Where AI Helps and Where Customers Say No

Everyone’s talking about AI, but customers aren’t convinced it's in their best interest. This episode explores where AI improves the insurance experience, where it raises red flags, and what agency owners need to know before leading with tech. 

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Transcript

Speaker 5 (00:00)
This is IA Forward, your playbook for success as an independent insurance agent. Now, here to help you knock it out of the ballpark are your hosts, Shane Tatum, Tanya Leed, Mike Basel, and Robbie Jabbour.

Speaker 2 (00:14)
Welcome to IA Forward, episode number two with all the boys.

Speaker 1 (00:21)
Permanent guest. that what we're calling them? We're calling them permanent guest. Maybe. I don't know. Yeah. We're kicking you off when we have a real guest. Y'all know that, right? Yeah. Like you only get to show up when we have nobody else. Yeah. Like it's like, doesn't.

Speaker 5 (00:33)
and this out of

you to show

That hurts.

Speaker 2 (00:45)
So I already heard his feelings yesterday because I was putting together new show graphics in Mike not being from the South does not have the natural. That we do in our pictures. So I went in and I made him more tan. I shouldn't have a little bit. need a more tan.

Speaker 5 (00:55)
Hello?

Speaker 1 (00:59)
Touch him up? Right?

So she's-

Speaker 5 (01:04)
was from January of last year. Yeah, no, I've paled out.

Speaker 1 (01:06)
She's saying you're pasty.

Bye!

Speaker 5 (01:12)
There's no doubt about that. We go several days in a row without the sun.

Speaker 1 (01:14)
that

Seasonal depression, seasonal depression is real. And I do understand that. I don't know how y'all do it. That's why you spend so much time in Orlando. Right. And that is, think we should go to Disney. No, no.

Speaker 2 (01:37)
I can't go there with you.

So we have an insurance agency that is near the house that is an independent agent. I was driving by and they have one of these big digital signs out in front of their agency. And I noticed in these big green letters, it said, please welcome our new AI assistant.

on their sign. This is what they're advertising. And I'm like, well, why is this something like, is this supposed to excite a customer? And it made me think like, that's like bragging that you've replaced a CSR with a Roomba. I mean, that doesn't even make sense that you would tell your customers to welcome the new AI assistant.

Speaker 1 (02:17)
Yeah.

Yeah. The robot lawnmowers have my attention. They really do. But like outside of that, nothing else, nothing else has my attention right now.

Speaker 2 (02:36)
I I like my Roomba except for the fact that I have cords in my house and in my office and everywhere and Roomba does a

Speaker 5 (02:44)
Hopefully get around. ⁓

Speaker 1 (02:45)
⁓

No, forget it. But I mean, I don't even know how to respond to that. We can't wait for you to talk to our AI agent, our tool, right? Our non-human. Please welcome our non-human. ⁓

Speaker 5 (03:00)
What is?

Speaker 2 (03:03)
Welcome them

I had to admit, I turned around and made the block to look at it again just to make sure that I didn't read it wrong.

Speaker 1 (03:19)
Yeah. I mean, you kind of caught me off guard with the sign because I know we have a digital sign in one of our offices and those are not cheap. And I'm assuming since you said green, it's a full color, full color digital sign. Ours is the red, it's the single color. And it's still like a $20,000 sign. Like it's ridiculous what those things are. And so when I'm thinking full color,

That thing alone is 30 to 40,000. So they got 30 to $40,000 invested in their digital sign. And what we're going to use it for is promoting an AI agent instead of a human being. It's a new world that we live in. I don't understand that world.

Speaker 2 (04:01)
In search journal did a, ⁓ did an article recently on a study, a JD power state and. People just really don't like it. mean, carriers like it. I just like it, but people don't.

Speaker 5 (04:18)
I think there's time saving elements to it, especially on the backend for agents that are certainly worth exploring, but your customer base is not excited to participate in AI and have that be their frontline. Yeah, I agree with that. They don't, they're, they're worried about it replacing human interaction, right? I mean, that's at the end of the day.

If they got a problem, they need to speak with someone. They want to talk to human. don't want it. They don't want to talk to a robot and it says, you know, press this one for this, two for this, whatever they want to get through to someone to have a conversation.

Speaker 2 (05:00)
The JD Power study said that 68 % of customers believe that AI only helps the carrier and it doesn't help them. And I just think it's going to start creating some trust erosion in a time where they've been in such a hard market that the trust is already eroded. This is just going to make it worse to me.

Speaker 1 (05:24)
Yeah, it's a good place for agents is where I immediately go. ⁓ If it's a carrier survey, if it's like, well, this is only going to help the big bad insurance company. Well, then that's wedging a huge opportunity into the marketplace for agents to do what they do, what we do so well, specifically independent agents. I would say.

I would say this is very specific to the independent agency system because the exclusive agency system generally relies on call center and for support service, right? For the customers. ⁓ I don't know. You can't, I can't talk you about that. You got to call there. Your claim into the 1-800 number. I mean, the whole point of independent agency is advocacy. So trying to reconcile with the bill, the sign, right? Like.

It doesn't reconcile with the independent agency advocacy culture. The AI gurus are going to say, well, then you're going to die. agent, your agency is going to decrease. It's going to die if you don't embrace, you know, AI tools. I kind of agree with that to the backside, right? To, to, well, kind like the customers are saying, like, well, yeah, AI is going to help us be more efficient.

think it will help us be more efficient. There's little things that management system platforms, CRMs, there's things that we are able to do with AI around coverage analysis. All of these things are really helpful to our people. We have not reached the point where we're unleashing an AI agent on the frontline to the consumer to have conversations. Part of my

reasoning for that is culture. The other reasoning is I've heard some experiences like we had a partner agent talk about spending, I forget the amount of time, but like 10 or 15 minutes on the phone with a prospective customer.

proving they were not AI. Like think about that for me. Like they're trying to give this lead a quote, their proposal, and the customer, potential customer is questioning them. Like they're having to prove themselves out. Like almost like answering a ridiculous amount of security questions that

that say, you know, you are a human being. You're proving that. That was weird. Like I've had that conversation with a like, Hey, I had to prove that I was not an AI tool because people, I think people are genuinely.

They're genuinely upset when they feel duped. Like I've been talking, I've been talking to a, you know, AI and I didn't know it. What's the, what does that make people feel? Sure. I, know, customer wise, that's the where that's where my brain went on.

Speaker 5 (08:45)
I don't know. That's it. I actually hadn't heard that story that neither that's a wild. Yeah. Because I hadn't even heard that AI had gotten to the point where it could be used that sophisticated. Yes. That's such a sophisticated manner. Like to me, if you're going to implement it,

In some sort of chat bot or some sort of chatting system where someone gets to your website and it says upfront, this is a chat bot. If it's something very simple, it's going to answer the question for you. If not, it's going to reroute you to someone else. I don't love that, but it's probably as far as I'm willing to be taken right now with it. But anything beyond that is just. Especially for an independent agent, right? Because

Isn't that what we're supposed to be doing? The exact thing that you're trying to get this robot to do for you. I mean, that is where you're adding value. And now you're taking that value and you're putting it somewhere else or trying to repurpose it. And you're just, I think you're spinning your wheels.

Speaker 2 (09:51)
unless that's the kind of agency you want. Now, some independent agents get so excited because they figured out all of the technology and they never have to actually speak to a customer. And those agencies exist, they're valid, they're profitable. But most of our integral partner agents want that hands-on advisory type of agency. So I can see it if that's your goal.

Speaker 5 (10:19)
creating

a net.

Speaker 2 (10:20)
Right, you are creating a niche, but don't you like how long?

Speaker 1 (10:25)
It's. My niece is an old man. The annual. I'm glad to hear that our New Yorker used the term niche. Instead of niche. Right. So.

Speaker 5 (10:25)
Yes, you got me there.

and set an eight.

Did not.

Speaker 2 (10:52)
But I think there's a trust gap there. I mean, I got duped a few months ago and I'm having this in-depth conversation and I still figure out like the person I was talking to wasn't getting the problem. And it kind of seemed like they weren't really hearing what I was saying, but it took me about three minutes to figure out that this wasn't a personal problem, right? And I mean, I know what's happened to me and that

Speaker 5 (11:15)
Why?

Speaker 2 (11:21)
created such a misunderstanding that I would rather do business with someone else, then it wasted my time.

Speaker 1 (11:30)
I think it's understanding your customer. And in my example of this, and, ⁓ I'd like to hear, you know, your bougie Royal Caribbean story in a minute, but, know, ⁓ Mr. Mr. Set sail over there. ⁓ but he get out of New York and go to, or go to your homes, right? Yeah. ⁓ so, but, but, you know, generationally here, it's like my story and I know this isn't AI, but I I'm using this as a comparable.

Speaker 5 (11:47)
as well.

Speaker 1 (12:00)
Just, I found myself just of the last couple of years in lab, you know, getting blood work done. had to go, you know, before went to my annual checkup, sent me to the lab to get blood work. And the lab has removed the receptionist. Right. Right. So I don't know if anybody's done this, but there's no longer none of these labs, blood work labs or whatever. So there's a kiosk. You got to check yourself in.

Well, what's the average age of people going to get blood work done for their checkups? I brought the average age down. Right. By a decade. Right. And, and my story here was when I went in, I'm like fourth in line and there's an older man. He's trying to figure this thing out. He can't figure it out. Me.

Speaker 3 (12:33)
No.

Speaker 1 (13:00)
combination of sticking my nose into business, people's business, and just also trying to improve the efficiency here. ⁓ cause this was my first time I went where there was no receptionist, right? And so I just kind of peeked around and noticed he was trouble. So I walked up and I'm like, you having trouble? there anything I can help you with? And he's like, this stupid thing, you know, he's the typical and, look, he's in his eighties. All right. He's, he's, he's in his eighties.

And so I looked at it and like, okay, I walked him through it. We got him checked in.

person behind me, of course, he was like, thank you so much. The person behind, Hey, could you stay here with me? Okay. So now I find myself in the receptionist. I, checked the next two people in now it's my turn. I turn around to go sit down and like six people have gotten up out of the chairs and they're coming towards me because they hadn't figured out how to check in. They, they're just sitting.

Speaker 5 (13:46)
Now you're the reception, right?

We're

just sitting there.

Speaker 1 (14:08)
wait no one who knows what right and so i'm helping them check right and so

The lab companies, you don't know who your customer is. I get it. You're saving some money on a receptionist. But is that good money spent saved? Is that a really good saving is to kill your customer experience to such a point that nobody ever wants to go do labs? That doesn't.

Speaker 5 (14:43)
They're going to find they're going to find traditional ad nearby and yet they're just.

Speaker 1 (14:47)
They're

going to figure that out. Somebody's going to lose some business. Now to Tanya's point, maybe they want it that way. Right. So compare this to the agent that's like, well, I'm going to do AI. I don't want to talk to customers. I'm going to set everything up where I never have to talk to a human being. Okay. Maybe there is an niche for that. Maybe. ⁓ But is that, is that the customer experience?

I think that you just have to figure out what you want as an agent. And that's what's great about the independent agency system is the guy that wants to set things up in this super hyper automated AI environment can. And the guys who don't want to do that don't have to. But I think that's where this comes from. hey, you guys out there listening like...

If you don't want to do this, like it's okay. Like your agency's not going to die. Like you're not going to go bankrupt because you didn't adopt the new AI phone agent.

Speaker 5 (15:56)
Yeah, but I think some you have. Right. You have to be able to adapt. So it's fine to have that AI tool, but you should have it designed in a way where only the people who want to use that will use it. And anyone who doesn't has a very easy alternative to not having to use that if they are against that.

Speaker 1 (15:58)
to be nimble.

Speaker 2 (16:19)
So my insurance, my car insurance in Florida had gotten crazy stupid. mean, just next level crazy stupid.

Speaker 3 (16:29)
I

Speaker 2 (16:32)
you drive today. was why so they were going to say. But you know, I was here in the office in person. I went to my fabulous agent, Miss Amy, and I said, Hey, you know, like we have two cars. Why is my car insurance $600 a month? This is just right. Right. Like $600 a month. It's like $598.72 or something for two vehicles and one of them's liability on like there's some

Speaker 1 (16:35)
I had to say.

They have Daniel Reagan as a teammate.

Speaker 3 (17:03)
Yeah, apparently.

Speaker 2 (17:04)
So she goes, didn't, I didn't even realize that I'm like, is there any way that we can maybe shop this a little bit and see if I can actually afford to eat and have car insurance? And, uh, because I think it does go to that point, and she came back to me within 15 minutes. She's like, are you, how do you feel about progressive as opposed to second? I'm like, I don't care who it is at this point. Like, I just don't want to pay $600 a month on car insurance. And so she.

got it down to a very normal reasonable. But if I had called and talked to the new AI assistant, I'm not quite sure I would have had the same experience that I got talking to the fabulous Amy.

Speaker 1 (17:50)
I

think that's the hesitancy, right?

Speaker 2 (17:53)
And I came back after lunch and sitting on my desk were my insurance cards and my forms that had this cute little puppy dog clip on it and it made me happy. Right? But it was fantastic Newman Marcus service. I don't understand why as independent insurance agencies were so quick to want to be the dollar general when we

Speaker 1 (18:07)
of chocolate.

Speaker 2 (18:23)
make a living from being Neiman Marcus.

Speaker 1 (18:26)
I think a lot of it's hype. Like we, Shiny Object, we've talked about that. AI is the shiny object of shiny objects right now. And it's the fear of being left behind. It's the fear of losing business. We've got to do this. And here's what's really interesting. This is something that I started noticing about 20 years ago.

I spent the first 10 years, y'all can do the math, how long I've been in the industry there, but I spent the first 10 years doing just what you're talking about. Like got to chase this kind of, know, if AI would have come along in the early two thousands, I would have been, I would probably been chasing it. And one of the things that I noticed had sort of an aha moment was none of the really, really successful independent agencies.

that I kept meeting at conferences and I kept running into on carrier trips. None of those guys were like losing sleep and getting all worried about the shiny object of that day. Like it was, yeah, we're paying attention. Yeah, we're not sure how that's going to work for us yet. We're looking at it. We'll see. We'll see if it's bleeding edge technology or if it's.

leading edge technology, like, is it? They were just, they were just calm. Like they weren't panicking. And I, that is a place that I would want to encourage agents to be through the AI boom is are we, are we in a boom? Is there going to be a bust? That's still the question that the, you know, wall street journal keeps asking. People keep talking about the stock market keeps questioning. Like, you know, are we in a AI boom?

⁓ Some version of AI is going to continue to grow and be there.

Speaker 5 (20:31)
Well, yeah, I think maybe it's important to, kind of define what AI is real quick. Like AI maybe in some people's minds is just the chat bot that can communicate at a little bit higher level, but that that's not all it can be. Right. And that is the part that I say we need to be a little bit skeptical of in terms of how we can use it in an agency, but in terms of other things that it can do, there's certainly benefits.

You know, if you have some sort of a program that can compare to policies and see what the differences are, as just as an example, that's a useful tool. That's something you can use. And that's not something that's being presented to the customer, to the customer. I, there's definitely validity in some, in some of the pieces already.

Speaker 2 (21:21)
Well, the cute boy and I spend between 20 and 30 minutes a day, probably four days a week discussing AI in ways that we have figured out how to use it in lives and in business and in all sorts of levels. And it's fantastic. And it has made life more efficient, made life easier. It has improved our home life. There are really wonderful ways to use it. I just don't love it.

being customer facing. And this JD powers in associates, ⁓ sorry, shows that like customers don't trust it. They don't love it. They don't think it's safe. They want to know if it's a scam. They want to know who they're actually talking with and right, right. And the FBI yesterday came out and

Speaker 1 (22:11)
That's gonna make more money for the man.

Speaker 2 (22:19)
there was this huge bank impersonation scam that they had been chasing. And it's an AI powered deep voice scam where criminals are impersonating banks. And people have lost like over $260 million while they've started chasing this specific scam. the problem is consumers are already hesitant to trust. And every time there's a new AI scam, it just...

and it's fuel to that skepticism.

Speaker 1 (22:50)
100%.

Speaker 2 (22:51)
⁓ Robbie said a word.

Speaker 1 (22:52)
You know, it's.

Speaker 5 (22:57)
yeah, that was the

Speaker 1 (22:58)
That was totally unprovoked. was. You just stand over there minding your own business. Right. And she just decides to poke at you like that. That was totally.

Speaker 5 (23:10)
I mean, no one's keeping a record, but it was like my 10th.

Speaker 1 (23:12)
It was at least 10. I think back a little bit generational, ⁓ Gen Z, I have Gen Z daughters, they have Gen Z friends. And we had this conversation just in the last week or two around how many things that we think are legit that my daughter within two seconds says, that's not real. That's AI. Hey dad, that's AI. I'm like, what?

That it looks real. mean, you know, yeah, I know. mean, I know it's a grizzly bear drinking coffee at Starbucks, but it looks very real. Right. And, and, and he looks like he's enjoying himself. And so, but in all seriousness, there's some, there's some stuff talking about the scams. Like they is real. Like the fish all the way down to the simplest things of phishing emails, stuff looks real.

Speaker 2 (23:46)
Check to see if they have six fingers.

Speaker 1 (24:11)
⁓ What people are capable of doing with AI, having a little bit of a Terminator Sarah Connor moment here, but it's like, do we go? Maybe it's not machines taking over the world and baby, but it does feel like we're in the insurance industry, so we're naturally going to be risk manager minded. so it feels like there is this

huge growing risk of ⁓ just scams in cyber. gosh, we could just go down the whole cyber threat on this stuff. If there's good stuff being created, we have to always know there's also going to be bad stuff created.

Speaker 2 (25:01)
I think from your, from your sports analogy, you know, AI is like your training partner, but you still have to play the game. If you think about it from that perspective, like.

Speaker 5 (25:14)
Yes, I think it's a complimentary piece.

Speaker 2 (25:17)
Your strength and conditioning coach.

Speaker 1 (25:21)
It, yeah, it's, it's, it's a tool for us to do things more efficient, which is wonderful. I mean, we go back 40, 50 years and agents were making 20 to 25 % commission today. That has shrunk down to, you know, in the independent agency space, uh, there's very few carriers still paying in that 15 % round.

Uh, most is going to be anywhere from 10, 12, 14 at best. So as we have a shrinking rate of commission, we have to understand that we are going to have to do things more efficient. We're gonna have to do things better. AI is a great tool that complements our ability to do that and to be able to do more business and still serve our customers. I just stopped short.

of that customer interaction. I'm not there. And look, we've had the privilege of seeing some and knowing some AI developers and seeing some things. And it's impressive. It's very sophisticated. not dogging AI. I'm just saying.

Speaker 5 (26:32)
First, see if it's better.

Speaker 1 (26:39)
There's a place where if the customer base, if society is saying, I don't trust you, should we force it? mean, didn't we learn a little bit of a lesson with electric vehicle and the whole mandate and everything that's going on there. And we're going to force fossil fuels off the planet. When you start doing that, instead of letting the market take care of it, it's going to backfire. So I think there's the bad element too.

That's place where you have to decide as an independent agency owner is where do you want to go? Do you want to go the dominant AI route or do you want to be the contrarian kind of running against the grain going, well, I don't think my customer base is ready for that. I think I'm going to keep this thing in the background and I think I'm going to keep my people more efficient. I'm going to keep investing in my people.

Speaker 5 (27:31)
Is there a warning that you would give to agency owners, depending on what stage of their agency they're in, like startups perhaps, ⁓ of not adding customer-facing tools too soon? Does that make sense?

Speaker 1 (27:49)
Yeah, I think, I think yes.

It's going to be tempting, especially if you're a solopreneur. Can I answer more calls if I have an AI tool, an AI agent, your phone based agent? It's going to be tempting, especially if you're a solopreneur. mean, it really is. So I think that's just one of those things where you are going to have to truly understand, you in a small town or are in a metro area? got to those relationships. It still hasn't proven.

that our industry is going to be successful without relationships. That has not been proven yet. Like you can, know, to the agents that are like, I don't want to talk to a human being. There's not enough tenure on that agency model to know if it's actually going to hold up.

Speaker 5 (28:43)
Well, we've seen it from direct to consumer, you know, going online, buying. mean, we saw those carriers approach the independent channel and say, Hey, we want to be in your agency because they know the power of human interaction in person, whatever.

Speaker 2 (28:57)
Now, learning how to write your own GPTs, if you're at that point in your AI journey, that's a really cool thing to do. And going in and creating and writing your own GPT and putting your knowledge in it and constantly putting your knowledge in it. And it basically creates a second view. And if you're able to do that, allowing it to answer some emails, to answer some questions,

making sure you go in and check them and it's right. There are some ways that you can create efficiencies like that beyond using it as the next Google. There are some really great things that you can do, but transparency is everything. And I would just never allow a GPT that I've written to send things out on my behalf without it, without me looking at it first.

Speaker 5 (29:51)
Yeah, it's relationship and retention too though. I mean, I'm going to tell you for sure that any customer you have that you never spoke to and created a bond with, you're going to lose that customer at some point. price. That price. So that is, that's the big deal. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (30:08)
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (30:14)
Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (30:15)
I like Robbie's question about, you know, what would you warn a new agent about, or what would you say? mean.

It's coming back to that a little bit. The, I'm not sure that the customer is ready and I know the market will determine that like the market would. And so I do think it's interesting to pay attention to the long-term successful agents. Like don't discount the oldness, right? Like that you hear that make fun. you know, they're just, they're just traditional and old like

There's something to pay an attention to successful, successful organizations. I'm not opposed to that. Like I'm not so Eric, hopefully I'm not so arrogant and confident or overconfident where I'm not paying attention to what some successful business is doing, right? Insurance agency or other businesses. I might really interesting example is, ⁓ you know, are my siblings and I, we've gotten into kind of re

I guess, ⁓ restarted, ⁓ cattle business in our family that goes way back, like my grandfather and my dad and the uncles, and they all were in the cattle business. And we've restarted that as a, as a, investment venture, right. And, ⁓ making use of land that's in the family and it just makes sense. ⁓ we were, we've been having conversations about that and.

One of the local loggers, we're in a big forest area, we've got lot logging industry. What's really interesting is one of the most successful loggers in all of East Texas who owns quite a bit of property has taken his timber land that he owned, not that he's cutting somebody else's land, but his own land that was

heavy, timber. And it is now has been converted to pasture and he has cattle, right? What does that mean? Like there's, he's a really smart, number one, he's a smart rancher, but he's a even smarter businessman in his primary business is timber. And he's converted this to pasture, put cows on what was timberland, right?

And the reality of it is, is that he's been able to take something that was taking 30, 40 years to generate revenue off the land. And now it's generating revenue annually. Right? So he made this investment and he did this. I think about that question when I think about these agencies, these traditional agencies, when I think about like,

What are some of the best practices agencies doing? What are the Reagan best practices agencies doing? Don't stick your head in the sand. And what I continue to have conversations about are very similar to what I was talking about earlier 20 years ago. They're paying attention, they're testing, they're looking at it, they're seeing where it fits with their people.

What they're not doing is they're not necessarily just

changing everything they've done forever, right?

Speaker 5 (33:54)
Well, it gets back to something we talked about in our first podcast, which is overcorrection. You cannot swing all the way from one side to the other all at one time and expect that to work.

Speaker 2 (34:08)
thinking about going back to your story about the lab. So I love the lab online stuff that I can go online. I can make my appointment. It sends me a text when I get to the lab. It sends, you know, I tell it I'm there. I sit in my car and when it's my turn, I get a text that tells me to go inside. Right. Like you, if I'm in there, I'm helping the people because nobody has a, you no, cause there's germs in there. That's where the sick people.

Speaker 1 (34:33)
I wanna go in there and meet new people.

Speaker 2 (34:38)
So I can sit in my car, right? Same thing at the post office. Like if I go to the post office and I use the machine, I'm going to be there for 30 minutes showing everybody behind me how to use it. I mean, I get it. So I love the automation at the lab. I do. But the majority of their customers, like you said, they don't like it. And we have so many different surveys and so much information.

that are saying people don't like this. Customers don't like it. They're afraid of it. And it seems like there's no middle ground, right? People either love it and they want everything to be that way or they don't that I don't want to have anything to do with that AI stuff, right? Because we don't, you know, and I'm like, your whole world has AI. Like you just don't, don't know it. And maybe if they had called it something else, because it's not artificial intelligence, it's algorithms. It's giving you back.

what you're feeding or what somebody else is feeding it. And I remember Holly, ⁓ vice president goddess of everything, right? And Holly was like, I just don't understand where this stuff comes from. I can't trust it because I don't know where is it coming from.

Speaker 1 (35:54)
And I have noticed some of the, Hey, this is AI, please, you know, no, this could be, you know, so I've seen, there's a lot of, I guess, disclosures and disclaimers starting to happen. We've seen the tragedies that have happened with AI and some teenagers and things like that. So, but there's, there's also it's back to like, what does my customer want in as small businesses? We don't have quality assurance departments, right?

We don't have what we have salespeople where businesses, insurance agencies, or businesses run by salespeople. This is a podcast. had a topic on a podcast. Why do salespeople get sold so easily? And that's kind of like your agency there in Pensacola, the sign, like somebody, the owner got sold on.

AI is going to save your world, right? And now we're going to use it by gosh, because we spent tens of thousands of dollars on this.

My picking on the staying in the healthcare industry, ⁓ love my doctor. It's great. But one of the things that drives me crazy about all what seems to be private physician practices is fill out, fill out. Here's the new app. They got a new app, right? And I need you to fill out your medical stuff, right? We don't have to, you know, this is great. I don't have to fill out the forms. I fill it out. I do it. I go through, I get it right.

I check in, I walk in for my appointment. checked in a week ago and I filled out all my health forms. I walk in for my appointment and I walk up to the receptionist, not the kiosk. I give them that. It's not an iPad or a kiosk. There's a person sitting there and I walk up and they're like, how can I help you? I got an appointment at two o'clock.

Okay. ⁓ let me get you checked in. And I was like, I did it on the, I did it on the app and she goes, ⁓ great. I still need to do a few things though. Just stay here with me. And I'm like, okay, there's, there's like little like spot like, no, wait a minute. I checked in by gosh, electronically. And the next thing is I get

I need to get some copies of some stuff. I've art. Yeah. But our system change, it's a different app. ⁓ okay. So now we're refreshing everything. I did take a picture by the way, and uploaded my, my car insurance card and my driver's license and my blood test results and whatever, know, everything else. I took a picture of, know, everything wasn't good enough. Wasn't good enough. And that's what it made me feel like. That's great. It's like I wasted all that time.

And then the last thing was she handed me a clipboard. ⁓ Four or five more pages.

Speaker 2 (38:58)
That's what the part that gets me up. And it's filled all this out.

Speaker 1 (39:02)
So I think when we think about this, when we think about our business, my warning, full circle back to Robbie's question, customer experience has to win out over everything. Like you got to start with customer experience and you got to be honest with yourself. Like put yourself in that customer's shoes. Is this good? Test it. Like I can't tell you how many times agents buy something, implement it. Don't test them.

don't even know how it really works for the customer. I guess not. They don't have a Mikey. I don't know. So we know I call our service center line. You know, we've got a service center about the code. I call it a couple of times a week just to see how did it feel? You know, not checking on my people. I'm not like not trusting.

Speaker 2 (39:34)
have Mike.

Speaker 1 (40:00)
I want to know is the customer going to feel what I want them to feel? Are they going to have a great experience? I think that's the problem a little bit too with AI right now is everybody's rushing into it so fast, so hard, they don't even know how it's actually working. And then they end up delivering a bad customer.

Speaker 3 (40:20)
experience.

Speaker 5 (40:21)
So you had alluded to the experience I had with the AI online with a.

Speaker 1 (40:26)
Gwen Sane, Royal Corridor. It's okay. It's okay.

Speaker 5 (40:31)
Before I get to that, everybody's given their blood work story. So I feel like I should partake. So this was a long time ago. I had just turned 21. So I was going to get some blood work for insurance or something. First time I'd ever done it. So I didn't know what I was doing. So, you know, I go make my appointment. This is 20 years ago, right? So I probably called made appointment. Oh yeah, we can do tomorrow. Perfect. Just get it over with.

Come in at one o'clock. Fine. Now what I don't realize at the time being 21 years old is if you don't eat from the time you go to bed to one o'clock in the afternoon for your blood, things could get a little. I get in there like, yep, roll up the sleeve, ready to go. Boom. All right. So she starts taking the blood. How you feel? feel fine. Why? Just checking.

Speaker 1 (41:13)
Yeah, yeah, we're gonna get a little shaky here so

Yeah

Maybe.

Speaker 5 (41:28)
Be

five, ten seconds more, still alright? Like, ⁓

Speaker 1 (41:31)
⁓

Your pastiness is getting better.

Speaker 5 (41:35)
Next thing I know, she's yelling for someone else. I wake up with a juice box next to me and say, you need to start drinking this.

He done. So I come and at this point you might as well just own it. So I just come out of there. got the juice box. And a lot of pop at the other hand and I just locked into the way back into the waiting room sat down.

But for Royal Caribbean, I liked how they had it set up. So it was corner of the screen. This is a bot. They tell you that right up front. If this is a question regarding making a payment, if it's a reservation question, you know, just type it in, continue. If it's not one of those things, it'll send you to a real person. I thought that was a good way to hit.

Speaker 1 (42:28)
Yeah. It was full disclosure. That's right. It was full disclosure. Hey, if you're comfortable, use this. And, I love that. Like that's why I wanted you to talk about that because, you know, if you're, if you're not sure, if you're not sure where your customer base is and you're not really sure how to figure it out, well then use it both ways, right? Give them that out. Let, let your customers opt out in the moment.

Speaker 5 (42:34)
you ever know.

Speaker 1 (42:57)
But also there's some other customers that are like, Tonya, like they don't want to see people. They won't talk to anybody. You know, they want to sit in their car and wait. You know, so let them, you know, if you have the tool and you can let that person do that, well then everybody's winning.

Speaker 5 (43:17)
we ever get out of that? That's the question. Like it should always be that way. You should always have that option. This is a service industry. You've got to provide service the way people would like to be served.

Speaker 1 (43:22)
Like

Speaker 2 (43:30)
Be transparent about it. That's that's the thing about like the insurance world already has that Groundhog Day. What's his what's the guy's name on ground?

Speaker 1 (43:42)
Ned

Ryerson, Ned Ryerson.

Speaker 2 (43:46)
Ed

Ryerson's of the world. That's what people think about us as independent agents. They just do. And trust is only earned through transparency and relationship building. And when you throw this out there, you get rid of all of that. This is a relationship business and they're not going to have that same kind of relationship with Becky, the AI assistant that they're going to have with Robbie George.

Speaker 5 (44:17)
Yeah. And know, just an interaction that I had this week for y'all that don't know, I kind of moonlight life insurance for the agency here and, ⁓ that elderly lady that had to make some changes on policy. know, thinking about this whole conversation and, and if she would have had to go through that AI functions to try to make some changes, she would have given up and she would at all, she would have just not completed it, you know, you can't discount that.

Speaker 1 (44:43)
That's.

No, and I think that's back to maybe there are agents that are like, well, you know what? I don't care. I don't want their, you know, I don't want their business. Right. Maybe there is that, that reality with some agents. I think the agents that I tend to, I guess, meet it through most of my interactions, the overwhelming majority are their hearts are too big for that. Right. Like they're, not going to let the elderly lady. Sure.

have to use the AI chatbot. And so that's just the nature of the the servant industry, right? We're just service minded. We're generally servant leadership minded as an industry. So I think there's a reason for never letting that go today that I can see into the future. Like I don't really understand the world where as an independent agency,

we're going to look like a direct writer somehow. Yeah. Like we're going to, we're going to lose all connection. That feels like we spun, know, we, we, we went too far on the pendulum, right? We just, we just went way too far.

Speaker 5 (46:01)
Yeah. But is, there a concern of the next generation?

Speaker 2 (46:10)
That's why I've shut up.

Speaker 5 (46:13)
of is there is there a concern for the next generation and Being service minded like like we grew up. you know like Mike and I wouldn't had dinner last night and we had a really really good server at Texas Roadhouse and They're they're not a dime a dozen anymore. Yeah, you know what I mean? Like when you go out to eat

Speaker 1 (46:22)
do it for me.

⁓

the ⁓

Speaker 2 (46:39)
I want to leave him a card

Speaker 5 (46:49)
But I just, I feel like now or the generation coming up is there's fewer of them that are willing to give that level of service. That may be more willing to adopt a, ⁓ because they don't want to interact as much. know I'm saying?

Speaker 1 (47:04)
I think we have to be careful about... ⁓

You know, kind of making these and this goes for every generation. This goes for Xers, for boomers, millennials, Gen Z specifically, because I have some, I have some ⁓ insight into Gen Z with my daughters and their friends and just I've intentionally had conversations about some of this. think we have to really be careful about broad, just broad stroking the generation. And I think we hear a lot.

Speaker 5 (47:38)
operation.

Speaker 1 (47:41)
about laziness or don't care or whatever. But there's, there's a lot that do like stuff's important. Like they are, they're not trusting of AI. Right. Okay. Because they see so much fake and right. And so if they get authentic service, if they are getting, you know, a really good experience, I think they're going to

Speaker 5 (47:59)
I see.

Speaker 1 (48:10)
They're going to be willing to pay a premium for that because they seen my pick on them. My daughters think everything's a scam. Like legit email dad, is this a scam? Like legit text from the doctor's office. Hey, this looks like a scam. Is this a scam? Like everything they, they will stop and check because the world is out to scam them. That's how distrusting they are because of AI.

Speaker 4 (48:18)
Thanks.

Speaker 1 (48:39)
because of the dark web and the things that, you know, the match.com like just, they just, they're not going to do it. I think there's something about that that's going to reveal itself and why we shouldn't be so quick to eliminate the human touch, right? The human interaction.

Speaker 2 (48:45)
TheMatch.com.

Speaker 5 (49:06)
I think the other side of it, to your point, ⁓ when you're looking at it from a business perspective, you know, if you're thinking about getting into insurance and you feel like you really would prefer not to talk to people, I think you have to have a real honest conversation with yourself about whether this is really a direction you should want to go in. Because at the end of the day, you do have to create those relationships.

Speaker 1 (49:31)
You might be an actuary, a product, maybe an underwriter. Like you might not be a salesperson. Yeah. Now maybe there's a role for you in the industry, but probably not going to be the sales.

Speaker 3 (49:35)
You're a ma-

Speaker 2 (49:48)
I think customers should want to talk to people for the hard stuff.

Speaker 5 (49:52)
Yes, agreed.

Speaker 2 (49:53)
That JD Power Surrey talked about that 50 % of people didn't want any AI involved with the claim. A is emotional. They really want to be able to talk to a person.

Speaker 1 (50:04)
Yeah.

And what's really interesting is how much the carriers are promoting the utilization and implementation of AI in their claims. That is what's real like, are we even listening? Like are we even paying attention?

Speaker 5 (50:19)
Yeah,

that's completely take the emotion out of it, right?

which is very difficult to do in a class. Exactly, I know how we do.

Speaker 1 (50:27)
Right. Yeah. Yeah. Now I, ⁓

Hard stuff. think that's right. mean, there's things that, and I think the customer kind of dictates the interpretation of what is the hard stuff. There's things that probably are easy. I just think about myself as a consumer that there are probably things that are easy to do, but I don't know they're easy to do. So I'm just going to pick up the phone and call. ⁓

Speaker 5 (50:58)
ID cards. I mean, they're easy, right? But some people call or come by and need to pick them up.

Speaker 1 (50:59)
I think I.

Speaker 2 (51:08)
I don't know who their insurance is. Just telling you.

Speaker 1 (51:13)
But

Speaker 2 (51:15)
But that's what gives us an opportunity as independent agents to be so successful. And if you're out there and you're listening and you want to join a group and have access to carriers with a company that really believes in balance, because I mean, I love AI, I love what it can do for efficiency to help be successful, but I also love to talk to that person too and make sure they're taken care of. And I believe that's where we are.

with the Integral Partner Network is we have a great balance of those things working together to help our partners be successful.

Speaker 1 (51:53)
Yeah, there's, I think there's a little bit of an illusion to what makes you more money. This assumption that you're well, AI is going to save the day and make me more money. Retention. Retention is what makes you more money, right? Retaining clients makes you more money. If you are running clients off because you're giving them an experience that they don't want or that they don't trust.

That's one of my big concerns is tanking our retention because we did go too far because we didn't kind of look at this and go, wait a minute, what does the customer work? Hey, that's cool. It's that's really cool that it gave me that information that the tool gave me that information. It's really cool that it can do all these things, but does the customer care when it's all said and done? Because

All it really matters is does the customer care? Does the customer see value in what we're doing for them and are they state? Because if we retain them, now we're making money. We're not making money just by watching it churn and selling new, not worrying about keeping, know, it's age old. If you want to grow, you got to retain. You can't just grow selling. You got to grow by serving. right.

Speaker 2 (53:16)
I'm going to leave us today with this quote from Serena Williams, technology can help you prepare, but it will never replace showing up.

Speaker 1 (53:24)
Attitude to choice, make a great one.

Speaker 5 (53:27)
At the Integra Partner Network, we understand that carrier access is the key to your agency's success. That's why Integra offers direct access to top-rated personal and commercial carriers, ensuring your agency thrives in today's challenging markets. And with our comprehensive resources, profit sharing, and bonus opportunities, technology, and peer support, all of you retain 100 % of your book with no penalties to exit. Integra is ready to empower you and your agency to find sustained growth.

Find your way to Integra. Visit IntegraPartnerNetwork.com today. That's IntegraPartnerNetwork.com. ⁓