Today we’d like to introduce you to Todd Ray.
Todd, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I am originally from North Carolina and most of my family is from the Smoky Mountains of Western Carolina. I moved to Spring, TX with my family in 1977 and attended Klein High School in the early 1980s. I graduated from Texas A&M University in 1988 with a degree in Industrial Engineering and then started my 24 years career at Hewlett-Packard (originally Compaq Computer Corporation) in Northwest Houston. While I am very grateful for my career at HP and the livelihood it provided my family, after 24 years it was time for a change. After much networking and soul searching, I decided to make a major career change by retiring from HP. In 2012, I purchased an Allstate insurance agency in the Spring/Woodlands area. This has been a great change for me, as the opportunity addressed all of my personal goals related to family, professional growth, and a more direct and meaningful relationship with customers.
I currently reside in the Cypress, TX area with my wife and youngest son who is a Sophomore at Cy-Fair High School. My oldest son is a graduate of Texas A&M and currently lives in Louisiana with his wife. We enjoy tailgating at football games and camping at many of the awesome Texas state parks. Having lived and worked in Northwest Houston for over three decades, I have a strong allegiance to the extended community and the people who make this such a great place to live. So in 2016, I constructed a new office building and permanently relocated my agency from Spring to the Cypress/Tomball area.
I am fortunate and blessed to have the opportunity to own and manage a business in the Cypress area. With that opportunity comes great responsibility to my customers, my team, my family and the community. Our agency is actively involved in volunteer activities and student mentoring at local schools. We consider it an honor and privilege to serve our local community that has given so much to us over the years.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I have faced several challenges along my journey. First of all, it was very difficult to leave a 24 years career at the only company (Compaq/HP) that I had ever worked for. But after making the change to become a small business owner, I realized that I had awoken an entrepreneurial spirit inside me that I never knew existed!!
From a business perspective, one of our biggest challenges was helping our customers through the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. Many of our employees and customers were directly impacted by the storm, and we dedicated almost 100% of our time to helping our customers with their flood claims. Another key challenge for me and my team was the construction of our office building. When I embarked on that endeavor, I had zero experience in Commercial construction so every day was a new learning experience. In going through this process, I now realize how difficult it can be to migrate though the myriad of city and county permitting and construction requirements. But we absolutely love our new office building, so the gain was worth the pain!
Please tell us about Todd Ray Allstate Agency.
As an Allstate Insurance Agent, we offer a full suite of products and services to help insure and protect families and their most important assets. This includes protection for auto, home, boat, motorcycle, recreational vehicles, Workplace Benefits and Life and Retirement planning solutions.
The insurance industry is extremely competitive, so over the years we have been forced to reinvent ourselves many times in order to succeed in our market. But through all the ups and downs of the industry, we continue to differentiate ourselves from the competition through personalized customer service, integrity and being available to our customers when they really need us. I am most proud of our customer service, and here are a few examples during Hurricane Harvey of how we back up those statements:
* One of our employees’ home flooded so her and her family were forced to live in a shelter for several weeks…yet she continued to service our customers from the shelter using a laptop computer and her cell phone.
* One of our customers (an elderly couple with health issues) who’s home flooded with 6 feet of water were on the verge of losing almost $10,000 in flood insurance contents coverage because they were physically unable to take photos of the contents and provide them to FEMA for reimbursement. No one had been inside the home for six weeks after the flood, so you can imagine the condition of the home. I did not want them to lose those reimbursement funds, so I put on a gas mask and walked through their entire mold covered home to take photos and record serial numbers for submission to FEMA. And yes, they did get their $10,000 contents coverage check!
Of course, we always work to provide our customers with a competitive set of products, but their protection from life’s uncertainties is our #1 concern.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
If I had to start over, I would probably have made the career change from Corporate America to Small Business owner much sooner than I did. But I believe things happen when they are supposed to and for a reason, so it’s all good!
Contact Info:
- Address: Todd Ray Allstate Agency
17521 Telge Rd – Suite A
Cypress, TX 77429
Serving Houston and all of Texas - Website: https://agents.
allstate.com/todd-ray-cypress- tx.html - Phone: 281-290-7245
- Email: todd.ray@allstate.com
- Instagram: toddrayinsurance
- Facebook: https://facebook.
com/toddray: allstate insurance - Twitter: https://twitter.com/@
toddrayagency
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