by Angus MacCaull

“I miss all the John talk on Monday morning—that’s the only problem. So he has to tell the stories from the weekend again on Tuesday!”

Catherine Gillis heads north twice a week on the Number 19. The drive along the coast has stunning views of the ocean (one of the perks of being a “roving broker”). On those days, Catherine meets clients in our Mabou office. The rest of the week, she goes south to join the TeAAM in Port Hawkesbury.

“I love the variety,” she says. “I find the week goes by so fast.”

Our Mabou office opened only three years ago, but Catherine has a personal history with the area and even the office space itself. We’re located in the old Credit Union building, which is where Catherine got her first car loan. The bank manager at that time, Xavier Rankin, was the person who recommended that Catherine go into insurance in the first place.

During university, Catherine was roommates at StFX with Xavier’s daughter Marie. And Marie herself even worked with AA Munro for a while back in the eighties.

In Mabou, you can’t go long without talking about The Rankins. Farther north up the Number 19 in Inverness, all the talk these days is about golf. The new, world-class golf facilities in Inverness are getting rave reviews.

AA Munro has been in Inverness since 1976. Another roving broker, Cathy MacKinnon, spends one afternoon a week in our Inverness office to help serve the area.

“The seniors at the home call to ask me to come and pick up their money for their policies,” she says. “Sometimes they just don’t have a drive.”

Cathy loves the change of pace that comes with being in two offices. The rest of the week she’s in Whycocomagh, where the phones are buzzing with clients as well as our brokers from around the province and suppliers from across the country calling to check in with underwriting and processing.

Going out on the road on a regular basis gives both Catherine and Cathy a chance to catch up on the photos they need: oil tanks, boats, roofs. It’s also a chance to be visible themselves in their areas of the province. Clients see them out at the local pharmacy or the market or having lunch and remember to call or drop in and ask about insurance. Knowing that AA Munro has a commitment to showing up in person builds a lot of trust.

It’s hard to trust what you can’t see. As the saying goes, “Seeing is believing.”

 

Catherine in Mabou
Where Culture Lives
Cathy in Inverness
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