Saving Driving in a Digital World: How Hagerty Is Blending Nostalgia with Modern Innovation

[00:00:04] At first glance, you might not associate a company called Hagerty with cutting-edge technology. But behind this globally recognised brand, best known for its deep-rooted connection to car culture, collectible vehicle insurance, a company that's a big hit with car enthusiasts. If you take a peek behind the curtain, there is a data-driven digital transformation story unfolding.

[00:00:29] From modern cloud investments to AI-driven customer insights and community-driven innovation, Hagerty is blending passion with technology. And they're doing that in ways that's redefining the automotive enthusiast experience. So to explore this topic further, today I'm joined by Maggie Stafford, Vice President of People Insights at Hagerty.

[00:00:53] So today, we're going to talk about how technology is fuelling Hagerty's customer experience. How the brand is ensuring that driving remains a passion for future generations. And how they're using data and digital tools to foster a sense of belonging in the automotive world. But enough from me. It's time for me to beam your ears all the way to the show floor here at X4 in Salt Lake City, where Maggie is waiting to share her insights with you.

[00:01:24] Well, thank you for joining me at the X4 Summit today. Would you mind telling everyone listening a little about who you are and what you do? Absolutely. Thanks for including me. My name's Maggie Stafford. I'm the Vice President of People Insights at Hagerty. And by People Insights, I mean that my team, which is a mighty team of two, is responsible for overseeing and measuring the relationship that Hagerty has with people.

[00:01:47] So whether that is our members or our prospective members, our team members or employees, agents or brokers we work with, or just car enthusiasts at large, we really focus on understanding the relationship with the brand and their experiences with our products and services. Awesome. And Hagerty is a huge brand. But for anyone listening in some part of the world that, for some reason, hasn't heard them all, hasn't come across them, how would you define Hagerty? Hagerty is a company that offers products and services for car enthusiasts.

[00:02:17] So more specifically, we have products to protect. So we're best known for our insurance. Buy and sell. So think about marketplace and adding cars a lot or taking them away. And then enjoy. Right. So properties like media or events to really help fuel members' passion for their vehicles. I love it. And when doing a little research, I quickly learned it's a brand built around car culture, passionate car enthusiasts, like you said. But how does that passion shape the way that you approach customer experience?

[00:02:46] Because I'm interested in how those two interconnect. Yeah. So there's a saying in our company that everything ends and begins with the love of the automobile. And that is true. Our founders, Frank and Louise Hagerty, were car enthusiasts, avid collectors, also boating enthusiasts. Fun fact, that's how Hagerty started was with collector marine insurance. But I say that because it's core to who we are as a company, right? These owners were collectors themselves.

[00:03:12] So they knew the passion. They knew the value. They knew the sort of emotional connection that they had with their vehicles and that other people have with theirs. So that has stayed true to the brand and the philosophy from the 40 years we've been in existence. And something that we really helps us, I think, where we connect to members, right? Understanding that we talk about our role as the brand, as we are, we're the guide. We're there to help navigate. We're there to help them enjoy their cars, but they're the driver, right?

[00:03:42] And the fact that they own a 1991 Miata and that they love it, like that's cool for us, right? Like that is important. That is making the world diverse and the collector car community diverse. And we like driving. Like we like cars internally. It's not just a thing. It's something that's really important to who we are as a brand and as a culture. I love it. And one of the things I try and do on this podcast every day is getting people thinking differently about the ways that technology impacts our life, our work, and even world in some aspects.

[00:04:11] And of course, when people think of Haggerty, I think I'm right in saying you wouldn't automatically associate with high tech. But then also, I need an argument that every business is now a tech business. So how are you using tech to create differentiation and enhance the customer experience? Because I think it'd be very helpful for business leaders out there that may be in a similar industry and learn from you. Yeah.

[00:04:32] I know the company also has just invested $20 million in a modern cloud-based technology that's really to scale our operations for efficiencies. It's really for the insurance kind of platform. It adds for more segmentations, more deeper segmentations, and ultimately to drive better experiences both internally and externally. So internally, I think a lot of companies have tech stacks and tech debt.

[00:04:57] And so modernizing that, simplifying it, streamlining that, we see that as we measure the employee experience and knowing that some of those areas can be frustrating. And so a solution that really builds towards that. And for members, the same sort of opportunity to quickly go online, right, and sort of process everything they need. There's the seamlessness with bill paying, the seamlessness for us offering different products and coverages for different types of vehicles.

[00:05:24] So it's really enabling that to kind of meet the expectations of consumers. We have a very active call center, and that is a service is a big component of what we do. But for us, it's also about translating that online, right, and making sure we're delivering that same exceptional experience in a digital world. Now you did mention drive the business a moment ago. So you've opened the pun game now. Hagerty can play a pretty mean pun game with cars. Don't, yeah, just, I think we have that. I think all of our meeting rooms are named cars.

[00:05:53] Like we are joking that there should be a little counter for fueling. And you got it. We got it. And I was also reading that you put employees behind the wheel to help them get better and understand the passion of your customers. So can you share how that hands-on experience influences the way that you serve your members? Yeah, absolutely. That is again a tenant to sort of who we are as that love of the car, right? And for all of us that aren't car enthusiasts, understanding these cars are different.

[00:06:22] They're built different. They drive different. They're fun. There's sort of a more visceral feeling, right, when you're in those. So the company has lots of programs and activities that are embedded in our culture to really help employees. So you don't have to be a car person to work there. We have a lot of car people, but it is an opportunity with experiences. And we say hands on the wheel. It's kind of a KPI internally we use. And that can be anything from taking a Hagrid has a beautiful collection of cars that they allow employees to take out.

[00:06:52] My colleague, Tracy, and I were trusted again with like, I think it was a Seve 1 Bronco. Beautiful car. You can just take it out for the afternoon, right? So they trust you. They want you to drive them. That's the other thing that is a philosophy of the company. So things like that programs that are called stick shift 101. So I learned how to drive a stick shift at Hagerty. So you got to practice on about nine different cars. We also partner with a program called the Extreme Experience, which is more of the high performance cars on a racetrack.

[00:07:21] But the belief is that if our employees can get behind the wheel, they can feel that experience. They're going to make that connection to what our members feel. And they're going to deliver that in their service and the experiences that we create. And I was also reading before I met you today that the Hagerty Drivers Club has more than 620,000 members. What role does community play in your brand success? And how does technology help foster those connections too? Yeah.

[00:07:46] Hagerty Drivers Club, I think actually has over 850,000 members, but that has been a really core tenet of the brand purposely to build connection and foster community. The bedrock of Hagerty's products was insurance. So that's really hard to build relationships with in a commoditized market in a way that traditionally was built by the mail or transactions.

[00:08:08] So membership and Hagerty Drivers Club was a way to really celebrate car culture and celebrate and connect on the passion and really round the brand out with things that members needed. So there's lots of different ways the company helps to foster community. I think local events is a big kind of presence that can be everything from cars and caffeine, which sounds just like it is.

[00:08:28] You get together, bring your car, have a coffee and check out other cars in your area to sort of more cruises or drive ins or things like that where people are meeting up purposely to meet. So that's in real life, but there's also digitally, right? So media is a big part of what Hagerty offers. So from our social presence, our YouTube presence, our content online, just the exchanging of ideas and stories is sort of a natural thing that also is celebrated within the company's media efforts.

[00:08:56] And you have some big events as well, like the Amelia and the Greenwich Concourse, the Elegance. They're all a big part of what makes Hagerty unique. So how do those experiences fuel word of mouth and long-term loyalty of your brand? Yeah, events has always been a key component of what Hagerty has done. And part of that is just that's the way that car communities are, right? There's a local parade. There's a local show. So I think it was in 2014 when we actually launched our first owned and operated event, and that was in the U.K.

[00:09:23] And it's an event called the Festival of the Unexceptional. And it was just an event to celebrate great examples of boring cars is sort of how they did it and a brand personality to it. But the intentionality of it was also to introduce new people to cars, right? A younger audience, that it's not just really high-end Ferraris or really old Duesenbergs. It can be the boring car your dad drove, and that can be special and meaningful to you.

[00:09:47] So the company has continued to broaden the presence and do events, I think for a lot of reasons, to celebrate car culture, right? It's a great display of it. We just scrapped the Amelia Island Concourse d'Elegance a few weeks ago. And it's also a way for us to bring in and attract new individuals. And as a leader in this space, it's sort of our, I think, our impact, right? It's to hold the bigger community up and to promote those industries and businesses that we're all a part of.

[00:10:15] One of the things that stood out to me is your mission is about so much more than insurance. It's about saving driving. And I've spent some time in Austin and San Francisco, Waymo driverless cars going around everywhere. So it's more important than ever. So what does this mean in a world increasingly focused on automation and electric vehicles? I get the impression this is going to be a topic you're passionate about. It is. And it's something that I think Trace and I are both around when this kind of concept was introduced. And it was a value to really help rally the company.

[00:10:43] And the idea is that we believe that these are important, right? And these cars are important. And the act of driving is important. And there's a place for technology. And there's a place for sort of different things. But this is a history, right? This is something to kind of hold true. And that what we really want to make sure is that these exist. And this matters for future generations. Yeah. And I think you hit the nail on the head there. That is a place for technology. So data and insights play a big role in shaping customer experiences.

[00:11:11] So what trends do you see them playing in the automotive enthusiast space? And how are you adapting to this as well? So I think data and trends that are impacting the automotive space is definitely as the new generation comes into collecting, right? We sort of see that in the last five years or so, the people who are new are younger. They are more diverse, both in sort of gender and ethnicity. And they may not have the same family connection, right?

[00:11:39] And they may not be seeking information from the same sources that a lot of more traditional collectors have. So online communities and forums. So things that we saw before, the participation in clubs, right? That especially in things like the UK, that's much bigger. In the US, it's much more segmented, right? It's really built around marks and things like that. But online, right? You can connect. You can kind of gather. You can ask questions and sort of get that insight.

[00:12:06] And so that's playing, I think, a big role in providing resources to people who are getting in, whether that be how to value your car, right? What to look for for maintaining a car. So I think those are some broader trends in terms of sort of how that's shaping the automotive. And if we were to look ahead, are there any innovations or initiatives that excite you most? And especially that will help strengthen that connection between Hagerty and your community of car love. Does anything excite you in particular there? I don't know what.

[00:12:36] I mean, lots of things excite me. I'm not sure about from the technology standpoint of it. I think it's just watching the community grow, right? And seeing the next generation come in and seeing also this excitement for the future. So that's something often we'll do is just to talk to our members about we monitor the sort of the fears and concerns they have, right? Some of those are environmental. Some of those are regulatory. Some of those are just like, what if kids don't know how to drive sticks anymore? Like, what if there's just that?

[00:13:04] But there's also on the same side of it this excitement and passion. So this belief that this is something that should be passed on and that almost like a friendliness of being in the club, that it doesn't matter what you own or if I know more about it than you do. But it's a welcoming sort of community to see that next era come in. And here at Expo Summit in Salt Lake, you're doing back-to-back interviews, but I believe you're also doing some talking too. What are you talking about here?

[00:13:31] So my colleague Tracy Konzer and I spoke this morning about keeping members at the center of your business strategy and just talking about how in Hagerty's 40 years of growth that connecting on that passion and that shared experience has really been what has been core to the brand and its success. So we talked about that and how we foster connections like the hands on the wheel and events, but also the role that insights play.

[00:13:56] So how we manage a feedback program to really support the business with what our customers feel and what their experiences are with the brand so the company can continue to evolve and make sure that we're delivering exceptional service and innovating for the future. And if we were to take all the conversations from your session, your back-to-back interviews, your conversations on the show floor and everyone you met, what are you going to be reflecting on on that plane ride home?

[00:14:22] So Tracy and I talked about this a bit, but we are a team of two, right? So we really also have to utilize technology and a platform to be efficient and to scale and to sort of evolve with the business. So I found, and I think we both have, it's been refreshing to meet a lot of people like in our shoes where there's not teams of 20 or 40 or 10 or whatever. And so how do you also partner with technology? How do you use it? How do you scale it? And how do you adapt?

[00:14:49] And I think that's something that I feel proud of sort of where we've come and evolved and also feels good to sort of know that you're not alone. And the sort of challenges that you have with those resource constraints. And for anybody listening that wants to dig a little bit deeper on anything we talked about today, anywhere in particular you'd like to point them? Well, I feel like I can get you to subscribe to Hagerty Media. No, but Hagerty has a great resource as well. I'm happy if anyone wants to follow us on LinkedIn, but just welcome the opportunity. No, thank you for the opportunity for sitting down with me today.

[00:15:19] I appreciate how busy you are. We covered a lot in a short amount of time, but just thank you for bringing this to life today. No, thank you, Neil. I think it's clear, isn't it, that Hagerty is way more than just an insurance company. It's a community-driven brand, one that thrives on passion, connection and innovation. And from cloud-powered digital transformations to hands-on driving experiences for employees,

[00:15:44] Hagerty is proving that even in a world of automation and AI, there is still a place for human connection and the love of the car. So, as we look ahead, the role of technology in automotive enthusiasm will only continue to evolve. But will digital tools enhance the connection between people and their cars, or will automation threaten the very culture that Hagerty is working to preserve? Having spoken to Maggie, I think we all know the answer to that question.

[00:16:14] But where do you stand on this? Let me know your thoughts. Email me, techblogwriteroutlook.com, LinkedIn, X, Instagram, just at Neil C. Hughes. But a big thank you to Maggie for joining me on the show floor today, and an even bigger thank you for you joining me in every corner of the world, in 165 countries, according to my podcast host. So, thank you to everyone for listening, and I invite you to join me again tomorrow where we'll do it all again. Speak with you then. Bye. Bye.