I’m sure you have all seen all the articles that have been floating through the media as of lately that discuss Web 2.0.  Two weeks ago I had the privilege of attending the Midwest Tech. conference in Kansas City.  Carol and I road tripped down to spend some time talking with our state ACT (agents council for technology) representative Phil Harr and the other agents that were able to attend.  

We went down on Wednesday and caught the tail end of the ACORD sessions.  The ACORD sessions seem to be extremely productive for both company and agency representatives.  The closing session of the day was a question and answer session where both companies and agencies were able to discuss things that are working and not working.  These sessions really help give ACORD a view that is unseen from working in the office. 

I realized on Thursday how important Real time was to an agency.  Don’t get me wrong I have always been aware of how important it was but listening to the speakers, Cal Durland and Peter Van Aartrijk, made the whole picture come together.  If you are asking yourself “Liz, what’s real time?” then check out the Realtime to get the best description.  Real time unfortunately is sometimes confused with comparative rating software, which is not the whole picture.  It is a direct connection between your agency management system and all of your companies.  It can make a huge difference in agency production and agency E&O loss control.  At the Big I we view it as a paramount connection that could very well make or break the perpetuation of your agency.   It makes servicing and quoting a one step process and a single work flow.  A great place to get more information about real time is www.GetRealTime.org.  It is a great website that can explain all the things that you have questions about way better than I can! 

Thursday afternoon we all separated into our specific tracks that we chose, the four tracks were AMS, Applied, Instar and Management.  Carol and I chose the management track which had four different sessions to attend.  The morning session with Peter Van Aatrijk covered how to make your website more effective.  Peter had effective and easy solutions to making your agency website more visibly pleasing and easier to find in the sea of insurance websites. 

The remainder of Thursday and Friday were topics covered by Steve Anderson of The Anderson Agency.  My favorite sessions were ”Taming your Outlook in box” and “Communicating with Gen X&Y”.   Who knew that an Outlook Inbox could ever be empty!!! Carol nor I have ever experienced such an enlightening discussion about email.  I realized that most of the day when spent in the office was dealing with email.  Carol probably spends most of her waking hours dealing with email and deleting email.  So with great pride a can tell you all that I only have 20 pieces of email in my in box!!! WOO HOO!! Thanks Steve!  (on a side note…. If this sounds familiar you should probably think about giving me a call… maybe I can help!) 

Communicating with Gen X & Y of course was my favorite session simply because I believe in it.  If you haven’t read my article “The Future of Insurance Marketing” scroll down and take a look.  Granted I am Gen Y so I know and believe that the way we will communicate with each other will drastically change with they Gen Y graduates entering the workforce.  It amazed me how well Steve was versed on the topic and how he actually taught me a few things.  I think I’m so used to being the only person aware of what’s out there that it was a breath of fresh air to meet and listen to someone who knew something I didn’t. 

So overall the trip was awesome.  I’m so excited to move this association into the next generation of technology and communication.  I feel privileged to experience changing times and growth for our association of agents. 

Next week Carol and I are heading to Vegas Baby!! We have our national board meeting, I plan to attend Young Agents seminar and some of the education seminar to learn whats really out there.  It will be a great trip for me to learn and see what national has to offer our Young Agents in the state. 

On a personal note I’m sad that fall is coming, as most of you know my husband and I are avid campers and fall means snow and winter soon to follow.  Bummer.  It also means the beginning of my fall semester of classes… I’m taking Accounting and a Clothing History class both needed for my graduation some day.  So far the semester has been good and haven’t gotten too overwhelmed!  

I hope after reading this someone new might consider attending the Midwest Tech conference.  It really was extremely helpful and fun conference to attend.  I would love to hear more comments and questions from those reading!!!

Best,

Liz  

MARKETING TIP:

I am the first to say that our culture has become that of a virtual one.  We rarely talk and share most of our lives with each other over a text message or the computer.   I still send out hand written thank you notes to members and friends.  I love getting real mail especially when it’s not a bill.  If your friends or clients recieve a personal hand written thank you note don’t you think they are likely to feel special?  I know I would!

Direct mail can be a great way to reach your target audience if you are using the right piece.  Check out www.vistaprint.comfor your printing needs on postcards.  Try out an over sized postcard.  These are more expensive to mail but are also easier to see in the mail for the receiver.  I know several agents and agencies that have sucess in using postcard campaigns. 

EVENTS:

MARK YOUR CALENDARS FOR ANNUAL CONVENTION!!!

OCTOBER 21-23, KEARNEY, NE  START YOUR ENGINES RACING FANS!!!!

Below are photos from Midwest Tech. Conference!!!

Enjoy my friends, sorry if there is a bad picture of you…. If it is for a valid reason please email me and I will remove it. 

Cheers!

Liz

This month I had the wonderful experience of visiting Gering, NE to attend my first annual IIAN board meeting.  The board meeting went well, and I think everyone walked away glad for having attended.  Thankfully at the beginning of the board meeting I was allowed to introduce myself as the “new” marketing representative.  I was also able to share some new things like my blog and my facebook page, that I am using to market to agents with.  So, here’s how the story goes… I introduce myself, and open up my blog on the projection screen, and turn around to see a room full of people with the dear in headlights look on their face.  They all seemed to be thinking the same thing…”Is this girl crazy!?!”… maybe my mind reading skills are not up to par, but I’m sure that’s what you all were thinking. 

I swear to you that what I have started for this association is pushing us in the right direction.  Phil Harr our state representative for ACT (Agents Counsel for Technology) seemed to be the sole person who later found me outside and gave me a complement.  I don’t expect everyone to understand nor do I expect them to like it… I simple want people to begin to think about it. 

Phil later emailed me an article from Insurance news and views, that stated that associations and agents are missing the boat if they are not using web 2.0.  Web 2.0 is (very simply put) all the social (facebook) and journal (blog) websites that I am currently using. 

“Why are agents and associations missing this boat?”

-miss conception- they are hard to use

-reality-they are extremely user friendly

-miss conception- they are a waste of time

-reality- The average American is constantly seeking convenience and time saving offerings, If you can reach them on a facebook account that they check everyday don’t you think you are more likely to really know you as an agent and feel special as a client?

-miss conception-

This is only for young people

-reality-

It’s not only for young people.  This is only the beginning of this technology take a look at how much you now use email in your office.  I remember when I got my first email account and my mom actually got mad at me.  She thought I was wasting valuable time that I could be spending doing some homework from freshman geometry.  WOW was she wrong just about the email- I probably should have been doing geometry. 

So I guess what I’m saying while no one is reading, is that today is the day people!  Get in on this which is the next wave of information.  The newest way to reach your customers.  Communicate in a personal way, share your life and maintain the connection longer than you could imagine. 

Agents who used to wine and dine their customers are finding that their customers have time to get on the Internet and browse around but might not have time to attend dinner any more.  Maybe it will be a combination of both diner and the Internet that will maintain customer relationships. 

Best,

Liz

Last week I had the opportunity to visit a few agencies that are members of our association.  They happen to live on the western half of the state and I wanted to report to all of our members what they had to say.  I constantly have to keep in mind that I am on the firing lines for the association.  What I mean is that I am usually the person who hears the complaints about what we are doing wrong first. 

With that in mind the largest complaint that I heard from the Western region was that we offer no continuing education that isn’t several hours drive away for their agencies.  When I was talking with John Massey of J.G. Elliott in Scottsbluff he urged me to think less in terms of IF we could afford to put on the classes but more of IF could we not afford to put them on.   John, I agree with you.   I also spoke with Dave McCarville from First National Insurance in Sidney about the same topic.  Dave seemed to have some good suggestions as to how to alleviate my issue of spending thousands on a class and having only a few agents show up.  The solution to this would be offer proctored classes through the local community colleges.  

Here’s what I’m thinking, we offer the same classes to the western half of the state but instead of spending thousands sending all of us there we telecast the class and have a proctor for the class to monitor the students.  This seems like a viable solution that has been a problem for many years. 

We have some wonderful Independent agencies on the western half of Nebraska and they deserve the same services that the eastern half receives.  I myself have made a commitment to get this project started.  Technology has come a long way, why don’t we use it more often??

Best,

Liz  

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Hello everyone!  Holy cow this week has been a busy one.  Tuesday was spent working on this new blog and the Facebook account, setting up appointments and a work flow plan for E&O.  All and all it was an extremely productive day here in the office.  By the end of the day I was racing around the office attempting to get all the materials ready for agency visits.  I like to take along a Big “I” packet which contains membership benefit information, a personalized agency packet of info that is coming up at the Big “I”, and I also bring along my favorite cookies Eileen’s Colossal Cookies.  The cookies help get me in the door with a smile.  Here’s hoping that I stop by your office soon right !?!  

Wednesday was a great day on the road.  I visited Beatrice, Hebron, Geneva, and Milligan.  This time I could only visit member agencies, I’m still working on my planning technique.  Over all, the visits were great.  Everyone was excited to meet me and seemed excited to have their membership.  I’m so glad that I get to be the one that thanks them for their membership.  I hear that question that is lingering in your mind… So I will go head and answer it…. Here are the agencies that I got to drop in on…..

Erickson Insurance -via phone , First National Insurance Group-drop off, Insure Nebraska-drop off, Jones Insurance Agency Inc.,Penner Insurance, All American Insurance-Geneva, Richard Walter Inc., Dageforde Agency, Inc., New Frontier Insurance Agency- Hebron, and Milligan Insurance Agency.    So…. Thanks to those that I got the chance to meet in person.  I always have a great time talking with agents and learning about what’s going on out there in the field. 

Yesterday I had the chance to golf with Independent Agents from all over the state at the First Comp golf outing.  The morning was rainy so we were all concerned that we weren’t going to be able to play for fear that we would be struck by lighting!  Thankfully the rain stopped by the time we finished lunch.  I golfed with 3 very patient guys that are all awesome golfers.  I’m sad to say that my stroke could still use a lot of work.  The guys did assure me that my swing has hope, but maybe needs a few lessons.  All in all we had a great time and came in 5 under par.  Kudos to Steve Linbo for putting on a great golf outing that everyone loved.  By the way we golfed at a lovely golf course in Ashland, NE called Iron Horse Golf Club, I didn’t even feel like I was in Nebraska.  If you haven’t been there … GO!!!!

Today I’m attempting to catch up on some email and computer work.  Our IT guy Steve came in yesterday and set up my new work station, so I can have remote access to our VPN server.  It seems to be pretty nice, but my email isn’t working as of yet… hmmm…

MARKETING TIPS….

Customers need at least 4 postive contacts a year that don’t involve a sale….

Send them a Happy 4th of July postcard and thank them for their business.  They expect a contact on their birthday, hit them when they don’t expect it!

Events that are coming up……

Summer Board meeting in Gering YEEEE HAW!  July 9-11

Pre-licensing classes for ME ~ my Life and Health Exam, EEK! July 15-17 wish me luck!

FREE CEU’s Aug 4, 6, 8  See www.iian.org to sign up for classes

Jay Jacupke memorial Golf tourney in Hastings Aug. 4th www.iian.org to register

Midwest tech Conference Aug 21-22 in Kansas city www.kaia.com to register