Richard Self of State Farm: Honoring Family Legacy and Mastering Personalized Customer Service

The reason we designed this program is to bring an awareness to the residents living in our communities regarding locally owned and operated businesses that are operating in our neighborhoods , in the same town , across town , across the Chattanooga region , whatever it might be .

In this day of corporate age , a lot of times people we forget that there are locally owned companies right among us who provide us the same type of services , but many times with a bigger smile or warmer welcome or more better customer service . And so what we want to do is highlight all those companies .

Some companies , the name is nationally known , but the business is actually locally owned and operated , and that's what we want to talk about . You know , every local business has a story to tell , and at the Good Neighbor Podcast , we just want to enable them to be able to tell their story loud and proud to every neighbor all across the Chattanooga region .

And today we've got one of our neighbors with us . His name is Richard Self . He is at Don Self State Farm and , Richard , we are so glad to have you on the podcast today . Thank you for being with us .

I left this part of the country and I spent about almost 30 years away from here and have just moved back a few years ago to this area and it's been about 12 years . It'll be 13 years in October that I've been back . It's starting to feel like home again .

Finally , you know this Tennessee's always been home , but I was away from home for a long time and I'm super glad to be back .

Been here , was an agent when I was growing up in Athens , tennessee , then had an opportunity to move to a different position with State Farm and then is back in agency now here in Udawah-College-Dale area for gosh 28 years . That sounds crazy , but 1996 is 28 years ago , so I've been here in the College-Dale-Udawah area for 28 years .

So a lot of times families will transfer their business from one State Farm agency to another . So we have an opportunity to get to interview with customers , essentially to let them know why we're different than another agent that they might pick . Even here in Ottawa . We've been doing it for a long time . We've got well over 100 years experience .

Our combined team has been in the industry for a long time . We still do business the old-fashioned way . We tried to do the online thing and try to adapt to doing business electronically and all that , but the truth of the matter is we weren't great at it .

We were not as good as a lot of younger folks who were in there , so we sort of reverted back to doing business the old fashioned way , making customer service the top priority . Customer service still matters and and even though a lot of some of the more recent generations think that that how much money can I save is the most important thing .

Well , when you need your insurance company , when you've had a loss of some sort , you don't remember how much premium you paid last year . You remember how well you were taken care of and getting your stuff put back together , and we want to make that an important part of what we do that day-to-day interaction , sitting in front of somebody talking about coverages .

We want to make sure there's no surprises when you need us .

We want to do what we can to minimize or eliminate as many surprises as we can .

Talk to us about that , richard . You don't have a claim and you find out you didn't have the proper amount of coverage .

We ask questions like you know have you had any new members to the family ? You know a young couple might have had a baby . That changes some things . Uh , someone may have added a a sunroom to their house and added some square footage added value to their home .

We want to make sure that we , uh that we have those conversations so that we don't miss some of those little details that might fall through the cracks without those conversations . You know young drivers . You know we remember when the kids were born , but now they're 16 and they're about ready to drive .

You know we want to talk to the parents to help help them navigate . Well , what's it like having a new driver in the household ? What kind of ? What kind of things do the parents need to be aware of ? But , more importantly , what kind of things do this young driver need to be aware of ?

How can we help reinforce some of the lessons that the parents are teaching . Those are some of the things that , having a regular conversation with our customers , we get to have those , those , but again , limiting surprises .

I mean , I was , I was driving behind a Lotus the other day . I'm not even sure . I've never checked on what those costs , but I would say it's upward to $200,000 .

You know , and I'm driving behind one of them , thinking I don't want to get too close behind this guy in case he slams on his brakes right because uh , but , but uh , so you know , we think , oh , I just want that insurance minimum , just what I have to have .

And then then I'm in an accident with a , with a pickup truck that cost a hundred thousand dollars and I find out I don't have enough coverage to cover it . What happens then , richard ?

Let us show you what we would normally recommend so you at least understand what all that stuff means and what the potential impact could be . If you know we don't worry so much about fixing the stuff . You know the stuff's fix , so much about fixing the stuff . You know the stuff's fixable .

But what if you're involved in a wreck and the people in the other car have serious injuries ? Oh yeah , that's a real problem . And if you've got minimum state minimum coverage provides $50,000 worth of medical coverage for people in the other car .

So if you've got people in the other car that have substantial injuries , $50,000 is going to run out in a week , you know . So we want to make sure that our customers even prospective customers we're talking to understand what all those fancy numbers mean . It's kind of a different lingo that we speak in the insurance world .

We want to make sure that it's not a foreign language to our customers . What do those numbers mean and what do they mean to you if you are at fault in a wreck ?

It might be 50% more in cost but for most people it's worth it . You know , if we have a situation recently where we had a customer whose father-in-law was involved in an at-fault wreck and the other people had serious injuries and he ran out of coverage on his policy and they're putting a lien on his house , the judgment is a personal judgment .

It's what's called a summary judgment , if I've got the legal term right .

You know , I remember the first time I got a quote , somebody really sat down and helped me understand what umbrella insurance was . And I got a quote and I'm like are you kidding me ? That's all it costs .

I think this I can't remember the exact figure 650 or $700,000 worth of medical Whoa and the other and the other vehicle , and you know , with with what we think of as adequate protection on the auto , that would have paid up to a half million and then that umbrella would have kicked in to pay for that extra expense and that customer for you know , just a few

hundred dollars a year in additional premium would have had insurance to cover that loss as opposed to having a lien on their house .

I I was I've got kind of this dream pickup truck that I have in in my mind I like to buy , and I saw a guy the other day had one . I pulled up the pump at the service station and I was over peeking around the pump looking at it and he walked out and and I said , man , could you show me the truck ?

He showed it to me and I said , uh , about 80 000 and he said , yeah , right at that yeah , I never thought a pickup truck would be 80 000 that's good . Yeah , so I mean just thinking about that . That's just a pickup truck . This is not a sports car . This is not a high-end sports car . You know so , and and so I want you to talk to me .

Let's switch the subject a little bit to homeowners insurance . What are some of the myths and misconceptions that you have people have regarding homeowners insurance when you try to talk to them about getting proper coverage ?

There's a term in the insurance business that's called attractive nuisance A big fancy word for if you put a pool in the insurance business , that's called attractive nuisance A big fancy word for if you put a pool in your front yard and you don't have a fence around your yard or the pool , you're inviting the neighborhood to come swim in your pool .

Same kind of thing with a pool as a trampoline . Uh , you know , used to have uh , lots of questions about trampolines . Uh , if you've got if you've got it fenced or protected around the trampoline , there's pretty good chance nobody's going to be injured uh , while jumping on it .

But there's also a pretty good chance that nobody from the neighborhood's going to come climb into it if it's protected . So those are a couple of things . Yeah , what it costs to rebuild a house today . You know you talked about the $80,000 pickup truck . You know the $80,000 pickup truck used to be a $40,000 pickup truck .

Again , that goes back to having that conversation consistently with our customers is do we need to recalculate how much it would cost to rebuild your house ? Do we have enough coverage to rebuild your house if we had a total loss ?

Heaven forbid we have another tornado here ever but do we have enough coverage to rebuild your house in the event of a fire or a tornado loss ? We want to make sure we have those conversations .

This is long , long ago and it wasn't state farm . I'm not going to mention the company I don't think they've got local agencies , one of those 1-800 number companies but I had insurance with them and I had a claim in my house and I called and they sent an adjuster out and adjuster , first thing , he says I'm sorry , they won't cover this and I was sick .

It was like it was going to cost about five grand to repair it and it was sick . I didn't you know they , I didn't know they didn't cover it . Uh , it was something it seemed like it should could happen to anybody , to me but it was . It was damaged , it was going on that I didn't know about .

By the time it got bad enough , I found out about it and they said we don't cover damage like that . Well , that made me , that left me in a bad place . So there's a lot of things today . That it's the reason you need to sit down with an agent and talk about what you're doing , what you've got . Is it going to cover you ?

Is it , is it going to take care of you when you need it ? Because if there's one thing that I guess might make people hate insurance is when they have those situations and they're and it's not covered . But if they would have just sat down with an agent , been willing to sit down and listen and be taught , be educated , they could have avoided it altogether .

That's . That's where the stigma . We need to get rid of the stigma . But we don't want to talk to an agent , we just want to pick up the phone and call a number and get a quote and get coverage and move on . We need to talk to somebody to make sure we've got the right thing .

Stuff that happens inside walls or inside cabinets or you know , water , water leak over months , that's the kind of thing that any insurance company no , no , no company is going to cover something that's been happening for months . As the homeowner I don't want to be flippant and say , well , you ought to notice something like that .

But plumbing issues like that , you also kind of have a duty as the homeowner to make sure that maintenance is kept up , and that kind of thing . To have a duty as the homeowner to make sure that maintenance is kept up , and that kind of thing .

Again , having those conversations and we make customers aware of what is and what isn't part of the policy , it at least increases the understanding , doesn't fill in all the gaps . It makes sure they understand .

Just sitting down with someone that had some education , some understanding , I , just sitting down with someone that had some education , some understanding I think that's one of the things that this 1-800-AIDS that we're living in . We're missing . That you know . We're missing that . As you said , that customer service . And that's what you provide , and that's wonderful .

If there was one thing , richard , that you wish that people knew about the heart of Don's Self State Farm , richard and all the other crew there at Don's Self State Farm but they probably wouldn't know unless you shared it with them .

And today you'd like to just state it loud and proud here on the Good Neighbor podcast to everybody , so they'll know what would that be ?

And if you , if you , if you don't tell the truth , it's hard to remember what you told everybody . You know you have to tell another line , another line . We don't tell the truth . It's hard to remember what you told everybody . You know you have to tell another line , another line . We don't .

We just we'd rather tell you exactly the way it is , earn your business , earn it by having a relationship , having those conversations , as opposed to trying to trick you or lie to you or to hide something . So , as I said earlier , we like to do business the old-fashioned way . We like to .

When someone is considering changing their family's or their business's insurance that they've had for the last 15 years , if they're considering a change , for whatever reason , we want to sit down and go over not only what we propose but what they currently have . Look at them side by side , make sure that they have that understanding .

Let's make sure that we've covered all the bases . We don't want to leave any stone unturned All those cliches , you know . We want to make sure that there's no questions Once we , once we've had that conversation . We want to make sure that we answer questions . There's no misunderstandings .

You said a mouthful when you said you could just have have one gift in life . It would be understanding . That's huge Understanding . It's absolutely essential when you're talking about something as important as your family's insurance plan .

But if I'd never been told that , and the next thing I knew my motor had went down on me and it blew we used to use the term blew up on me and it was ruined . And then I found out I needed to change oil , that understanding didn't help me at that point . That's right .

So if I'm willing to sit down and gain understanding now , it can alleviate me having a lot of problems later . That's the kind of point I'm trying to get to . You brought up the customer service aspect of it . That's important . Richard , I appreciate you so much today . It's been wonderful talking to you , hearing the heart of your company and who you are .

I know it's your dad's company , but you're you're you're company too , because you're working there and helping there , and and and you tell Mr Don that we're proud of him and and keep up the good work and and relax . Time to start relaxing a little bit .

Well , we appreciate you so much , Richard , for coming on the program today , and I want to give you a little space here and I want you to tell us how to reach out to you , how to find you . If there's online , if there's more information that people can just tell us all the different ways that we can find out about you .

You can tell an awful lot about not just State Farm but how we do business by looking at what our presence online . But the most valuable way that you can get in touch with us is probably just by picking up the phone , calling us . Let's have a conversation .

We can schedule a time to get together face-to-face or we can have a meaningful conversation like you and I are having today . We can have it via Zoom or Microsoft Teams or one of those interactive methods online . But if you just want to call our office , our number is 423-396-2126 . You can call us any time of the day .

We're here from eight o'clock to five , monday through Friday , and any one of our team members would be absolutely delighted to have a conversation with you .

That first conversation might be information gathering , might be having a talk about needs assessment and those kinds of things , and it might lead to a second phone conversation or in-person meeting after we've had an opportunity to assess needs and prepare . Prepare an answer to some of those needs . But phone call is a great start . You know there's there .

You know save 15% . 15 minutes or less can save you 15 . We can't even get all the information we need to have a conversation in 15 minutes .

Understand a little bit about what your needs are so we can find out the best solution to fill those needs .

And you know , I know , that he hopes that when you have this need , that you'll keep them in mind and that you'll reach out to their website , meet you at donselfnet or to their phone number either one and to contact them .

Give them a chance In this day microwave age , I call it where we want everything at the touch of our fingers instantly when it comes to ensuring our family's financial future , our financial needs . Slow down , slow down and take a few minutes longer and talk to someone , ask the questions you need to know .

Let them talk to you about the different coverages to make sure that you don't find yourself in the position that Richard was talking about , this unfortunate situation that a family has found themselves in now to lean on their house because they didn't have enough coverage . It's important .

If your homeowner realized that values have shot out the roof and so have building costs , then you might need to take another look at what it would cost to rebuild your home if you have a total loss . These things are important to our financial future . It's not an agent A lot of times we look at oh , they're just trying to make more money off of us .

It's not that . It's about making sure you're taken care of , because if you're not taken care of , who's it matter who the insurance agent you've got , but if you want somebody that will take care of you , you need to find that one you trust and they'll provide you the education and understanding you need .

And Silent Richard's a good one , so I know he hopes you'll keep him in mind . And before ending the episode , I would also like to say thank you for all the listeners out there who have taken time out of your day to listen to the Good Neighbor podcast .

As always , please remember to support the locally owned and operated businesses in the greater Chattanooga region , from Cleveland to Dalton , jasper to Benton , all the little communities in between . They're all important and all of our businesses are important . So my name is Scott Howell . Again , I'm with the Friends and Neighbors Group . Been wonderful having you today .

Everyone , go out and make this a remarkable day .