WFH Is Great But Personal Interactions Still Matter
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“WFH” (Working From Home) is a new acronym that we are all just learning. There’s no doubt about it. The pandemic has super-charged the remote working trend. Despite barking dogs, romping kids and the constant temptation of the refrigerator (or a nap) just a few steps away, many of us are finding out that we can, in fact, do much of our work quite effectively without commuting to the office every day.
According to a new MIT report, 34% of working Americans have jobs that lend themselves to working from home. For independent agents, that’s probably closer to 75% or 80% of us.
Conducting business whenever and wherever on a laptop and a phone provides great convenience and flexibility. It can also help increase your income by potentially reducing fixed operating costs, like that monthly rent bill you are paying for your office — whether you are there or not.
As independent agents, the heart of our value proposition is trust; real, person-to-person, “I know you” relationships. Our brand of trust is built on demonstrating our expertise by meeting face-to-face with our prospects, clients and carrier reps. All the pithy slogans and amusing mascots we are bombarded with from insurance companies spending their huge advertising budgets create awareness; but cannot engender the same level of connection or trust.
One thing that hasn’t changed is that people simply prefer to do business with people they can know personally. Dialing an anonymous call center and navigating an impenetrable menu of automated commands or logging on to a Zoom meeting is just not the same as shaking hands (perhaps, hopefully again someday in the near future) and looking each other in the eye.
We can and should embrace and deploy virtual digital tools that are both cost and effort-effective for certain, everyday back-room sales and administrative tasks. There’s certainly no shortage of those in our business! As we inevitably move more to paperless operations, our need for a large physical office footprint will shrink. Already today, for example, there is no market for used file cabinets.
Independent agencies are, in fact, especially well-suited to conduct many operations digitally — and remotely. A case can be made that you don’t need the heavy expense burden of an office at all.
But what about when you do need to meet in person with a client or business associate? That’s not every day and not necessary for every interaction but it’s a crucial pillar of our business model. In a remote-working scenario, without a fixed office, where do you go to get together in a private, quiet, professional setting?
Certainly not Starbucks or Panera.
For many of us, especially sole proprietors and smaller agencies, the answer will be some form of shared space. Channeling Liberty Mutual: “Only pay for what you need”.
One sharing model that has been gaining traction in recent years is co-working. Companies like WeWork and Gather offer flexible (albeit expensive) work-space-on-demand solutions. That approach, which emphasizes cool-looking, open communal work environments and encourages interactions among diverse users who are generally strangers to each other, may have to be significantly altered in the light of the Coronavirus. A new recognition of the need for privacy and physical distancing will require a rethinking of the traditional co-working concept.
At our company, we are exploring a related idea: renting out fractional meeting space. We plan to offer contracted access to our 6-seat, video-enabled conference room to independent agents in our area who might only occasionally need such a facility. If you too have such space, you too might want to consider the fractional concept.
“Change is the only constant in life” is an aphorism attributed to Heraclitus, an ancient Greek philosopher. We’re surely living it today. Being flexible and adapting intelligently to changed circumstances will be the hallmark of tomorrow’s successful independent agencies.
Contributed by:
Stephen Wyss, Managing Director
Affinity Group Underwriters, Glen Allen VA
www.agu.net / swyss@agu.net / 804.273.9797
