Co. service centers: financial fit or folly? (Column)

From: National Underwriter Property & Casualty-Risk &Benefits Management | Date: March 16, 1992| Author: | Copyright information

Company service centers are forcing into sharper focus a high-stakes debate over who should service clients, who should sell, and what the agency system will look like in the 1990s and beyond.

Scouring the marketplace for efficiencies, at least four major carriers have erected service centers in the last two years. Other companies are closely watching the results.

By housing most client service under the carrier's roof, the theory goes, service centers lower administrative costs, help control premiums and free agents to focus on selling.

But skeptics say service ...

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