Thread regarding State Farm Insurance layoffs

Who cares about a contract change, it is what it is.
Been a good ride

It’s (this close) to the point where almost wish they’d announce a contract change date. Then we could stop wondering about when to retire because New Contract Date minus one day would be the clear and obvious choice.

Gotta keep yourself relevant going forward I’m hoping for just five more years before major comp change. It’s looking like it’s going to be sooner rather than later, glad I sack away 1.5 in retirement and two homes paid off. Good luck to everyone I knew this deal wouldn’t last forever.

And the customers still call their agent to report claims.....and are p-ss-d when we tell them that function was removed from our computers 6 years ago.

Dude they are changing contract. Its been in works for sometime, Allstate is already doing it to survive.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2020/02/10/558054.htm
Servicing taking payments and adding five autos per week in toast. It’s a matter of time SF plan was to shore up renewal comp by Mutual Funds, Long Term Care, Quicken Mortgage and US Bank. The future is going to change fast. Better get big boy pants on. The Hubs will handle all servicing for consistent customer experience agents will be drivers for sales only, in incidental servicing just like when they transfer claims reporting years back, 800 number will be on all ID cards and renewals. Good luck unless u sell a ton of MF, Life and Bank

If they change agent contract right now they really are stupid. SF can’t service anything correctly. They can’t keep their systems up.,
If they run half the agents off right now it’s game over.

I would get the sails ready to pull, reality SF takes over servicing policy changes, payments, questions what will they pay service comp for going forward.
It’s going to be a career changer for a lot of good people.

@kkcg....many will just decide to sail into retirement.

Automation and new agency compensation agreement this year count on it. It will be a mess like everything else. Time to find a new ride or a good backup gig

Train train train. Something that has been lost. Can you imagine our soldiers going into battle without training. SF gives the soldier the rifle but no longer trains. Soldiers die because of that and businesses fail for that. A leadership blunder.

Our Chiefs do not want to automate. Too worried about rocking the boat. I know of an Automation tool that was working and it was ignored. It worked great and they said too much change!!

In ET and with third party vendors you will find many conflicts of interest

Automating and implementing/integrating and calling it “risk/compliance” and sales it a bit deceitful.

Of course there will be more automation. More automation means fewer people. Fewer people means less whining and more money for me and my amazing family. Get used to it. Words can't begin to express how tired I am of you people.

“Our SVP said ........” geezus fn Christ, you really don’t have a clue do you. What else did I you overhear at the last board meeting you attended? I’m sure they value your input. Get back to the mailroom, my March edition of the reflector is overdue, I use it as a backup source of toilet paper when we run low.

Agency success depends on location to a large extent, take an agent in small town Midwest, no growth state, they are lucky to stay even if underwriting in that state is a planned no growth state, take second agency in Phoenix or Austin where you have a ton on population growth, they will grow by simply answering the phone and doing state to states all day long. Is agent b a better agent? No, just in a better location. You guys like to talk like you know what agency is about but in actuality you don’t have a fn clue, that’s why you are sitting in a cube worrying about your s—y job. I personally doubt agency is going away, and I doubt the co will screw wit the contract anytime soon, they don’t have a viable option to replace agents regardless of what you think. If however you are right and the company decides to change the agency distribution system or reduce agent compensation, I and most of the agents I know are very well set financially to tell State Farm to kiss our asss, we will be just fine, then we will sit on our deck looking at the waves roll in and watch the train wreck, we are the glue that makes the clients stick to this company not some clueless fool in a hub somewhere. You better bump that 401k contribution up before they eliminate that also.

Change is hard for the enterprise, but in order to be competitive in the future and provide the most consistent customer experience, change unfourtunatly has to happen. Hopefully our agency force will embrace change and adapt to change. Unfourtunatly we have hired a large number of agents that don’t have the competencies to really run a complex agency distribution system. When half the agents grow there books and the other half loses business or stays at zero growth you have a problem. Companies like Amazon Proggressive and Gieco aren’t doing nothing.

@1gvi.....The “service” being done now is creating more work for agents. State to State transfers written as new business by CCC. They’re done after one call and we spend weeks trying to fix it for a really angry customer. We’re paid less than our expenses on that, BTW. State required forms never seem to get sent out for signature...yep, guess who has to fix that. Policies written all the time for married people with no spouse info. It goes on and on.

Our SVP said expect a schedule of comp change within the next year. It’s been in the works for sometime. Hopefully a three year transition like 97. Been a good ride.

What the timetable on renewal commission reduction? It sure is looking like they are staffing up at hubs for a major operational change hiring 16K.

What a tool, agents will be fine, we are used to planning around your f ups. I should have more time to spend at my lake house. But thanks for your concern, by the way scooter, what’s your plan b?

Oh automation is already here. Service will be facilitated thru 800 number, online, Mobil app, email, text. Servicing load in the next two years will drop at agents office by 75%, renewal docs and insurance cards will direct customers to one of the three hubs putting 800 numbers on all correspondences. Agents will warm transfer servicing to the Hub just like claims.
Result renewal comp will drop hard. Better start shacking some cash away it’s going to get messy.

It is funny how things turn 180 degrees. When I started in 1990, you literally could put a monkey in an agent's office and it was a license to print money. Our service and reputation was that good. Claims was top notch and head and shoulders above our competition. Now claims is in the sh–ter and agents come and go so fast there is no need to learn their names anymore. But we are stronger financially than ever before as we are so often reminded by the Bald One.