Tate Insurance Agency Values Integrity and Client Education
Photographer / Lana King
Sometimes who you know makes a difference. At least that has been true for Enid Tate, an agent for American National Insurance whose office is on Main Street in Rochester.
Tate Insurance Agency opened in 2019. American National Insurance is the only company Tate represents, and she offers plenty of services to help her neighbors with insurance needs including auto, life and homeowner’s, as well as renter’s, business, farm and specialty coverage.
Tate, whose first name references the place in Oklahoma where she was born, moved to Rochester in 1975 with her family. She graduated from high school there and ran a successful business, Enid’s Cleaning Service, for 27 years.
Tate believes her familiarity with the area and its people gives her an edge over other agencies.
“It is that face-to-face relationship you have with those you recognize,” Tate says. “These are people you say hi to on the street.”
Her relationship with her neighbors also makes her a better insurance agent. For her clients, that relationship means they can come to her with questions and know that she’ll tell them the truth.
“If I had been dishonest when running my cleaning service, it would have gotten around,” Tate says. “There is a level of trust that comes with being familiar with a person. I want to sell with integrity and be truthful.”
Tate sees her role as one of education. She engages in honest talk with her clients, looking at the insurance they have and what they don’t have. She measures this against what could happen and how clients could protect themselves.
“I work with clients and educate them,” Tate says. “We look at what they need and what they don’t need.”
While car and home insurance is standard for many people, the protection of a customer’s assets may go well beyond such coverage. For example, Tate suggests landlords require their tenants to take out a renter’s policy. This not only protects the tenant who stands to lose all they own in a fire or other occurrence, but also the landlord if the tenant causes damage to the property. Some situations are not covered under certain liability policies.
“I am not a high-pressure salesperson,” Tate says. “I don’t like being sold to that way. I prefer an honest talk.”
Tate’s journey into the insurance business has been a second career for the former small-business owner. When she retired from her cleaning business, she wasn’t content.
“I did not retire well,” she says. “I got bored.”
This prompted her to take a customer service job with a local insurance agency.
“I never dreamed I would go any further in the insurance business,” Tate says.
She credits her former boss for giving her the confidence to accept the offer that came her way from American National. He encouraged her and was there to offer advice and direction.
“He made the [insurance] experience pleasurable for me,” Tate says of her former boss.
Tate says people sometimes have misconceptions about insurance. They may know they need it and know it can be expensive, and the latter is the complaint she hears most often.
“People think that we as agents have control over what prices we charge,” Tate says. “We have no control as agents.”
She likens shopping for insurance to shopping for a car. The client reviews a list of what is needed or wanted, and the list determines the cost.
For those shopping for insurance, Tate suggests asking questions. Understanding what is being offered and why it is needed can help people make the right decisions.
Looking at the complete picture also helps to ensure that each client has what they need to mitigate losses from accidents, natural disasters or other occurrences.
This is why Tate believes her approach works well for those she meets in the community. Tate prefers honest talk, and an equal exchange between herself and her clients. In the end, that is her formula for succeeding in the insurance business.
Tate Insurance Agency is located at 826 Main Street in Rochester. Contact Tate at 574-223-7542 or at insurancerochester@gmail.com.
