American Family Insurance

My Description:

I met Kristi at a networking event over around 1999. We were always friends and saw each other at social events. I had really inexpensive and hard to get insurance policies and no interest in moving them to another company. One of my first clients needed a great insurance agent and they could not get my insurance, so I sent them to Kristi. They loved her and they went on and on about the great customer service. They told me that they saved a lot of money and that they got extra coverage thanks to Kristi. After hearing this over and over and over, I finally had her look at my incredibly low prices club member insurance. Just for fun of course. Now I have more coverage and I pay less than before and I have learned my lesson. Just call Kristi and get a comparison.

Service Description:

As your American Family Insurance agent, I can offer you dependable auto, home, business, health and life insurance, as well as other insurance products. My team is here to serve. Our unique backgrounds, training and experience have prepared us well to help meet your insurance needs. Additionally, as residents of your community, we understand how important it is to be there for you – our trusted friends and neighbors. Together, we’re building strong partnerships that help everyone succeed. We’re here to help protect you, no matter what your insurance needs.

Transcript (Unedited)

Tony Ray Baker
So, Rosa, I was I was just talking to a friend of mine, and it was a very interesting conversation because she said that her insurance I don’t remember if it was on her, I don’t remember if it was a car or if it was home insurance, but she said her insurance had gone up, like, from a thousand to 1300 overnight. And she was calling me to ask what was going on because she couldn’t believe that her insurance company had jumped the price. And she said nothing had changed. And I thought, you know, I’m going to call Rosa because I’ve heard wind of insurance prices jumping, and I think I know why, but I know you know why.

Rosa Quintana
Absolutely.

Tony Ray Baker
What’s happening in the industry that insurance rates are going up?

Rosa Quintana
Well, it’s been coming for a little bit, and we have to go up back a little bit to when COVID happened. And nobody was driving, nobody was on the road, and it slowly started picking up. So we saw a small increase after that because then there was more people on the road. But a lot more has happened than that. Vehicles. The cost of vehicles, the technology that is in the vehicles has gone up. The cost of claims has gone up, and the cost of labor, so many things have gone up, and the industry wasn’t able to keep up in such a short period of time. It is a lot of increase in a very short period of time. We are seeing a lot of growth, and it is industry wide, but it is necessary. And the important thing is that people are going to continue to be covered for all of these things.

Tony Ray Baker
Yeah, that’s interesting that you okay, because I’m with American family. Darren and I have, like, 14 policies, as you know. And it was interesting because I remember we got a check after COVID, like from year one or two, we got a refund check of some kind, and I was like, what the heck? So I wasn’t thinking about the fact that nobody was driving cars. And also now that my thought was this was all around home insurance, but now I’m thinking cars as well, now that you brought that up. Because the cost to build a house used to be $150 a square foot, and now it’s $300 a square foot, which means that replacement cost on homeowners policy is going to be that much higher because many homes doubled their equity position. A $400,000 house could be worth 800 in just the last three or four years. Right?

Rosa Quintana
Absolutely. And with the insurance, something to think about is the value of the home is very different than the replacement cost of the home. The homes in themselves, we’re looking the main part of it is the cost of the building materials, but also the cost of labor. There’s a delay in labor, and that causes the prices to go up. It goes across the board. It works for autos, too. You see that in the auto shops. But definitely with homes. And the cost to build a home has increased substantially.

Tony Ray Baker
Yeah, that’s crazy. I actually ran into a friend of mine, a real estate agent in another city. They have a neighborhood where the houses didn’t go up in value like all the rest. And the interesting thing is the cost to build the house is higher than the value perceived by the appraisal community and the real estate community. So if something happens to that property, it’s actually worth less than it would cost to build. That’s kind of crazy that’s happening out there. But I’m sure all this is going to catch up. But I guess the takeaway from all this is for me is that if you have insurance and it goes up, I would highly recommend that you do what Darren and I did. And this was interesting as many years ago when we met you, we came to American Family. It was because we did our homework. And what we had done was we had gone to three or four different insurance agencies and we had them lay out, all of you laid out the exact same insurance coverage side by side. And because it’s really easy,

Tony Ray Baker
a lot of these insurance companies, especially these onliners, those ones just like online mortgages, are just no service and cheap prices. But those cheap prices come with a problem. And that is typically they have no coverage. They’re baiting somebody by low pricing, but they don’t have that type of coverage that you would want or need when you really do need it. Right.

Rosa Quintana
Well, you do want to be careful with that. Absolutely. The biggest aspect of it is we can throw out the number, okay, we’re going to insure this home for 300,000. And another company can say we’re going to insure it for 300,000 too. But are you receiving service line endorsement, equipment breakdown? There’s so much more to it. So you do want to make sure that you have an agent that’s going to look at all of these things for you. And you may not need equipment breakdown and that’s fine, but you should be offered the opportunity to apply it to your situation, right? Absolutely.

Tony Ray Baker
Yeah, definitely. And that was what was interesting. When Darren and I were looking side by side at the policies, american Family came in substantially lower, by the way. Not just a little, but substantially lower. But we kept looking at it over and over because it was, oh my God, it’s lower. But it’s got way more insurance coverage. Is that even possible? And what was interesting for us is by making the switch, we actually ended up with two really great insurance policies that were in the price of that that we didn’t have prior. So we got umbrella policies and identity theft and we got all these other things and we didn’t have that before. So that was really awesome for us. And that’s why I want to talk to you today, because I really think you out there that are watching right now. Do your homework. If you want to save money, do your homework. So I would call Rosa and bring your insurance policy. If it’s not American Family, bring your current insurance policy to you. Right.

Rosa Quintana
Absolutely.

Tony Ray Baker
And let you compare side by side. And if they’re in a good spot, you’ll tell them, hey, you’re in a good just stay where you are.

Rosa Quintana
That’s absolutely correct. Right now, the increases that we’re seeing are industry wide. Some might be a little higher, some might be a little lower. American families prices are not over the top. Really? We have great pricing and great rates, and what it comes down to is what you need. What do you need? What do you have? And just make sure that you’re covered, because the worst calls that I get is the call that, hey, I had this happen and that happened. You don’t have the coverage. And those are the calls that I get. Like, hey, I just had a claim, and I submitted a claim, and I didn’t have the coverage that I needed.

Tony Ray Baker
Right. And had I known it was an extra $10 a month, I would have taken it.

Rosa Quintana
Exactly.

Tony Ray Baker
Had someone just told me, let me choose off the menu. Let me pick the things I want to eat. Right?

Rosa Quintana
Exactly.

Rosa Quintana
We all want to go and order for ourselves. It’s no fun when other people order for you.

Tony Ray Baker
And I’ll say this the end. The creme de la creme. Is that the right way? The Darren’s behind the camera, the icing on the cake, the strawberry on the top for me is not only were we able to move our policies and get such great insurance, but the customer service from this office specifically has been phenomenal. And anytime we need, even going to we go to Mexico, we get our Mexico insurance to run down with the cars and in everything we need. You guys have just been there. I mean, it’s just been amazing. And there’s that exceptional service, which is that you look at stuff and say, you really don’t need this, or you really do need that, and we really appreciate that.

Rosa Quintana
Absolutely. Well, thank you for saying that, because that’s what the goal is. 100%.

Tony Ray Baker
Yeah. Right. We would hope all businesses will start taking this goal and start making it their own, because we have seen in all industries that customer service has been a dying thing. Not the word isn’t looking for, but it’s sadly dying. And what we need to do is start rewarding the people who give exceptional customer service and making that the norm. Again. I’m always thrilled to be around it. I can have someone call you at American Family. What is the address here on Broadway?

Rosa Quintana
The address here is 40 319 East Broadway Boulevard. We are on the northeast corner of Broadway and Columbus.

Tony Ray Baker
Yeah, right by the gas station at Broadway, Columbus. And what’s the phone number to call to you?

Rosa Quintana
The phone number here is 520-323-0017.

Tony Ray Baker
Okay. And they should say, hey, we watched this video with crazy Darren and Tony.

Rosa Quintana
Absolutely.

Rosa Quintana
Friends of Tony. Friends of Darren’s are friends of mine.

Tony Ray Baker
Awesome. Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate you enlightening me on this subject. I’ve been dying to talk to you about it.

Rosa Quintana
Absolutely. Well, thanks for having me.

Tony Ray Baker
Thanks, honey.