As a business owner hiring new employees is something you are very familiar with. In order to have a growing and prosperous business, you have to have great team members that treat your clients the way you want them to be treated. Surrounding yourself with quality employees drives your growth and success.
Your insurance agent should be considered in the same way you consider employees. Of course, you won’t have to worry about adding to your health insurance or offering your agent a SIMPLE retirement plan, but the same philosophy of hiring a quality agent in order to propel your growth and increase your bottom line applies. Here are 3 Key Things to Consider When Hiring a Commercial Insurance Agent.
- Education is the key to all business decisions – Some decisions require a vast amount of technical knowledge, while some are flexible enough for you to be quickly briefed on each option and you are ready to make the call. Maybe you want to self-insure a new piece of equipment you just bought and that is okay. As long as you understand what kind of out of pocket expense you may have; the decision is and should be yours. Your insurance agent’s job it to make you aware of your options.
- Uncovered claims cost businesses thousands every year. Have you ever heard the dreaded words from an agent, “That isn’t covered?” Are you confident in the coverage you have now and do you understand the deductibles you have chosen? Any uncovered claim or unknown deductible eats into the profit of your company. The job of your agent is to make sure that is not covered is brought to your attention and make you aware of potential claims. If you have been well educated on your coverage options you know what things you will be paying for out of pocket and what your insurance will pay for.
- The operational decisions you make every day impacts your insurance. Signing a contract to do work with a new contractor, hiring someone who will drive one of your company trucks, purchasing new equipment, looking at locations to increase the size of your building…the list goes on and on. Your personal agent should be someone you can rely on to help you make decisions that will minimize your insurance costs immediately and long term. The agent should alert you immediately if a problem exists that could make your workers compensation double in price, and work with you to reduce it. Risk management is complex but your agent should break it down and help you manage risk so you pay less for your insurance and keep it that way.
