Insurance is one of those necessary products that’s difficult to get all warm and fuzzy over, which is why at GNK Insurance Services Inc. in the Heights, the company’s relationship with its community is so important in creating customer loyalty.
Ten years ago, longtime friends Salvatore Audia and Frank Spartano started the Burnaby insurance brokerage with a handshake. The pair had wanted to go into business together for years, so when the opportunity arose to open GNK on Hastings Street, they jumped at the chance.
GNK (the acronym stands for Good faith, Neighbourhood service and Knowledgeable staff) offers the usual peace-of-mind fare including auto, home and commercial insurance from approximately nine different companies.
But what makes GNK unique, according to store manager Amy Arva, is how connected the business is to the community it serves and vice versa.
“It is such a vibrant area. It is an area where people know each other,” said Arva, 48, who has been at the Burnaby location for nine years and lives in the Heights, just a few blocks from the store. Four of the five GNK employees live in the community.
“(Customers) shop in the area and then they stop in and see us,” Arva added.
Arva previously worked at the Kitsilano store and said she’s noticed differences between the clientele at the two locations. Many GNK clients are longtime residents and part of the proud Heights Italian community.
“We get a lot of seniors and people who own their own homes as opposed to our other office where we dealt a little bit more with people who were doing tenant insurance and that sort of thing,” Arva said.
Since Arva started in Burnaby some things about the business have changed, particularity in terms of what types of claims she sees.
“In the old days, it used to be fires, and then it moved on to maybe break-and-enters, and we still see things like that, but nowadays it is water damage. People are putting nice basement suites in where before maybe they had unfinished basements,” she said.
It isn’t always possible for a claim to be paid out, and if that is the case, employees help clients understand why.
Regardless of the type of insurance being processed or the claim pursued, Arva said the employees pride themselves on helping locals work through the insurance maze.
Customers seem to appreciate the personal attention.“I originally had a broker I wasn’t satisfied with, who wasn’t listening to my needs,” said GNK customer Carla Sovernigo, who has bought commercial insurance from Audia for her Burnaby, family-owned company, Alka Pool Construction for about the last 10 years.
“He gave exceptional service. He was very patient to explain the whole process to me,” she said.
Sovernigo said, unfortunately, she has had to file a few claims for theft and one for a break-and-enter, but with Audia’s help the process went smoothly.
Arva said the personal touch and putting clients at ease is what they are known for.
“We know our clients by name,” said Arva, who started selling insurance almost 20 years ago at the urging of her insurance broker stepmother.
“It is a lot of satisfaction because you know in insurance you are not buying a new dress or a new outfit or anything like that. It is not very tangible, so where I see (customers’) satisfaction is when they are being helped and they see we care about their needs,” she said.
GNK is also known in the community for, believe it or not, their Elvis impersonators who come out for Hats Off Day, held in the Heights on the first Saturday of June.
For more info on GNK Insurance Services Inc., go to gnkinsurance.ca.
