Allstate partnered with over 200 dealerships starting in 2012 now they have to cut employees to lower rates and stay competitive. With the National General purchase they should just become independent especially if they don't give their own captive agents access to National General rates and products. Dealerships be ware
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@4owm+16OLyLIw then you tell me how an auto dealership agent was able to call my customer to bind a landlord policy moments after I had disconnected with the customer while he was driving home to get his bank information. It was an open quote I had written, I was the only contact the person had at Allstate, the caller identified herself as from the agency. I also know of auto policies written for customers who had property coverage and by changing the middle initial, leaving out the middle initial, changing the spelling slightly of a name, were able to bind as a new customer for the dealership. Then they roll over the property. Are you daft?
I would be interested in how you would "steal" a customer from an EA? Asking for a friend.......
@2mpj+16OLyLIw The Dealership program makes you work Nights, weekends, and holidays. The agencies routinely steal customers from the EA's but do not want to service the customer. They are a joke
@2kei+16OLyLIw That is exactly what the dealership program is not about, the other poster was generally right on the requirements it has been not a great success but not a failure either.
The criteria to start a dealership agency is all about the amount of work they do for maintenance of the vehicles, that amount has to meet a minimum amount to be considered. We turned down several dealerships who did not meet the threshold of maintenance business.
The biggest hurdle with the dealerships is staffing, they need many more LSP's than a normal dealership and the hours are longer including weekends.
The dealership program is a joke. Sales are generated to people who do not have insurance while buying a vehicle and the hope is that they will qualify once the MVR is obtained. Hope is that agents will survive by buying leads like any other agency and doing a sell job over the phone. Hope is that if the auto agency receives enough information on auto and home that the agent can convince the customer to switch carriers. You spend your day running from pending auto sale to pending auto sale with potential customers who want you to leave them alone
Are the dealership agencies being phased out? (good riddance if true)
Good riddance to the dealership agents. The business was terrible, the producers lied on applications over and over, and they rarely serviced their policies. Regular EAs have to clean up the dealership c-ap business because insureds don't want to go back to the dealership to make policy changes or payments. It should have been set up as new business commission ONLY and then handed over to EAs or the CIC to service. And it should have been 100% underwriter reviewed.
The data on dealerships has shown that the business they were gaining through the dealerships is business that probably would not have been gathered via traditional agents, it was an opportunity to give people quotes while they were waiting for their car to be services, the dealership program is about contacting people whose vehicles were in the shop, not buying new or used cars. In general it has not been a great success, and now with coronavirus issues I can see it being even less.
- but, but, but the Esurance acquisition went so well! That's why Allstate is now a recognized growth leader in the online sales market, right?
Allstate will bring that same magic to the IA & non standard market.
The Nat Gen nonstandard product will be available to Allstate agencies. The roll out will be a bust for the Agents. My Prediction:
*Agents Access will be through their Ivantage platform meaning it will be difficult to get quotes
*Commissions will only be about 4% to 5% making the product not profitable for agents to write.
*Allstate pricing will be overlaid on the Nat Gen Product making the renewals unstable
*Progressive insurance will not Let Allstate dominate the nonstandard market
*The Nat Gen purchase will need immediate attention to loss control beacause Nat Gen has been buying Marketshare for 2 years looking for a s—er (Allstate) to overpay for the company
*Allstate’s attitude (lower commissions, you work for me) towards agents will not fly with independent agents. Nat Gen/Allstate sales management will have many doors hitting them in the a$$ as they leave the independent agent offices
*Nat Gen claims need to fixed also, the rank very low in customer satisfaction not even registering on JD power and associates claim satisfaction
*Allstate’s refusal to address their inferior investment department, will allow geico to be superior to Allstate in this arena also
*Being an independent agent and an Ex-Allstate agent I want nothing to do with Nat Gen. I care too much about my customers!
Captive agents should have seen the writing on the wall when Allstate went into dealerships. Taking away customers from their own agents showed exactly how All state felt/feels about its employees. Now they purchased a non standard company to boost their market share; they have no clue how to run a non standard let alone their own standard program. So will captive agents have access to the non standard rates so they can stay in business? I doubt it because their contract states no. Putting their own people out of business while they live like fat cats.