Agency commemorates first anniversary

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  • Friends, family and clients visit Farmers Insurance agent Angela Schertle’s office to celebrate the agency’s first anniversary. Ambassadors from the Lawton-Fort Sill Chamber of Commerce held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to highlight the milestone. Among the crowd pictured, left to right, are: Ambassador Rose Duckett, Chairman Thomas Abram, Farmers agent Angela Schertle, Charles Schertle, Brittany White, Sara Bivens, Shanelle Davis and Hennassey Hawes, along with clients and close friends. Photo: Curtis Awbrey
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Staff members enjoy a brief break during the agency’s first anniversary open house and ribbon-cutting celebration. Guests who attended the event enjoyed hors d’oeuvres by Buffalo Grove Coffee and a photo booth set up by Enchanted Mirror. Pictured, left to right, are: Hennassey Hawes, Angela Schertle, Brittany White, Charles Schertle and Shanelle Davis. Photo: Curtis Awbery
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LAWTON – Farmers Insurance agent Angela Schertle and her staff celebrated the agency’s first year in business with a ribbon cutting and open house Friday.

Friends, family members, clients, as well as ambassadors, from the Lawton-Fort Sill Chamber of Commerce, were invited to the agency, located at 28 NW 44th St., Lawton, to mark the milestone. Along with door prizes and information made available through BancFirst, guests were treated to hors d’oeuvres courtesy of Buffalo Grove Coffee and a photo booth set up by Enchanted Mirror.

Since acquiring the agency last December, Schertle and her staff have been reaching out to new clients and reevaluating existing clients’ policies to ensure they have the right coverage to meet their needs. Schertle, a former trainer and business consultant who worked with 30 different agents at the Farmers’ District Office, explained that by studying policies more in depth it has given her an opportunity to teach people about the coverage they have.

Schertle says she welcomes questions and looks forward to creating customized plans for clients. “Insurance is a difficult subject,” she said. Many times people go online and “pick what they think is best for them, but they don’t always understand what the coverage does or what the potential gaps are by leaving out a coverage or by putting too much insurance on one thing.”

“The first thing I do is sit down and look at their policy as it exists with whatever company they’re with. Then I explain their policies to them before I ever offer anything we have.”

The past year has allowed Schertle and her staff the opportunity to find their niche, she said. “Every agency truly has their own personality. We really have a passion for the community. I believe we need to know the people that we’re working with before we ever try to sell them anything. We’re a sales industry, but we need to care about people first.”

Looking ahead, Schertle explains that she and her staff plan to do more work with nonprofit organizations as well as supporting the military.

“Seeing how much the military population impacts Lawton, I just feel like we should be doing anything we can to support them,” she concluded.