Jeff Johnson isn’t just one of the faces behind his company’s motto “Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there,” he is a real neighbor to his clients in the Ooltewah-Collegedale area, as well as their neighborly insurance agent.
Casey McClain, Casey Tinsley and Jeff Johnson, from left, are the neighborly faces at State Farm in Ooltewah.“We talk about family helping family. Our customers are an extension of our family,” he said. “That’s the difference between us and a lot of other companies. Our policies are not that different.”
In the aftermath of situations like the tornadoes that tore through Apison, he is definitely earning his keep.
“So many folks I’ve talked to have said, ‘Jeff, I just needed somebody I trust to tell me everything was going to be OK,'” he said, adding that the number of State Farm claims in the Chattanooga area is already estimated at 60,000. Claims are still coming in, mainly for hail damage to cars, he said.
Still, Johnson said the destruction is not as bad as what he witnessed as a young insurance agent just beginning to dip his toes into a career when Hurricane Andrew hit the south of Florida where he was living at the time.