Loading ...Are You Saying This?
Over the past year I have had an opportunity to speak with agencies, brokers and carriers who are building a strategy and starting to embark on a social web journey. The growing popularity of social networking has attracted their attention and they believe these platforms open up new business opportunities. They recognize the rapid rise in the main street acceptance of social networking and see insurance prospects and customers continuing to migrate online and adopt social networking in growing numbers to do research and find insurance solutions.
Yet, other agencies resist and reject the whole of the social web for a number of reasons (read excuses) including:
- It’s a Fad
- It’s a time vampire – I don’t want my staff wasting company time on this
- It’s fine for kids and personal use but it is not for business
- What is the ROI?
- I am concerned about E&O, privacy and security issues
Are you still saying this?
I remember back in the early 198o’s when the industry was first starting to purchase and use agency management systems hearing many of the same concerns. For many, computers were considered a fad and a waste of time. They also felt that automation would undermine true “real life” relationships. It was not clear how computers would help an agency grow or become more efficient.
Fast forward to 1997 -1998 when the internet began to take hold and email gained critical mass. Once again, it was not uncommon to hear agency management complain that all this new technology was just a fad. They banned access to the Internet and frowned on the use of email to communicate with customers.
So, here we are in 2009 and the resistance to the world of the social web sounds all too familiar. I have heard it all before. Yes, there are legitimate issues that need to be worked out and properly managed. Yet, those who cling to excuses and avoid the opportunity being enabled by the social web do so at their own peril.
Wednesday, 18 November, 2009 at 15:12
Rick – While it is agreed that innovation is often met with resistance from those who do not like to change, I think social media fans (like you and me)run the risk of becoming selective revisionist historians when we cite overblown concerns in the past, while never mentioning that some of the criticism was spot on. I recall, for example, about 12 years ago that the people who expressed concerns about the potential for billions to be lost as a result of security and privacy breaches over the Internet were quickly sneered at and given the “You already put your credit card bill in a tin box 15 feet from your front door” response. Well, in the past decade internet breaches of privacy and the multiple billions of dollars in identity theft have dwarfed whatever theft was taking place in neighborhood mail boxes before 1997. So, comparisons with past attitudes are good, but accurate ones are better.
Wednesday, 18 November, 2009 at 15:39
Good comments Wayne – and I agree. As I mentioned there are “issues” and concerns that need to be worked out and properly managed. We need to recognize the opportunity and manage the risk. It is using “excuses” to avoid the social web that I object to.
Wednesday, 18 November, 2009 at 19:05
Yes, we are on the same page.