Things continue to evolve and grow and it is important to have relationships that can help serve your clients across the country, help you with scale, market knowledge, and everything that you need to compete with the ever-growing increase in aggregators, whilst remaining independently owned. To achieve this, you need partnerships that are going to help you meet the needs of your clients and internal employees long term.
In today’s episode, Chip is joined by Jon and Clay from W3 Insurance in the Tampa Bay, St. Petersburg area. They are the most recent members to join RiskProNet.
Clay is the vice president of W3 St Petersburg, a stallholder, and a Commercial Insurance Advisor. He has extensive experience controlling workers’ compensation costs for large companies and his niche focus includes manufacturing, construction industries, and large workers’ compensation cases.
John is the President of W3 St Petersburg. His specialty is working closely with businesses to find insurance and risk management solutions that match their unique needs.
W3 has been in existence for 97 years, and for almost 25 years now they have focused on what to do to increase value besides brokering services; their shift to a value-added platform.
In the episode, Jon and Clay show you that W3 covers everything. The multi-channel and commercial insurance is their largest revenue stream, representing probably about 50% of their income today followed by employee benefits. They have one of the largest employee benefits in the Tampa Bay market. And they also do a lot of personal lines and recreational marine.
Tune in as John and Clay shed light on:
- Why you should join RiskProNet
- How they are the differentiators in the marketplace currently and in years to come
- What Clay’s doing to promote alternative financing options for people that qualify
- What’s going on in the construction market in St. Petersburg economically
- The kind of issues their clients are having and their worries as cyber takes off
Their amazing incorporation of technology into the platform before a lot of people did What the future looks like for W3 in terms of growth and niche … and so much more!
If you are a business owner and are looking to have a different relationship because something has revolved in your world, this episode shows you why W3 ( partners with RiskProNet) is the missing piece of the puzzle.
W3 Insurance Partnership with RiskProNet Transcript
00;00;02;01 – 00;00;18;29
Chip Arenchild
Welcome to Know Your Risk and Insurance Coverage with Risk Pro Net, where we will discuss all things insurance for you and your company. Risk Coronet is a network of independent agencies who offer specialized insurance across business sectors.
00;00;19;01 – 00;00;45;13
Chip Arenchild
Regardless of where you are in your insurance journey. We want to invite you to join us to think about insurance differently. Know your risk and insurance coverage with risk Pro Net provides answers to all your insurance questions. Well, welcome to know your insurance with Risk Pro Net. And today we’re going to talk to Jon and Clay from W3 insurance in the Tampa Bay Saint Petersburg area.
00;00;45;15 – 00;01;02;14
Chip Arenchild
And what we’re most excited about talking with these two guys today is they’re the most recent member to join Risk Pro Net. And to get started, I just like to ask Jon, who happens to be the president and a shareholder, obviously at W3. Hey Jon, why were you interested in a group like Risk Pro Net?
00;01;02;16 – 00;01;25;10
Jon Hammond
So where as you said, we’re based in Tampa and Saint Petersburg and we do a lot of business in the Florida marketplace, but things continue to evolve and grow, and it’s so important to us to have relationships that can help serve our clients across the country. Help us with scale, help us with market knowledge, help us with everything that we need to compete with the ever growing increase in aggregators.
00;01;25;12 – 00;01;35;26
Jon Hammond
Because what we really want is to continue to remain independently owned. And so partnerships like this are going to help us meet our needs of our clients and our internal employees long term.
00;01;35;29 – 00;01;52;23
Chip Arenchild
Yeah. Good. That’s I think I think all members share that same that same commitment. And Clay, clay, you were able to attend our last meeting in in Phoenix, I believe and I think you came away with a pretty good impression. Can you share with us what did you like about that meeting and what did you learn?
00;01;52;26 – 00;02;09;14
Clay Crum
Absolutely. You know, you know, been a part of, you know, a few networking groups or advisory boards and, you know, some are good and some are great, and, you know, but I went with, you know, eyes wide open. And I think I remember sitting around the, the way the tables are set up, it was a group setting.
00;02;09;14 – 00;02;34;09
Clay Crum
And I would say within the first three minutes of listening to, you know, people and talk about their issues, and you’re sitting with a group of people that are like minded, that are having the same issues that you’re having. You know, that was refreshing to hear. Not too refreshing to hear people having problems, but to hear people having the same issues that you’re having and then hearing people talk about solutions that they’ve been trying and things that have worked and things that haven’t worked.
00;02;34;11 – 00;02;37;02
Clay Crum
To me, that that was that was very refreshing.
00;02;37;05 – 00;02;56;10
Chip Arenchild
Yeah. I would agree that I think the sharing of information and talking about issues across the United States where you’re able to hear someone else’s perspective or see that they’re facing the same thing and get some advice is, was, unparalleled for what we’re able to do? You mentioned being able to are just getting started. I want to share for everybody is joined in.
00;02;56;10 – 00;03;16;21
Chip Arenchild
There are also participating quite nicely and contributing to our construction practice group and some other focus groups as well. So, in terms of joining and stepping right in and getting something out of it, I feel like you guys have done a great job. Is there any anything you’d tell someone who’s thinking about joining Rick Pronate on why they should do it?
00;03;16;23 – 00;03;34;26
Clay Crum
I would tell them, obviously to join. I mean, just using you as an example, Jeff. I mean, I’ve reached out to you twice on, you know, some things that you’ve been able to add value add to. And, you know, being a new member, you were willing to jump right in and connect me with people. And even in one instance, connecting with somebody, with another agency within the group.
00;03;34;28 – 00;03;40;26
Clay Crum
So that speaks volumes to the inclusion that you guys have and the welcome this that you have had to a new member.
00;03;40;28 – 00;03;58;07
Chip Arenchild
I think what I like about it so much is that someone in our group can solve your problem. Right. And, and, and everyone is willing to help out and give you an answer and point you in the right direction. And so it’s been super beneficial for us. And I’m glad you guys are finding it beneficial so far. And we’re we’re really glad to have you part of the group.
00;03;58;14 – 00;04;02;17
Chip Arenchild
And I know and we have a lot to learn from you. So we’re glad to have you here.
00;04;02;19 – 00;04;05;03
Clay Crum
Yeah, we’re glad to be a part of the group.
00;04;05;06 – 00;04;25;29
Chip Arenchild
So John, you’re president here of, as you said, a large regional independent brokerage firm. I know W3 has been in the area or been in existence for 97 years, since 1925. So that’s a lot of tradition and a lot of change. And you mentioned you’re kind of niche focused. Is there other things about W3 you’d like people to know?
00;04;26;02 – 00;04;51;17
Jon Hammond
Well, I mean, we cover everything. We’re multi-channel. We have and commercial insurance is our largest, revenue stream represents probably about 50% of the income today. So, by employee benefits, that is, significantly, large in the marketplace. We have one of the largest employee benefits books in the, Tampa Bay market. And then we also do a lot of, personal lines and recreational marine.
00;04;51;19 – 00;05;00;11
Jon Hammond
And for any insurance agent that hasn’t had to deal with Florida, I’m sorry, when you do, it’s a very challenging marketplace for, homeowners insurance.
00;05;00;13 – 00;05;15;22
Chip Arenchild
Yeah. We’re getting a little bit out with our wildfire. I was going to not get too, off topic here, but at least you have stable power, right? You could come out to California right now. Where this week, we just happened to be rotating our power off and on because we can’t supply enough to keep people’s homes cool.
00;05;15;22 – 00;05;23;03
Chip Arenchild
So, I think that’s good. So why W3 though? So what’s what’s what are you guys passionate about?
00;05;23;06 – 00;05;47;11
Jon Hammond
I’d tell you we have a long history. The last 20 plus years of we really in our marketplace changed the value model or the distribution model of insurance. Got away from quoting and started focusing on on the value added. What do we do from a risk services for a compliance model? So for almost 25 years we’ve been very focused on what do we do in addition to the client besides brokering services.
00;05;47;14 – 00;05;59;13
Jon Hammond
That’s in our, genes. That is how we wanted to differentiate, to serve the marketplace. So we feel like we were leaders in that and not followers. And we have a head start on most of our peers.
00;05;59;15 – 00;06;19;11
Chip Arenchild
How is the transition with your clients when you went to a value added platform and you use the option to say, hey, we’re not going to quote any longer, right? We want to be selected to broker your business because we’re bringing value. What was the response when your clients when you started to shift that model? I find that clients are so often, it’s Groundhog Day for them, right?
00;06;19;11 – 00;06;25;17
Chip Arenchild
They have all these expectations from all these generational years of buying insurance. And sometimes change is hard.
00;06;25;19 – 00;06;42;27
Jon Hammond
For a lot of them, they couldn’t believe that we were going to do it for no charge. Right. And so they just couldn’t understand the concept where when are you going to share the fee down? Right. They’re just waiting for it. And the way we kind of explain it to them is that most of our peers had armies of, of, quoting machines behind the office, you know, marketing people.
00;06;42;27 – 00;07;02;29
Jon Hammond
And so they were spending a few hundred thousand dollars a year just to quote, and have a hit ratio of 20%. And so if we were going to have one fourth of the volume, but higher, margin, higher hit ratios, we were able to take those dollars and redeploy them into things that made them better, better risks better.
00;07;02;29 – 00;07;19;16
Jon Hammond
And for their own company, they were becoming a better selection for whether it was employee benefits or was a PMC a better risk. So it was a really a win win. But you’re right. It was, hard for a while to convince people to do that. But it was a lot more fun. We always like to win, right?
00;07;19;16 – 00;07;23;29
Jon Hammond
And so we were winning better with a higher hit ratio and making our clients better.
00;07;24;01 – 00;07;37;20
Chip Arenchild
Yeah, I like that approach. I think a lot of the members in response have the same approach. Matter of fact, I think all of us do. And I, I do believe it makes a difference. I do think it changes the dynamics with your clients and starts to position you in that light that you want to be viewed in.
00;07;37;20 – 00;08;04;02
Chip Arenchild
Right? Because it’s more than just brokering a policy. Right? How do you how do you add efficiency to a business that decides to work with W3 as opposed to somebody else knowing it’s always going to be insurance has always been a relationship business. But but Clay, maybe you can talk about why clients like to hire you. I mean, is there something that you advocate within the groups that you’re involved in, in terms of the treatment of your clients and why it’s important to do it that way?
00;08;04;05 – 00;08;26;14
Clay Crum
Yeah, absolutely. You know, for, for me. So one of one of my, one of my niches would be, alternative risk financing, you know, so where companies are, they’re taking more risk than they would be in a traditional, you know, guaranteed cost program. And it comes back down to the the risk services that we have as an agency, you know, and I think, you know, behind every insurance policy, there’s a there’s a promise, right, a promise that if something happens you’re going to come through.
00;08;26;14 – 00;08;45;10
Clay Crum
And it’s even more so and important to us to be able to follow through on that promise. When somebody decides to go into, you know, an alternative risk financing and take take risk, and to be able to, to have that promise that, you know, you’re going to be there and that you’re going to make them a better risk and show them why, you know, that program is right for them.
00;08;45;12 – 00;08;52;29
Clay Crum
You know, it goes back to education. You know, just being an educator in educating the insured to help them make the best decision for them.
00;08;53;02 – 00;09;11;06
Chip Arenchild
Yeah. Well, I think that’s powerful. You talk about alternative risk. And I know that’s one area in the industry where things are changing. Right. And there’s there’s more and more availability to clients. I always use the example that knowledge is dropping power down right to the client’s right. All of a sudden there’s more. They’re aware of more options that are available for them.
00;09;11;08 – 00;09;22;22
Chip Arenchild
They want to see how they can continue to work on the direct cost side of this equation. Are you doing anything seminars or what are you doing to promote alternative financing options for people that qualify?
00;09;22;25 – 00;09;43;06
Clay Crum
You know, I think one of the one of the things we do first is it goes back to the education is really understanding, you know, what’s what’s driving their total cost of risk. You know what what claims. You know, we do that through through training analysis to really dig in and peel the onion back to find out what’s what’s making them a good risk if if they’re already a good risk or if they’re having claims issues, what’s driving those claims.
00;09;43;09 – 00;09;48;20
Clay Crum
So then we can develop a program and be proactive in changing their risk behavior.
00;09;48;22 – 00;10;07;04
Chip Arenchild
So what’s the future look like for W3? What would you guys like to continue to do. And in terms of growth or niches or anything along those lines, I know you mentioned you have some focus in social service in construction. I’d love to hear about the construction market and see if that relates to what we’re hearing across the rest of the United States, what your thoughts are on that?
00;10;07;06 – 00;10;12;11
Chip Arenchild
Oh, sips and wraps, as well as, other issues you might be growing in some areas.
00;10;12;11 – 00;10;35;12
Jon Hammond
You just bring up where again, historically, we’re a casualty agency. And so we’ve, we’ve written construction, very well and had some good markets that have been our partners with us. But where we have not been, successful in the past is Joseph Cecil’s surety, really, you know, so we first we brought in a surety producer about five years ago, and kind of have our toe in the water.
00;10;35;12 – 00;10;57;06
Jon Hammond
We see a lot more opportunity there for us to expose, and as well as the sips and see stuff. So that’s a lot of stuff and within risk pro net, we’re hoping that some of the other peers and partners are going to be able to bring that to us, because we feel like there’s a lot of opportunity that we’ve not, exposed, or capitalized upon, that we’re hoping to do in the future for sure.
00;10;57;12 – 00;11;05;28
Chip Arenchild
How are you guys doing with the staffing is, same story is everywhere else right now. How how’s how’s staffing affecting the agency?
00;11;06;00 – 00;11;34;11
Jon Hammond
It’s tough. You know, I think that. But what we’ve done, though, and we’ve starting to see some of the return of that is about four years ago. You know, we were at a, a good size. We had over 100 employees. And we decided that we were going to invest, more heavily and growing our own talent. And so we created what was called our shared services team and where we’re hiring about 4 to 8 people in that a year.
00;11;34;14 – 00;12;00;15
Jon Hammond
We’ve graduated most of them. They’ve gone into personal lines, they’ve gone into commercial lines, have gotten new employee benefits. You know, they’re the future of the organization. So we’re being very successful in that. Our next year, where we’re going to be focusing on career development and making sure that those employees really have a long term vision of where their places in this organization and that we really spend the time to develop them, to make them ready.
00;12;00;17 – 00;12;10;27
Jon Hammond
Because doors will sometimes open when they’re planned and sometimes doors open when they’re unplanned. Right. And so we want to be ready, and we want to make sure they’re ready for those opportunities when they when they happen.
00;12;11;00 – 00;12;29;10
Chip Arenchild
Sounds like you. Maybe it seems like you’re saying that you’re pretty conscientious about what the current workforce wants out of an employer in terms of a career path, and what am I here for? And are you purposely addressing those things with the program design you just mentioned? Are those some of the rationale behind it.
00;12;29;12 – 00;12;53;26
Jon Hammond
100%? I mean, we do we do, employee surveys at twice a year. And a lot of, a lot of what we do is either just the gut feeling of what we hear and what we see with our staff, but some of it comes right out of that. And, you know, just recognizing what the employee today and that generation is expecting and needing and wanting and trying to pivot and make sure that we’re focused on them.
00;12;53;28 – 00;13;11;14
Chip Arenchild
Yeah, I think that’s super important. I know we’ve spent a lot of time talking about it. And late when we were talking in Scottsdale, you gave some pretty good examples about just how you handle your clients and your thoughts on service and what’s important to take care of people. You have any thoughts on. You know, why someone wants to hire you?
00;13;11;14 – 00;13;13;13
Chip Arenchild
You are a producer from W3.
00;13;13;16 – 00;13;41;08
Clay Crum
You know I think one of the biggest things is being a student of the of the industry. You know, knowing the industry, you know, it’s like you said you said a few minutes ago is that, you know, this is a relationship business. And while yes, the relationship is important is that I think, you know, buyers are looking for someone that’s going to, yes, you know, be able to develop a good relationship, but also be a student of the industry and be able to really dig in and help them and help them figure out why things are going on and what things can they implement to make them, you know, back to kind of the alternative,
00;13;41;14 – 00;13;59;13
Clay Crum
what can make them a better risk, you know, when you’re putting in terms where they understand it, and they, they believe who they are doing business with, you know, and they see you as an advisor. You know, it’s like my clients will call me all the time and ask me questions that are unrelated to insurance, but, you know, questions just from a business perspective.
00;13;59;13 – 00;14;08;15
Clay Crum
And when they do that, you can tell that they they generally, you know, they value the relationship beyond just the, the insurance that you’re brokering for them.
00;14;08;17 – 00;14;40;20
Chip Arenchild
I agree that’s the holy grail, right? And that’s what it’s fun. Right? I think and I think that’s why we I think that’s why most of us exist, right, is to really be helpful when someone has a question that’s not, I always think placing a policy is the easiest thing that we do. Right? And, I also believe that the days of just because you’re in rotary with someone are kind of gone are going on the wayside as well, because people need expertise, and there’s a lot of smart people running these businesses and a lot of smart business people that recognize they can have something different and they expect something different.
00;14;40;22 – 00;14;43;15
Clay Crum
Yeah. And they and they and they value the relationship.
00;14;43;18 – 00;14;55;04
Chip Arenchild
Yeah, yeah. So what’s going on in the construction market you mentioned, is there a lot of explosion, multifamily housing. What’s going on in Saint Pete? What’s the what’s the economy like right now for you guys?
00;14;55;06 – 00;15;11;09
Clay Crum
I mean, it’s it’s good. It’s staying strong. You know, I, I, I did a two. I called the tour of Florida, where I go all the way down 75 and cut across the state and go back up 95 and everywhere from Saint Pete to Naples to Miami to West Palm Beach, the, Vero Beach is everywhere you look.
00;15;11;09 – 00;15;29;28
Clay Crum
There’s just construction, you know, whether it be residential, commercial, industrial, and it’s continuing. You know, where, knock on wood, hopefully it stays. You know, I’m, I mean, more and more people are moving to Florida, which drives all of that. So as long as that continues, I think we’ll continue to see pretty strong construction growth in the in the state of Florida.
00;15;30;01 – 00;15;43;08
Jon Hammond
That going for the rest of the clients that we talked to. They still have a good pipeline of 12 to 18 months of backlog. So we don’t see anything changing, at least in 2023. But, you know, we’ll see what happens in 2024.
00;15;43;11 – 00;16;00;10
Chip Arenchild
Yeah, we’re kind of hearing the same things out here. And I think other members are saying the same thing. So it’s it’s kind of encouraging. What kind of issues are your clients having? Is it still just the supply chain issues and and staffing issues? Are there other things that your clients are letting you know right now that they’re worried about?
00;16;00;12 – 00;16;11;24
Chip Arenchild
Has the cyber taken off? Has that been a concern for people? Are there any insurance industry issues you’ve noticed with your clients or as an agency that you’re addressing now that you may have not done in the past?
00;16;11;27 – 00;16;42;26
Clay Crum
Yeah, I mean, we’re we’re you know, I unfortunately in Florida, we’re still seeing a lot of the same issues. I mean, auto is a big driver of of what’s problematic, within the industry. You know, we’re seeing more and more of our clients that are going to, you know, not only telematics, which has been in the marketplace for 10 to 12 years, but we’re starting to see the artificial intelligence of cameras being put inside cab, inside the cab of the truck or the car, you know, not only to just to protect the, you know, the insurer, but also to protect the driver, you know, on a, you know, specific situation of like an
00;16;42;26 – 00;16;59;02
Clay Crum
adverse liability claim to where, you know, our driver had, you know, wasn’t liable, but the other driver saying they were. And now we’ve got it on film and we’ve been able to show, you know, claims adjusters that, hey, it was not our driver’s fault. You know, it clearly was the other driver, you know. But but auto in Florida continues to be problematic.
00;16;59;02 – 00;17;05;12
Clay Crum
I mean rates of continue to go up. And it’s unfortunately given the litigious environment that we live in.
00;17;05;15 – 00;17;17;28
Chip Arenchild
Yeah. Well that’s universal right now to what about technology going forward, John, are you as an agency, what are you thinking about? Technology insure tech or incorporating technology into your platform?
00;17;18;00 – 00;17;36;24
Jon Hammond
Well, we adopted, like Indio, you know, before a lot of other people did. I think our technology today is still, it’s got a long way to go. You know, we’re, we’re epic applied. We we actually converted them in 2011. So we’ve been a long time, but we’re still prem on prem. We’re not in the cloud.
00;17;36;26 – 00;18;02;03
Jon Hammond
I don’t know if 2023 is going to be the year that we’re going to make the turn, but there’s a lot between the CRM, between the client experience that we kind of still feel like we have a long way to go to make some challenges or some changes, but that is the vision, at least. The vision is that we want to have our technology positioned in a way that doing business with us, with our clients is easy.
00;18;02;05 – 00;18;14;18
Jon Hammond
But, you know, it’s it’s it’s easy to have the vision. It’s hard to pull it all together. There’s so many vendors, it keeps changing. And none of them really have the the perfect solution out there yet.
00;18;14;21 – 00;18;30;11
Clay Crum
And I think that’s why Risk Pro Net has been so important to us again, to be in a room with like minded people that, you know, maybe tried a different technology solution and, you know, they’re able to stand up and say, hey, it that worked. And here’s why it worked. Or maybe it didn’t work and here’s why it didn’t work.
00;18;30;14 – 00;18;52;19
Chip Arenchild
Yeah, I would agree. Right. We’ve, everyone in there’s tried one of the things or thought it was going to work out. I saw where you know, the expenditure of on technology or infrastructure technology by agencies is just, you know, growing at a pretty good clip each year. Right. And what we need to do to make it easy because so much all the technology that our clients expect is coming from other industries, right, that they get used to working with.
00;18;52;19 – 00;19;09;03
Chip Arenchild
So, you know, just just in the explosion of texting as an example, relative to what it used to be, two years ago, I have people that are 75 years old texting now, right, or doing zoom meetings. They never could have done that before in the past. Right? So it’s hard to capture all of it. I don’t know where the answer is going to be.
00;19;09;03 – 00;19;19;03
Chip Arenchild
It’s too bad that the systems are so, but appear to be dispirited and desperate or whatever the word is, and not be able to use those, right? They’re not no common language.
00;19;19;05 – 00;19;20;05
Clay Crum
Agreed.
00;19;20;07 – 00;19;31;08
Chip Arenchild
So what do you think? What do you what do you think the biggest, hindrance to keep moving forward and what your growth is, is what’s where any headwinds you think you might get, you guys might be up against going forward?
00;19;31;11 – 00;19;49;21
Jon Hammond
I mean, the number one challenge is when everybody’s doing right now, it’s just the people, you know, we I think that’s the thing that slows things down. If we could have ten, 15% more people, especially in the service world, we could continue to grow this company at, double digits. So that’s a solution that, you know, I feel like we have in the works.
00;19;49;24 – 00;20;00;00
Jon Hammond
That’s why we’ve invested so much in our shared services team. But it doesn’t happen overnight. This is a people business, right. And so that’s where the big investment is, is in our people.
00;20;00;02 – 00;20;13;18
Chip Arenchild
Tell me about that. That processor on the shared services. How much effort, John, of your individual time are you putting into that driving that happen. Are you you outlining the vision and then having others execute it? Are your fingerprints on it?
00;20;13;20 – 00;20;36;23
Jon Hammond
So it was it was my, my vision. But, you know, I’ve got, to two people, one very senior and, somebody else that are in it every single day. But it is a, it is a village effort. Like I said, the career development is that I think that we’ve done a very, very good job of identifying and finding the young talent and putting them in there.
00;20;36;25 – 00;20;57;12
Jon Hammond
But once we get them out there, that’s where there’s a little bit of a gap right now and we get them to the next, into the new divisions, right. Commercial SPL where there needs to be more of an investment. So other than my time in the, you know, seeing the bigger picture in the strategy, it’s being handled by about a team of five different people that have to execute it.
00;20;57;14 – 00;21;04;22
Chip Arenchild
Okay. What are some of the leading indicators that you pay attention to to make sure things are on track?
00;21;04;24 – 00;21;22;07
Jon Hammond
Well, one of them I mentioned is doing the surveys. Right. So if we’re going to start with, the people kind of get a sense to where we’re at internally. The other indicators are, you know, we we have a, a metric and a benchmark system with our financials that we watch every month that help us kind of tell us what are the trends, what’s going on.
00;21;22;10 – 00;21;42;03
Jon Hammond
Fortunately this year, you know, we’re we’re getting a lot of headwind. But whether it’s rate weather exposure or whether it’s audits, it’s really trying to help. It’s really helping propel the agency, financially. But being careful with that and not getting too excited about it because that’s something that can flip and turn on you, pretty quickly.
00;21;42;03 – 00;21;58;00
Jon Hammond
Right. And then the last one is, is talking to our clients. Like Clay said, you know, we’ve got clients that are surveyors, right? And as long as they’re growing and they’re adding payroll, that means that lands are being developed. The other ones that are plowing the dirt, you know, for the new homes, the surety bonds. Right.
00;21;58;00 – 00;22;14;02
Jon Hammond
What’s going on? So there’s a lot of things that we can look at that give us an idea of whether the business is going to continue to flourish the way it is, or whether we’ve got some, headwinds, coming our way. They’re going to, cause us to have to make some changes internally.
00;22;14;04 – 00;22;23;03
Chip Arenchild
Have you started serving your clients, by any chance? Have you thought about asking your clients their impression of working with W3?
00;22;23;05 – 00;22;42;23
Jon Hammond
We, we added something to our, emails. And so there’s an opportunity for every single person to, to rate on a kind of a net promoter score with our staff. So we started this year, there’s a tool that we, that I’m interested in, but we haven’t put in place yet called Rocket Referral. It ties in with, applied.
00;22;42;26 – 00;22;58;21
Jon Hammond
So we haven’t done that yet. But yes, we are trying to do surveys, at least on, again, the Net Promoter score. And we do do from time to time surveys to clients whether there are employee benefits to kind of I have an idea of, you know what, what’s our service delivery? What are we doing? What do we need to be doing differently.
00;22;58;23 – 00;23;11;04
Chip Arenchild
So if I’m looking to find W3 big social media presence, website what how do people find you besides brokers going out? What do are you guys active in the community with philanthropy in those types of things.
00;23;11;06 – 00;23;29;08
Jon Hammond
So we we do two things. One, is we do a lot of social services. We can we contribute a good amount of our budget every year to supporting those philanthropies. That’s one thing that we do. The other side of is we have our own internal committee that we call our community Involvement Committee, that allows our employees to help bring their passions.
00;23;29;08 – 00;23;41;28
Jon Hammond
Right. What do they enjoy? With our resources and our funds to help, make sure that they’re taking care of what helps them. You know, that their. Why? What? What are they here to help promote internally for themselves?
00;23;42;01 – 00;23;57;15
Chip Arenchild
Yeah. That’s is that interesting. Now that that’s something for the generation of workers. It’s really important that they see the organization as giving back and they have a say in it. So that’s commendable that you’re taking that approach. So what do you guys like to do for fun? Clay, how about you. What do you like to do for fun?
00;23;57;15 – 00;24;00;20
Chip Arenchild
Tell us what. Well, the like having some fun looks.
00;24;00;21 – 00;24;17;12
Clay Crum
I have four kids, so a lot of my fun. It’s been with my family, which is very important to me. And, got a boat a few years ago, so voting has been a, big hot topic in our household. And, kids, kids love to go on the boat. Wife loves to go on the boat and we got beautiful water here in Florida.
00;24;17;12 – 00;24;20;14
Clay Crum
So, a lot of our weekends are spent on the water.
00;24;20;16 – 00;24;31;28
Chip Arenchild
And that’s all, obviously in the ocean. And so can you get too far out where you get worried about being too far out in the boat or what’s the situation? Or is it or is it inside the bay? That is pretty calm. I have no idea where it’s at.
00;24;31;28 – 00;24;46;02
Clay Crum
We can get pretty dicey anywhere. Really. I mean, in in Florida, just knowing the weather and, thank God for technology because you can watch the radar and you kind of see what’s going on. But even even with technology, you know, the summer storms will pop up and and it’s not on the radar until it’s on the radar.
00;24;46;02 – 00;24;53;14
Clay Crum
And sometimes it’s too late. So it it definitely can get a little bit dicey, but but it’s fun. It’s a good way to spend good family fun.
00;24;53;16 – 00;25;00;26
Chip Arenchild
Yeah. Good for you. I always say that. Make it fun. Then they like sticking around. They’ll bring their friends around. They’ll always come to your boat instead of going somewhere else. That’s,
00;25;00;28 – 00;25;10;02
Clay Crum
That’s our exciting thoughts. And showing a showing of why they want to come back here and live one day. If they do leave and go over to school, why they want to come back. So we can we get them back some day.
00;25;10;04 – 00;25;11;29
Chip Arenchild
All right. And John, how about yourself?
00;25;12;01 – 00;25;28;27
Jon Hammond
So I mean, I don’t have four kids. Fortunately for me, you know, I’m like, I can retire before Clay. I got to I got my minor. Both, you know, the Middle Ages right now, 13 and 11. And so it’s a lot of stuff with them. Soccer fields, boating. We take them to North Carolina every year.
00;25;28;27 – 00;25;38;21
Jon Hammond
A lot of we’re very much in the outdoors and teaching our kids to do as many things as they can outdoors and, get out, get off the screens. So whatever we can do to do that.
00;25;38;23 – 00;25;57;05
Chip Arenchild
Well, I would agree with both of them. That’s great. Well, you guys, we we’re all so glad to have you part of this project going forward and your contribution already. And just look forward to more people getting to know you and supporting one another as we try and continue to grow this place and grow our firm. So anything else you’d like to say about W3?
00;25;57;08 – 00;26;07;17
Clay Crum
No, just that, you know, just to reconfirm that we’re, we’re super, excited about the relationship with, with risk pro net and look forward to, the continued success with them.
00;26;07;19 – 00;26;16;25
Chip Arenchild
So, Clay, if I’m a business owner and I’m looking to have a different relationship because something has changed in my world, why am I looking over to W3?
00;26;16;28 – 00;26;38;24
Clay Crum
Chip, that’s a great that’s a great question. You know, I had a, had a new business meeting last week, with the prospect and, and brought that same question up to him. And, you know, he asked me, you know, why, why W3 and I was able to relay W3 as being an independently owned agency, back to back to his company and relate it back to him.
00;26;38;24 – 00;26;58;16
Clay Crum
You know, in his independently owned company. You know, the agency that he’s doing business with right now is is there a publicly traded company, you know, and you know, him asking some questions related to our independence and being able to put it back on him to, you know, why we do what we do and what makes us different and who are our stakeholders?
00;26;58;16 – 00;27;14;24
Clay Crum
You know, our stakeholders are our employees, you know, and and I’m working to make sure that I’m that I’m doing what’s best not only for my clients, but what’s best for the employees of our agency. You know, I’m not worried about, you know, the Wall Street and will Wall Street thinks about our company. I’m worried about the people that I look at every day when I come to work.
00;27;14;26 – 00;27;22;25
Clay Crum
And I think that’s that’s when you can relate that to back to someone’s business, you know, it helps them understand why they want to do business with you.
00;27;22;27 – 00;27;42;04
Chip Arenchild
Yeah, that’s a pretty good y, right? I appreciate that answer because I think that’s the way that most small business owners have as well. And it gets lost in and especially gets lost in our industry right now with the propensity of these nationwide or aggregator firms that continue to get larger and larger and move their account minimum sizes up higher and higher.
00;27;42;04 – 00;28;02;18
Chip Arenchild
And yet, the value of doing business for someone local who knows your business can provide the value, add resources, keep the money in the economy, and the local economy goes a long ways. John, you mentioned some thoughts too, about the importance of being local or, employee owned and perpetuating it. You want to share those a little bit as well?
00;28;02;21 – 00;28;21;05
Jon Hammond
Well, I mean, like Clay said, I mean, end of the day, we have a vested interest in whether that account, every single one of our customers stays or goes. And I think that’s a culture that is very important to us and one that we want to hold on to, but should be important to all of the people that do business with us.
00;28;21;08 – 00;28;34;03
Jon Hammond
This is the accountability. That’s one of our core values. And I just think that that has that resonates more and should be more important to that buyer of insurance, than dealing with a, larger aggregator.
00;28;34;05 – 00;28;51;22
Chip Arenchild
Yeah. I think it’s a good message for our staff to continue repeat right there. People forget that because they get so hung up on the problem they want to solve. But if they can step back and recognize there are some bigger things at play and some value for staying with firm like W3 goes a long way. So thank you.
00;28;51;25 – 00;29;10;12
Chip Arenchild
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Know Your Risk in insurance Coverage with Risk Pro Net. For more information about Risk Pro Net, please visit our website. You can follow us on Facebook and Twitter for insurance insights from everyone at risk. Pro Net. We want to say thank you for tuning in and see you next time.
