Q&A: Liberty Mutual distribution leader talks agent digital transformation

Before the pandemic, independent agencies operated mostly in person.Carrier representatives did in-person agency visits. Customer expectations were shifting toward digital, so customer visits to agencies were becoming less frequent, but agencies still expected some in-person visits.

It's important to note that there's a huge variety in how agencies operate. When COVID shut things down, some agencies had the infrastructure set up to continue doing business as usual. Other agencies had to make quick pivots to continue serving clients.

According to research by Liberty Mutual, before the pandemic, only about a third of independent agencies had employees who worked remotely. At the height of the pandemic, nearly 78% of agencies had staff working remotely. It was a huge shift.

Some agencies didn't have laptops, so staff members were at home working on their personal computers. People had to figure out how to talk to customers while at home with their kids in the background. Agents couldn't take their clients out to lunch. They had to figure out how to bring in referrals and new leads without having those day-to-day in-person interactions in the community. Agents had to get creative about how to keep their network in a virtual world.

Once we all solutioned for those things, we're not going to unsolution them – especially given that digital solutions are more efficient, more cost-effective, and better able to meet customers' expectations and needs. After the pandemic, a lot of the new ways of doing things stuck, because we all saw the efficiencies that were gained.

In the wake of the pandemic, we've all become more purposeful with our time. Independent agencies are figuring out how to keep the efficiencies they gained, but they are also taking advantage of the fact that they can go back in person and have that human interaction. I see a lot of agents offering more choices to meet people where they want to be met – whether that's in person, on a phone call, or on a video meeting. We're doing the same thing as a carrier.

A lot of the ways agents process and sell business were already digital before the pandemic. But how agents communicate and deliver on client needs became completely digital. A lot of the back-office operations turned digital, too.

For example, agents started leaning more on their agency management systems instead of using paper files in agencies. They started touching base with clients via email campaigns instead of via paper mail. They had to rethink how they communicate with clients throughout the lifecycle of the policy.

The pandemic also showed that referrals alone are not a reliable way to aggressively grow an agency year after year in a consistent way. A referral network is only so big. Agents have to go beyond that and tap into digital resources. That's important for our industry to solve for, pandemic or not. When someone's shopping for insurance online, independent agencies should absolutely be capitalizing on that. Things like SEO, social media, and digital advertising are key for growth. In fact, Liberty Mutual research found that highly digital agencies grow an average of 70% faster than other agencies. And Google Ads, online quotes, social media, and other digital marketing strategies were correlated with growth.

Expectations around digital have changed, too, so agencies must evolve to stay competitive. More and more customers want to be able to do business online, and many will stop doing business with companies that don't keep up with their digital expectations.

Employees also want to work with businesses that have digital tools in place to make their jobs more flexible and efficient. As we all know, there's a talent crisis within the independent agency world. Agents that are attracting top talent are ahead of the curve with digital. They are finding ways to create a healthy, engaging culture without having to see employees face-to-face every day. If an agency isn't investing in employees this way, what is stopping the employees from looking at the agency next door?

During the pandemic, a lot of independent agencies had to make quick decisions about what tools to invest in to continue serving their clients. Some of those decisions may have been just out of necessity. There were challenges with how that impacted their staff. And the question now is, are they continuing to revisit those decisions? How are they making long-term investments for their staff and their agency culture going forward?

With more people working from home during COVID, agency leaders had to figure out how to invest in their people outside of the four walls of their agency office. This brought up more conversations around topics like DEI and overall employee well-being. What was really unique about COVID was that we saw into each other's homes in a way we hadn't before. We got to meet people on a more personal level. So now, we're figuring out how to bring that back into the office with us – how to let people bring their full self to work.

To me, the biggest challenge is ongoing: How do we think about the world long-term now in light of all the things that have changed? What bet should agency leaders place for how to run their business for the next five years? For example, should they force everyone to come back into the office Monday through Friday? When the research team at Liberty Mutual surveyed independent agents at the end of 2022, half of them were still working remotely at least one day a week.

However, 62% would prefer to work remotely at least one day a week, and the majority of agency staff members said they were happier, more productive and had a better work-life balance when they worked from home.