Exclusivefocus - National Association of Professional Allstate Agents ...

featureThe Robots are HereAllstate has quietly announced itsnewest distribution system in a pilotprogram that was scheduled to beginlast December in Georgia, Alabama, andNorth Carolina. Ten “Allstate Kiosks”are being installed in shopping centersin these test states and will be connectedto Allstate via the Internet. Accordingto a message sent to field managementin the area last October, the Allstate Kiosks,or robotic agents, will initially onlybe able to show ad videos and will includethe Agent Locater function. In thefuture, however, the Allstate Kiosks areexpected to give quotes, BIND COV-ERAGE, take payments, provide claimstatus, print insurance cards, and otherfunctions. The memo went on to explainthat a big roll-out was not planned, presumablyto avoid upsetting the agents.A paragraph about the project appearedin the Southeast Region’s November13th “EA Communicator.” Hereit is in its entirety:“Southeast to Pilot Allstate KiosksThe Southeast region has been chosen topilot 10 Allstate kiosks tied to Consumer2.0 Internet-based applications in severallocal malls and one motorcycle dealership.The purpose of this kiosk project is toimprove customer experience and increasebrand awareness. These kiosks are a pilot forAllstate’s multi-access strategy that has beenbuilt on a long-term goal of serving customershow, when and where they want to beserved: through local agencies, the CIC andonline via allstate.com. Future functionalityof these kiosks could include acceptinginsurance payments, providing claim status(when the kiosk is dropped into CATzones), playing informational videos andcustomer testimonials, showcasing an insurancevideo game, and printing proof ofinsurance. Five of the kiosks in Georgia willbe equipped with NQ2 access. We believethat piloting innovative ideas like this onein order to improve the customer experienceis crucial for our continued success. If youhave any questions or would like additionalinformation on the locations, please contactyour sales leader.”Note that the references to the AllstateKiosks’ ability to make quotes andbind coverage have not been included.An agent in Atlanta was astonished tolearn that one of the Allstate Kiosks was tobe located almost directly across the streetfrom his office, in view of his sign. His immediateconcern, as expressed to membersof the National Advisory Board (NAB), isthat his walk-in clients will now be drawnto the Allstate Kiosk, as it has a better locationthan his office, and will be directedelsewhere by the Agent Locater function.But the real threat is longer term, whenthe machines are able to bind coverage orto direct clients to the CIC. Apparently,the agent learned about the Allstate Kioskfrom the management company ofthe mall and from his neighbors. This wasonly a couple of weeks before the scheduledinstallation. Allstate had not thoughtit necessary to inform the agent that it wasabout to install this “virtual agent” a fewhundred feet from his desk.It does not appear that any informationabout the project has been given toAllstate agents outside the SoutheastRegion, or even to field managementelsewhere and a search of the various AllstateWebsites reveal nothing about theAllstate Kiosks. The project has clearlybeen in the works for quite a while, sincebig bucks have been spent to get it thisfar. And given the obvious threat to theagency force that it involves, it seemsclear that the company is planning onbuilding an entire new distribution systemin almost total secrecy.40 — Exclusivefocus Spring 2009