Progressive Erroding Local Agents Last Advantage

[insuranceadman]

In the past few years how did we compete with the direct writers with their unlimited advertising budget? We are local we pay for the brick and mortar. We show up on the online yellow pages and Google maps etc. Someone searched for their local Progressive insurance agent and they found them.

The times are changin...

Go to yellow pages .com and search for Progressive Insurance in a major city. You would expect to see the top listings dominated by local Progressive agents right? Wrong, you get Progressive direct 800 numbers masquerading as local agencies - and not just in the ad space at the top, I mean in the actual local listings. As soon as Google lets them do this they will on Google local too. This is an all out attack on local Progressive agents by the direct channel.

Progressive is going about this all wrong! First of all the 800 numbers they post go to an automated message that talks about claims first - call a local agent and they are talking about sales first. A live person answering the phone is much better from a sales perspective.

To compete for generic terms on Google (ex. auto insurance quotes in Cleveland) independent agents could be receiving high quality links from dozens of carriers and completely dominate the internet over direct writers like Statefarm and Allstate - but they don't because Progressive, Travelers and other independent carriers won't properly optimize the local agent pages.

To make matters worse Progressive now does not let local agents indicate anything about Progressive on their Google+ pages - which coincidentally is the new Google version of Yellow pages.

So what is the plan - let the independent agents slowly bleed to death? All insurance will be sold in call centers by script reading zombies?

How about some big Progressive agencies get mad and tell Progressive to stop bullying the local listings!

 

[pcbinsurance]

I understand your frustration but this has been going on for a long time. You have to do "more" to overcome this by going the extra mile for your clients and create that value added personal touch that clients typically (sometimes?) prefer. Also, the younger prospects have grown up doing everything online and that's not changing anytime soon (ever).

 

[best14rates]

I understand completely But I can tell you in our area many left Progressive direct to have us as a Progressive agent for the service alone and to put a face to the policy. Amazingly enough in Most cases I can beat Progressive direct rates with Progressive. Have you talked to your Market Rep about your frustrations? Ours is excellent she is really good at helping our agency We still have not even hit signature agent either wish we would. Also we can't sell Progressive home policies in our state

 

[Gulliver]

Their goal is to eliminate the independent agent out of their marketing channels. They can't do this overnight. It is a very crafty process and it is happening in a slow and subtle way right before us. I know they are the easiest company to work with. Great Rates, Great Claims, Great Technology, Write almost any risk, etc. but agents have to recognize the carriers that want them long term and those that don't. Progressive is one that would cut all of our throats tomorrow if they could figure out how to do it that quick. I think they have figured out that it will take time. As time goes by the bleeding will speed up and they will finally cut the rope. Use them like they use us. Just put stuff with them that you have to and tell them to kiss your backside when you can. In my state almost anyone can get a contract and keep it. Just play the game with them and write all that you can elsewhere.

What are your thoughts fellow members??

 

[insuranceadman]

I just feel that spamming the yellow pages site with fake locations is wrong of Progressive to do. They shouldn't pretend to have a local office to sell the direct channel. It is wrong to the consumer and it is wrong to the independent agents.

If this were pre-internet days and they filled the phone book up with fake local offices you can bet agents would be making a stink - but this is more subtle and a lot of people don't understand how the online listings work.