Real Life Story Shares
How to Outshine Bigger Businesses to Attract Better Qualified Candidates

Business owners are often competing with bigger companies offering better benefits. This can impact your employee options because the larger companies are offering more attractive plans. However, the most common insight the smaller business owner gains is that the plans aren’t as costly as they thought. After they begin to provide coverage, they notice that they attract and retain better qualified employees. It’s one of things where you don’t know what you don’t know - until you experience it.

Today we’re going to share Valencia Demuchest’s story, owner of Acadiana Hope and Wellness Center to learn in her own words, how offering group coverage and working with South Central Insurance Brokers has impacted her business.

Valencia’s Story:

Valencia shares, “I decided to get group coverage because I wanted to be attractive to candidates and provide a benefits package that would encourage people to stay and be willing to commute and work in a rural area.”

She describes her experience in providing coverage to her employees and working with Bryan Comeaux at South Central Insurance Brokers throughout the process.

Valencia continues to share, “Bryan offered a willingness to utilize his skills and services to find the best package. A small business, couldn't afford a lot. We were looking to offer more or the same amount of coverage and benefits that larger companies could. Bryan was awesome in locating the type of coverage we needed, with the budget that we had. Eventually, he's been able to work with my employees for long-term disability, short-term disability, dental, vision, and life insurance. We started off originally with basic healthcare. Today, he has taken us on a journey that makes us more attractive than some of the larger corporations, because we do offer all those things at really reasonable rates. The coverage has allowed me to hire those with higher education, and with a better background. It has also helped our facility attract those employees who already had coverage. It’s also helped me retain employees, in that, they're not looking for other offers with better benefits. A few of my full-time people have become part-time because they no longer need to hold on to the full-time job to have those benefits.

Bryan at South Central Insurance Brokers is one of the easiest people to work with. He will make sure that he makes himself available and that is one of the things that we all love about him. Bryan is very hands-on with us and is always willing to answer our questions. If he doesn't have an answer, he's willing to search until he finds it.

He explains things in the language that we understand. Often, when talking to insurance people, they ramble on because they do this job every day. He breaks down the language in layman's terms and makes it simple. He often speaks directly to my staff. They're making the decision about the amount of coverage they need, especially when it comes to short-term, long-term disability, vision, dental, and life insurance. He talks directly to them, and they feel comfortable with him and he makes himself even available after hours or before hours. They can call him during their own private time and that’s beautiful.

Bryan with South Central Insurance Brokers does the legwork himself. He doesn't send out a marketer or he doesn't send out someone else to be the base of the company. Even if you talk to one of the people that work for Bryan, he will still give you a call.

It feels like you're talking to a friend every time you engage with him. And that is rare. You feel like your time is worth something when you're dealing with Bryan. So that is the beautiful thing about him. I recommend him to everyone that I know that has a business, and he does pretty well with them as well.”

To Summarize:

Providing coverage to employees impacts the company, especially for attracting higher level employees. Having a broker who cares like Bryan Comeaux makes the process easier and better. Valencia transitioned from offering what she could as a smaller business, to evolving into providing what the bigger businesses over time. As a result, she’s seen a huge transition in attracting a higher level of education and more qualified candidates. This makes a huge overall difference in that highly qualified people can ultimately influence bottom line revenue. And it’s helpful to work with an agent who provides attentive customer care too.

If you are looking to attract better qualified candidates, contact:

Bryan Comeaux – President of South Central Insurance Brokers
bryan@scentralinsurance.com
337-514-7115
www.scentralinsurance.com