Agency Profile: Big Tech, Small Town

Hill & Hamilton Insurance

Bellefontaine, Ohio
Founded: 1920
Employees: 30

This small-town firm plans to slay the giant by offering its clients what an InsurTech disruptor can’t: face-to-face service fully supported by the ease and efficiency of digital operations.

“I’m extremely passionate about technology,” says Matt Simon, vice president of Hill & Hamilton Insurance. “Every technology we implement needs to ease the transaction for our clients and our firm’s advisers.”

The investments are paying off: Eight producers generated gross revenues of $3.7 million in 2016 and expect to approach $4 million this year. 5,300 personal lines customers represent a third of the business mix, while 1,400 commercial lines customers represent nearly 60%.

KELLY YOUNG, DIRECTOR OF MARKETING

We’ve made our most significant investment in our digital presence: website optimization, blogging, e-books, social media, email marketing. And the prospecting challenge is a major factor in our commitment to that presence. Our producers are great at closing accounts; they just need to be in front of qualified buyers. Our digital resources are all designed to supplement their pipeline. It’s successful because it gives us the capability to target the specific types of clients we’re trying to attract, communicate a message directly to this target audience and then reinforce that message throughout the lifetime of the relationship. Strategic partners—Bold Penguin, TrustedChoice.com and The Shipyard—have been fantastic resources for our producers to gain more opportunities and close new accounts.

Applied Epic is the foundation of our platform, and the support they provide on our harebrained ideas is top notch. Between Epic and Hubspot, our CRM tool, we’re able to communicate with each client or prospect, on their terms, as frequently as needed. We use drip campaigns to stay engaged with prospective clients and to communicate policy or industry changes.

Although our top three niches are construction, professional liability and manufacturing, our mix of business reflects the communities we serve. We look at our niches more from a geographic perspective rather than an industry one.

MATTHEW T. SIMON, VICE PRESIDENT

We’re just a family agency in small-town Ohio, but we’re deeply committed to our family values and we have big dreams. Our industry is being disrupted by technology, but we want to be the disruption instead of the disrupted. Each of our five locations provides small-town, boutique-style service, but collectively, we bring the big-city resources necessary to satisfy the sophisticated needs of our clients. This model falls apart without the right technology. We shouldn’t have to make consumers choose between professional advice or a beautiful technology experience. Why not give them both?

The entire agency business model needs to be rethought. A two-week turnaround time should be two hours, at the most. Clients should be able to access their data anytime, anywhere, from any device. They should be able to communicate with us when they need us, but they should also have the opportunity to leverage technology for the transactional items where they prefer we not get involved. Why aren’t we integrating with chat bots like the Amazon Echo, so clients can make routine changes simply by asking Alexa to swap a vehicle?

We as an industry need to make a major commitment to implementing technology that can reduce or eliminate transactional work so that our associates have the opportunity to do what no technology, to date, has been able to do: Look a client in the eye, truly understand what that client is trying to accomplish and then develop an insurance protection plan that meets their needs.

MARILYN SPRINGS, SENIOR ACCOUNT MANAGER

Our investment in technology has allowed us to experiment with flexible work arrangements. We’re largely dedicated to serving small towns, so the opportunity to meet face to face is still hugely important to our clients. But in our small town, the right talent can be hard to find. Not long ago, we had to expand our geographic search to hire a commercial lines account manager. Our top-quality candidate lives an hour from our office, so we offered her a flexible, work-from-home schedule. She probably works more hours than if she were in the office five days a week.

We encourage education and the pursuit of professional designations for our team. We also participate in the Applied Client Network and send multiple associates to their annual conference. We’re huge supporters of the Ohio Insurance Agents Association and the remarkable work they’re doing to support independent agents—it was one of our best decisions to be surrounded by many of the best minds in our industry that force us to think differently about nearly every aspect of business, leadership and volunteer work.