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Technology in 2012: Agents

Technology for Agents
Keeping up with technology and how the consumer wants to and will work with the agent is the prime issue for providers going forward to 2012, says Jerry D. Fox, a former agent who is vice president, Agency Operations, for Marshall and Swift/Boeckh (MSB). "I do not believe this is a new issue, but the speed of innovation is ever increasing and the independent agency system is already behind. It will need to make some quantum leaps to catch up."

If that is the case, how will agency budgets play into the technology strategy? "The agency will have to prioritize what they want to do," says Fox. "Fortunately, technology infrastructure (storage, computing power, etc.) is remaining static if not decreasing in price. What the agency will need to do is not worry so much about the hard line items, but more about how they want to be seen by the consumer. It is more about quick, mobile, 24/7/365 support than how fast their PC is. It is a major shift in thinking on how the 'relationship' is made and kept."

Still, according to Fox, "the independent agency system is way behind in almost all areas of technology. They have been worrying about whose data is whose and where it is stored when the whole system should have been thinking about who should have access to what and when.

via www.acord.org

This article in this week's issue of ACORD Weekly Newsletter is worth a read if you're an agent or broker. Fox is saying that, when making technology choices, agents have tended to focus on themselves and not on their clients. In his view, agents who want to have staying power will have to change their ways. It's a mobile-Facebook-Twitter world; insurance producers will have to join it or become obsolete. Pretty sobering thought.

UPDATE: I was remiss in not mentioning Project CAP, an initiative of the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America to help independent agents compete online with the direct writers of the world. There will be a lot of activity surrounding this project in 2012, so stay tuned.

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BizBuzz Social Media Conference Notes

I attended the BizBuzz Social Media Conference in Liverpool earlier this week and took a lot of notes. Now that I've finished transcribing them into a readable format, I'm making them available here for anyone who is interested, whether you were there or not. I hope you find them intelligible.

Download My BizBuzz Social Media Conference 2011 Notes

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NY Court Denies Access To Claimant's Facebook Page

If you want to be a card-carrying InsuranceGeek^®, one thing you must do is subscribe to the always-informative newsletter Coverage Pointers from the law firm of Hurwitz & Fine, P.C. Back in the day, if I wanted to track insurance-related court decisions in New York, I had to peruse the Web sites of the various appellate courts. Imagine my excitement when I found out that Dan Kohane and his staff of attorneys were doing it for me. Now I can sit back and wait for his e-mail to hit my in-box every other Friday (coincidentally, the day after pay day; I'm very fond of those weeks.)

The newsletter brought an interesting November 12 decision to my attention. It came out of the New York Supreme Court Appellate Division's Fourth Department, which has jurisdiction over the western half of the state. The case, McCann v. Harleysville Ins. Co. of New York, arose from the Buffalo area. Kara McCann was seriously injured in an accident involving a car in which she was a passenger. She sued and settled with the driver, then sought benefits from the driver's Supplementary Uninsured/Underinsured Motorist Coverage. The insurer (Harleysville) apparently had some doubt as to whether Ms. McCann actually suffered a serious injury (as defined by New York's no-fault insurance law) in the accident. Harleysville asked the court to compel her to disclose photographs and to grant the company authorization to view the contents of her Facebook account. The trial court said that this request was too broad, and the appellate court agreed.

Harleysville amended its request to make its scope narrower and went back to the trial court. Once again, the court said no. In addition, it granted McCann's request for a protective order to prevent the company' from seeking access to the Facebook page in the future. The company again appealed, and the Appellate Division in its November 12 opinion affirmed the trial court's ruling. Harleysville, the court said, failed to establish any facts showing that the Facebook page was relevant as evidence. "Indeed," according to the opinion, "defendant (Harleysville) essentially sought permission to conduct 'a fishing expedition' into plaintiff's Facebook account based on the mere hope of finding relevant evidence."

The bright side for the insurer was that the court reversed the trial court's decision to forbid it from seeking disclosure of the Facebook account in the future, calling it an abuse of the court's discretion. Should the company find a factual basis for believing that the Facebook page has relevant evidence, the court said it could make a third request for disclosure.

Insurance companies can and will use all sources of information available to them when underwriting risks and adjusting claims. Expect to see more fights like this in the future. For now, an insurer who wants to see what's on your Facebook page has to have a reason backed up by facts. As we all know, however, the law evolves, so this principle may change. Stay tuned.

Do you agree or disagree with the Fourth Department on this one? The comments section is open.

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Social Media, Meet Employment Practices Liability

Connecticut Firm Must Defend Firing Employee Over Facebook Comments

The story described in this report in today's Insurance Journal will probably become more common. Employer upsets employee; employee (foolishly) vents frustration on Facebook or some other Web site for the whole world to see; employee upsets employer; employer bids farewell to employee.

People have griped about their employers since the guy overseeing construction of the Great Pyramids said, "Get back to work, ye lazy (fill in the blank)." The difference now is that you can leave a permanent record of your venting before you've had a chance to cool off and ask yourself, "Gee, should I really have written that?" This is never really a wise thing to do, particularly with an official unemployment rate hovering just below 10 percent and the unofficial rate plus the underemployment rate considerably higher.

However, some employees will cry foul when they get dismissed over something they wrote on Facebook, sometimes with justification, and attorneys are ready, willing and able to take on the fight. This is reason #146 why firms large and small need employment practices liability insurance. The most benevolent of employers still have the real possibility of a summons requesting significant amounts of money for a former (or current) employee who feels he has been wronged. Nine out of ten of the firm's supervisors may be sweethearts, but that tenth one may be the dictionary definition of a jerk and may take personally a Facebook post made in both jest and poor judgment. That's the person who will land the company in court.

Facebook, Twitter, chat rooms, forums, etal., give people a false sense of anonymity; they're fooling themselves. I've read multiple reports lately of employers using Facebook as an applicant screening tool. I don't necessarily agree with using it that way (let he who does not have at least one embarrassing photo from his college days cast the first virtual stone), but it's happening. Now employers can just as easily track what their minions are saying on their "personal" Facebook pages. How they react just might win them some quality attorney time.

Have you had this conversation with any of your clients? What was the result? Spin your tales in the comments. I'm closing up the Geek Cave for the weekend. Enjoy!

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How NOT To Use Social Media

, Price Chopper Attacks Customer's Job Over Negative Tweet

Last week, I posted comments from Kelly Lux's blog as an example of how insurance agencies should be using social media to build strong relationships with their customers. Today, I have the exact opposite, ironically coming from the same industry as the first example.

Whether or not you think the business in question here was justified in its reaction, there is no doubt in my mind that this is a public relations disaster for the company. Unless you think that appearing vindictive and mean-spirited is a valid marketing strategy, you may want to avoid doing this sort of thing in the future. (For informational purposes only, let me clarify that this is my opinion and not IIABNY's.)

What do you think? Was the business's response appropriate or excessive? How would you or your staff respond to similar criticism posted on Twitter or Facebook? I suspect that this sort of thing is bound to happen to most organizations, my own included. Someone, somewhere will not like something the organization does and will say so on a social media site. What can we learn from the incident described in this post, and how should we handle it when it happens to us?

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How Your Insurance Agency Should Be Using Social Media

Everyone knows that Wegmans is the best grocery store in the country. We in Central New York take this for granted because they began in Rochester and have been in the Syracuse area since the John Glenn Boulevard store opened in Liverpool in 1968.

via careerviewmirror.wordpress.com

This post from Kelly Lux's Career View Mirror blog is about my favorite supermarket chain, but the things she describes are the perfect model for insurance agencies trying to figure out how to use social media. Relationships with customers are built one tweet at a time. Read and learn.

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Anti-Social Media: Part Four — Mainstream Mistakes and Conclusion

This is the final part of Tee Morris's presentation on anti-social media. You'll get a lot out of this even if you haven't watched the first three parts, but I strongly encourage you to watch the whole thing. As I write this, Tee is giving this presentation to groups in New Zealand.

I'm curious as to your reactions. Does Tee's message make sense to you? Have a contrary opinion? Questions about how all this works? Chime in on the comments!

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Socially-Challenged Networking

As promised, here is part three of Tee Morris's presentation, ANTI-Social Media (I posted parts one and two earlier this week.) In this episode, Tee turns the microscope on himself.

Again, you can find more information on this series at www.imaginethatstudios.com.

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When Does a Podcast Become Problematic?

This is part two of Tee Morris's presentation ANTI-Social Media (see yesterday's post for part one.) IIABNY has two podcasts, and I know some IIABNY members are contemplating launching podcasts. They might want to watch this first to avoid the pitfalls.

More information about the series is at www.imaginethatstudios.com. I'll post part three tomorrow. Watch, listen and learn.

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