There is a broker who is frustrated at where the industry is headed, and cautions that in the rush to embrace technology, the channel is losing its trump card – valued face-to-face advice.
“We’ve lost touch with the client,” says Mike O’Grady, broker/owner of O’Grady & Associates Insurance Services in Tillsonburg, Ont., who admits that his opinion may not the popular message that is currently being put out to brokers. “I’m the type of person that says things people don’t like to hear; but brokers who are going online – it is just going the wrong way – that’s what rubs me the wrong way.”
The first to admit he is an old-school broker – his father used to drive around the rural roads of Ontario with Frank Cowan back in the day – O’Grady fears that the rush to embrace technology is removing a vital commodity that brokers can offer the client – that of a trusted, valued advisor, who will conduct business face-to-face.
“We have a lady here who worked at a call centre, and is so happy to be at a small office – we’re interacting with the client,” says O’Grady. “And I tell my staff: ‘Don’t hide behind the emails. Give the guy a call. Phone him up.’ I don’t know if there are many out there like me who are doing that.”
But don’t mistake O’Grady for being a Luddite.
His brokerage has set up a website just in the last year, and it is showing results from online traffic. But it is only a tool, O’Grady points out, and shouldn’t take the place of the personal touch – and reduce insurance and brokers to a commodity.
“It’s a real shame. We don’t as brokers have the status of accountants or lawyers in this world, and we should,” he told Insurance Business. “It is unbelievably important for brokers to play the advisor role.”
And part of the expertise should come from the old school training he received listening to his father and Frank Cowan talk about the business – a sort of apprenticeship that still holds value today, he says.
“I learned from the old guys, sitting in on Cowan meetings,” says O’Grady. “I had some really smart people with good attitudes to show me the ropes way back when. I don’t know now whether the young people are being shown the ropes, or if it is a case of ‘Get the job done! We’re going to audit you! Get more done; get more done.’ I think it is going in the complete wrong direction.”
