Do
You Speak the Language of Your Clients?
by Curtis M. Pearsall, Vice President, Agents' Errors and Omissions Department
More so than ever before, America is a melting pot of immigrants coming to our country and calling it home. The freedom that we offer is unmatched in the world. We see this firsthand even in Utica, New York where an influx of Bosnians, Russians, and Vietnamese are joining our community.
For today's agent this presents great opportunities, as these people are buying homes, cars and establishing businesses. However, along with these opportunities are some challenges that if not handled appropriately, could lead to significant trouble and heartache.
As you know from past articles, I am a strong advocate of doing an exposure analysis checklist. This ensures that agents are reviewing the coverage and exposure of their clients/prospects. However, as we all know, the insurance industry has some unique terminology. Also, in some countries, insurance is not as common as it is here in the states. Thus, explaining insurance and how it works would need to be part of a discussion with a prospective client from another country. If you do not speak the language of your client, how comfortable are you that they understand everything you are telling them?
There are some solutions to this.
One of the solutions would be to have at least one member of your staff fluent in that language. If you have Bosnian prospects/clients, the staff member that is fluent in Bosnian would have the responsibility of handling those files. This could have a tremendous public relations benefit as you are showing the population that you are making a commitment to help them understand the American insurance industry. Along with having a staff member fluent in the language, in a perfect world, you would want to consider putting much of the promotional material and explanations of coverage in that language as well. While these may be nice resolutions, they may not be the easiest or the most cost effective to accomplish. Another potential solution is for the prospect/client to have a translator with them when insurance matters are discussed. The downside to this is that it would be extremely difficult to know that your words are being translated and conveyed with the same meaning. In this situation, it is important to communicate clearly so as to avoid any potential misunderstandings. The last solution, and the one that you probably don’t want to hear, is that you may want to “pass on writing the account." While selling to an immigrant community may be a great opportunity to write business and earn commission dollars, unless you are comfortable that the people you are meeting with truly understand what you are saying, you could be asking for professional liability trouble taking them on as clients. |
As insurance agents, you are always looking for opportunities to sell more insurance. The change in the makeup of the population in our respective communities will present many of those opportunities. Knowing what approach you want to take will be key in moving forward.