Guest Blogger Nibby Priest, GoVaughn.com Insurance: “High-Touch Relationships”

For Aartrijk’s new series of guest bloggers from in and around the insurance industry, we welcome Nibby Priest of GoVaughn.com Insurance Agency, a full-service independent agency headquartered in Henderson, Kentucky, and serving Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois.

About Nibby: Nibby began his insurance career in August 1983 as a part-time employee in his father’s business, then joined the agency full-time in 1986 after graduating from Eastern Kentucky University. Nibby is known nationally for his insurance agency automation consulting work with the AGENA Corporation and National Users of AGENA Systems. He has also worked extensively with Henderson Community College as an instructor in various computer-related classes.

1. What has happened in the past year with your agency/firm now in the area of branding? What changes or initiatives have you been working on? What is the top challenge right now for companies like yours?

We are trying to brand more with our online name GoVaughn.com Insurance, instead of our old, long name Vaughn Insurance Agency Co.

We have dropped our Yellow Pages, TV, radio and newspaper advertisements. Our biggest challenge is making sense out of it all, even though we know that the time we are spending in social media and new media (online advertising) is really the right way to go.

We also are looking more to referrals for new business. We really feel high-touch relationships (referrals) are where some of our best business is coming from.

With Internet leads, the good news is that consumers are ready and willing to talk insurance, but their eagerness to share information and buy gives us pause about writing the business.

2. It seems like 2008-2009 was a watershed time for social networking for consumers, while a few insurance practitioners were getting ramped up on social networking. But by and large, there was fear and loathing of it. What do you see as the status (of opportunity and implementation) at the moment for independent insurance agents and social networking?

Agents are seeing the benefits. Just this week I downloaded and installed Microsoft’s add in for Outlook that meshes my Outlook Contacts with Facebook and LinkedIn. I created a separate contacts list for my clients. I couldn’t believe how many of my existing clients are on Facebook and LinkedIn. This is just another way we can reach out and touch and be real to these people.

Many agents are educating themselves about SM [social media] and just a sense of awareness leads them to acknowledge how productive and interesting social networking can be. I don’t see as many totally ‘dissing’ the idea as were 12 months ago — which is good since many were dishing because they simply didn’t understand or know about SM.

3. The insurance industry has long been known for collaboration and idea-sharing among peers, especially independent agents. What are your best sources and inspirations for branding, marketing communications, social networking, etc. within the industry?

My Twitter friends! Peeps like Pat Alexander, Steve Anderson and Laura Toops. The quick little tidbits of information and links that they and many other insurance agents share, specifically on Twitter, are most helpful to me.

4. Now a word from our sponsor. Tell us one thing that you learned at Aartrijk Brand Camp 2009, and how you have implemented it or changed your branding since then.

Collaboration needs to not only be between likes (agents to agents) — but also company people, brand marketing people, large agents, small agents, new agents, old agents.

I have been trying to network more and be more open to those who might do business differently from me. I have a lot to learn from my perceived competition. I’m paying more attention to trends and reading more about the insurance-buying public and trying to adjust our agency to catering more to the different age groups and how they want to do business.

Being able to meet in person many of the relationships that I have created by using Twitter and other social media tools was really worth the entire [Brand Camp 2009] conference. The synergy that was going on during the conference was fresh and new unlike any insurance trade conference that I have been to in over 15 years. I felt like I was attending my very first insurance systems users group meeting — which I did in 1987 when we started NUAS (National Users of AGENA Systems).