State Farm Q&A: Small business support, digital transformation

January 10, 2022 7:35 AM

di-state-farm-hq-030817 — State Farm corporate headquarters in Bloomington, Illinois

Digital Insurance spoke with Rand Harbert, executive vice president and chief agency, sales and marketing officer for State Farm about its support of small businesses and communities and how digital fits in. The company is celebrating 100 years in business this year. More information about that is available here.

The following responses have been lightly edited for clarity.

What kind of work is State Farm is doing with small businesses?

We are getting ready to celebrate 100 years and for nearly 100 years we have been very much a part of local communities.

Small businesses are a natural extension of personal lines which we are known for at State Farm. We have agents all over the U.S., in almost all states, and several of our agents are in smaller towns.

A lot of people think of State Farm as a big company, but we are a company made up of small offices in small towns, villages and cities all over the country. We are a small business. And a part of our mission is to help other small businesses thrive. It is important to us. Small business is a part of DNA.

How does digital play a role in your support of small businesses?

Our platform gets more digital every day. It is evolving and getting better all the time.

We have a team that is focused on customer feedback and looking at our competition to see what customers want. We then try and adapt that in a way that will make it easier for customers in a digital manner, when and how they want to use it. It is something ongoing that we are doing. There has been a lot of progress.

We do want to be there, face-to-face with our customers but we also want to have a digital platform that is easy for customers to access in two ways: if you are new to state farm and for existing customers to use the site as a work partner to help them do the things they need to do and be able to do electronically.

If you are a business owner, for example, people will want a certificate of insurance. That used to be a printed paper thing and now it is available electronically. If someone said we want to hire your catering company–you can push a button and the insurance certificate is there.

Why is community important to State Farm?

We are a large corporation made up of all of these small businesses. It is one thing to go out and solicit business but we are offering insurance, literally, to people that we live with and go to school with. The ‘like a good neighbor,’ is very real to us.

When you think of a small business, who better to help someone who is struggling than someone who is also running a small business themselves and is knowledgeable in this space.

We see the community as a natural extension of personal lines and we want to help people in communities all across the nation with their small business needs. We want to be there and be the end person and organization people go to.

Do you see potential in cyber insurance?

We see cyber as a downstream potential. It is something people didn’t know about 10 or 20 years ago. Today, most companies of any size know it is a space they need to be active in.

There is a lot going to be happening in that space and we will be a part.