone. Right? Like that's basically the nutshell answer is figure out who's either tried it, knows it, will support it. Meaning like, yeah, we got it and it changed this in our agency and now we're better at doing whatever that thing does. So, okay. So technology, we've said there's the idea that the technology is in the relationship. It helps you have time. to build the relationship. So now let's talk about the customer experience and that relationship. You said something to me and I want you to comment on it. You said, and I wrote it down, handwritten notes. Tell me about that.

Ash Fitz:
Again, don't overcomplicate it. Think about, I am somebody that stays on top of their emails, like their personal emails typically. I usually have like one or two in there. I delete them all quickly.

Rick:
Oh my gosh.

Ash Fitz:
I'm pretty sure, let me check right now, I have 2,488 personal emails from four days. So people maybe like my dad, maybe he sent me an email.

Rick:
Yep.

Ash Fitz:
I don't know, cause I'm probably gonna go in there and delete all of them because the number on my screen is bothering me. We

Rick:
You

Ash Fitz:
get

Rick:
keep

Ash Fitz:
so...

Rick:
looking over. I wondered why you kept looking over. It was because more emails were coming in. It was stressing you out.

Ash Fitz:
Exactly. We get so inundated. I

Rick:
Yes.

Ash Fitz:
mean cell phones and the connectivity that we have today is amazing. Again, Amazon here in a couple hours. But at the same time, I want to go back to the day when I didn't have a cell phone.

Rick:
Yes.

Ash Fitz:
I just want, you know, we

Rick:
I

Ash Fitz:
joke,

Rick:
want

Ash Fitz:
we

Rick:
to

Ash Fitz:
call

Rick:
disconnect.

Ash Fitz:
my dad. Exactly.

Rick:
Yes.

Ash Fitz:
So, yeah, it's I was just going down a rabbit hole. What was the original question? Because I'm

Rick:
It's

Ash Fitz:
getting

Rick:
the

Ash Fitz:
all

Rick:
handwritten

Ash Fitz:
fired up about

Rick:
notes,

Ash Fitz:
my

Rick:
the

Ash Fitz:
emails.

Rick:
handwritten,

Ash Fitz:
There we go.

Rick:
the handwritten.

Ash Fitz:
See, all I can see in my head now is 2488.

Rick:
Ah, 2488.

Ash Fitz:
So, being inundated all the time, sending an email to somebody saying like, hey, hope you're having a great day. Yeah, it's a nice gesture, but if I get a piece of mail that is handwritten and I know

Rick:
Mm-hmm.

Ash Fitz:
that somebody took three minutes to write that down and thought of me and put it in the mail, I am on cloud nine for days,

Rick:
That is,

Ash Fitz:
because I am so thrilled.

Rick:
love

Ash Fitz:
So

Rick:
that.

Ash Fitz:
imagine doing that for your clients.

Rick:
Well,

Ash Fitz:
Like.

Rick:
and think about the change that is. Like my son has graduated from high school this year and so he got a bunch of congratulations cards and relatives that sent him money and things like that. And we had him sit down to write handwritten cards. And he was like, wait, is this ready to go? Like didn't have a stamp. He's even, no, like he didn't even know that they needed a stamp and what a zip code like, and he's going to a high academic school, it's crazy. But the point is that then we got responses from those folks saying, Oh my gosh, I got his card. That was so sweet of him to do. And think about that. Think about your top customers, like a birthday note or, I mean, most agencies are sending holiday cards, but those are more like. I printed 2,000 of them, I sent them out. But a handwritten note, that's kind of baller right now, isn't it? That's pretty cool.

Ash Fitz:
Absolutely. And

Rick:
Yeah.

Ash Fitz:
I mean, it doesn't have to be for everybody. Make it a goal to do one a week. I mean, what I started doing in our agency, you know, we have a we were a very small town. We were all over Pennsylvania. But you know, the majority of our clients were in the three tri-county regions that we were in. And if I saw somebody's kid in the newspaper because they made the honor roll or you know, they just got engaged or something, I clipped it out of the newspaper. and I put it in a card and said, thought of you guys, this is awesome, congratulations, whatever, and sent it to them. And it took me a whopping minute and a half

Rick:
Yep. And

Ash Fitz:
to make.

Rick:
that person now, when something goes wrong or their rate goes up, which everyone's rates are going up right now, their first call isn't going to be to your competitor. It's going to be to you so you can help them solve their problem. And that is the core of the relationship right there.

Ash Fitz:
Exactly.

Rick:
I love it. Now you're thinking about it right, Ash. And I think there's this, we get so stuck in getting stuff done that simple, like you said, a minute and a half, people are like, oh my gosh, if I did 10, 25 minutes. It's like, okay, do it while you're watching Netflix tonight. Like, you know,

Ash Fitz:
Exactly.

Rick:
whatever it is, just get it, get it, like, work on being a better relationship partner. Okay. Last point before we finish up. And I give you my time capsule question. I know you're out presenting a lot. And by the way, you're great when you present the energy is awesome. Um, truly the Beyonce of insurance in my mind, swiping my way to success. You said that to me. I want you to. Tell me about that.

Ash Fitz:
Yeah, I mean, I feel like we just kind of went through a bunch of the stages.

Rick:
Yes.

Ash Fitz:
I went back in Pennsylvania, the dating pool was pretty small. And that's mainly because I'm related to everybody on like basically the Eastern side of PA. So I was going on some, uh, horrible dates, online dating. And the questions that I was asking every time I realized are, man, I asked these questions when I'm doing an intake form on a new client. So I actually started realizing that, you know, the dating experience and the different stages of that goes very much hand in hand with the customer experience and the stages of your client. And I may or may not have turned some of those bad dates into policies.

Rick:
I can neither confirm nor deny whether that happened, right?

Ash Fitz:
Yeah, so I mean, you just treat people how they want to be treated. We

Rick:
Yes.

Ash Fitz:
are doing something incredibly important that other people really don't understand and don't want to understand. They just

Rick:
Yep.

Ash Fitz:
want to know that they're protected and

Rick:
That's

Ash Fitz:
they're

Rick:
right.

Ash Fitz:
going to stick with you longer if they know, like, and trust you.

Rick:
Exactly right. I love it. Okay. This is awesome Ashley, as usual, just bringing the passion and the energy. And I think if everybody just stops and thinks about their customer relationships and the experiences of their customer and uses the information that Ashley's shared with you today, I think there's a win in there. There's definitely a win in there. So to wrap this up. I'm going to ask you the question that I always ask. It's my time capsule question. We're going to record this next little part, bury it underground, and somebody's going to dig it up. And what is Ashley Fitzsimmons' one big piece of advice for the insurance industry?

Ash Fitz:
If you truly love what you do, you need to go and scream it from the rooftops. Because we are having so many people retire that there's going to be so much opportunity in this industry. I don't know why it's such a secret. People just don't understand how awesome it can be. So if you like what you do, you need to go and scream it from the rooftops. Go help out at a high school if they have a career day or something along

Rick:
Mm-hmm.

Ash Fitz:
those lines. Because we need to get new talent in here. And I mean, the world is their oyster. Seriously, they have so much creative freedom if they come into a small agency.

Rick:
I absolutely love that and it ties right in hand with what we said before. So add this one little, let me add a caveat to this. My caveat is make sure that when they come, if you love what you do, that it looks and feels like other things they do. So make sure your technology matches their expectation and then be prideful about what we do, because there is nothing better than being in the insurance industry, but young talent is not coming in. to work on old box screened computers and things like that. So make sure your tech matches your pride. So be prideful about the way you present yourself internally as well as externally. Ashley, as always, such a fan. So glad that you came on the show and thank you so much for doing this. Yeah,

Ash Fitz:
Thank you so much for having me!

Rick:
this has been great. So thanks again to Ashley Fitzsimmons, the Beyonce of insurance. Make sure to subscribe to this podcast wherever you get your podcasts. And if you like it, leave us a review. We'd love to have that. As always, make sure you are connected with me on LinkedIn. Send me direct messages with any topics for our insurance or guests, awesome guests like Ashley to come on the show and drop knowledge on you all. And keep this industry moving forward and keep us getting better every single day. Thanks for tuning in. Thanks again to Ashley Fitzsimmons and we will see you next time.