Nearly 500 agency representatives (493) responded to the survey that asked three basic questions:

• How do you score your relationships with carriers and carrier technology in helping you to perform key activities today (prospecting, writing policies, servicing policies, supporting policyholders with claims)?
• Should carriers focus on improving relationships or on improving technology to help you with these activities in the future?
• What is most problematic about relationships with carrier personnel and carrier technology today?

The typical agency representative responding to the survey is over 40 years of age and is a principal or producer of a firm that employs 20 people or less.

A breakdown by individual profile characteristic follows.

• Age: About half (52 percent) are 41-60 years old; one-third (34 percent) are over 60. The remaining 14 percent are younger, with 11 percent falling between the ages of 30 and 40. The remaining 3 percent are younger than 30.
• Agency size: More than two-thirds (68 percent) are in agencies with 20 or fewer people. Sixteen percent had between 21 and 75 people. Of the remaining 16 percent, 7 percent employ between 76 and 200 people, another 7 percent have over 300, and just 2 percent are in the 200-300 range.
• Line of business: The respondents were evenly split across lines of business, with roughly one-third describing their agencies as “all or mostly commercial,” “all or mostly personal” and “50/50 personal/commercial.” Nearly two-thirds (66 percent) also said their agencies write specialty lines.
• Role: Just over half of the respondents (51 percent) are principals, 29 percent are producers, and roughly 11 percent are CSRs. Another 10 percent said their roles were in other areas of the business.
• State: Respondents are spread across the nation, but the greatest representation came from California (13 percent), Texas (10 percent), Florida (7 percent), New York (6 percent) and Illinois (5 percent).

About Deep Customer Connections

Deep Customer Connections is a consulting and research firm dedicated to helping carriers make it easier for agents to do business with them. On behalf of carrier clients, the firm surveys the carrier’s agency partners to deliver insights on where carriers exceed their competitors in terms of ease of doing business, and where they need to improve.

In January 2014, DCC released its latest biannual list of top 10 carriers from a compilation of nearly 7,000 agent surveys conducted on behalf of carriers, ranking the carriers based on 11 performance metrics. See related article, “The Results Are In: Agents Rate the Top 10 P/C Carriers.”