BRAWLEY — Walking into a nice, vintage, hacienda-style building amid palm trees and flowers when entering Hart Insurance in Brawley may bring feelings of nostalgia or a familial-type of familiarity, but that is part of the experience Hart hopes embraces their clients well beyond their visits at what will soon be their former-office.
Hart Insurance Center Incorporated – better known as Hart Insurance since the business started in 1945 at the famed Planter’s Hotel building – is getting a new home in Brawley, moving from their current 898 Main Street location to the corner of K and First Street, to the new 580 S. First Street location in Brawley, formerly a 7-Eleven. The business will continue offering coverage for home, auto, life, health and small business insurance.
While currently under construction, the new location plans to have a soft opening sometime in late September or early October, said Owner/Insurance Agent Elizabeth “Liz” Gonzales. The move comes after some COVID-climate related struggles, but it will serve as a breath of fresh air, invigorating the company with a new look, new location, and new logo for both its loyal customers and future customers to enjoy, Gonzalez said.
The old 7-Eleven building located on the corner of K Street and 580 S. First Street in Brawley will become the new Hart Insurance Center location in October 2022.
“Nowadays there are so many insurance agencies and companies where you can buy your insurance online or off an 800 number, and that’s not the business we’re in,” Gonzales said. “We’re in the business to protect a client from any hazard or emergency that could happen in their lives. When things happen customers don’t want to talk to 800 numbers, they want to talk to a person.”
“We want to create a relationship with that client … that’s the reality of what insurance is,” she said, “not just, ‘Let’s get the cheapest coverage.’ It has to be the best coverage. That’s one of the reasons that has led to the success of our agency because our agents are extremely knowledgeable, licensed, and personable.”
Gonzales is the third owner of Hart Insurance, purchasing it from its second owner, Jack Hart Jr. who took over the business from his father Jack Hart Sr. in 1968.
Gonzales began working at Hart Insurance when she was still a Brawley Union High School student in 1983, she said.
“I don’t think I ever said, ‘I want to be an insurance agent when I grew up,’” Gonzales said. “My father passed away when I was 9 years old and my mother came from working in the agricultural fields, canneries, and packing sheds and I don’t think she wanted that for me. She was always very vigilant that I get a job in an office.”
“I knew that I liked people but I think what hooked me with the business was that they were going to pay me to do what teachers in school didn’t want me to do: Talk,” she laughed.
Gonzales has worked her way up through each of the agency’s positions – starting as “Assistant to the Sales Agent” who was “the epitome of a business woman” – before becoming the owner in 2006, she said.
The purchase of the old 7-Eleven building will mark the first time Gonzales has owned the building in which Hart Insurance is housed, she said.
Though a small local agency with less than 10 total employees which rotate working between their Brawley and El Centro offices, Gonzales said it’s the agents’ “personal touch” in business-relations with clients that keep individuals coming back to Hart Insurance for decades, bringing their families to Hart coverage for multiple generations.
“I truly enjoy it, conversations with people and vendors,” Gonzales said. “I like being part of the community that I know, and they know me. I guess it’s an old fashioned way to do business but business should be done that way, with the heart.”
Melissa Navarro, a Sales Agent with Hart Insurance, hit her 20-year milestone working at Hart Insurance on September 3. Navarro agreed that the company’s “people-centered” approach is what makes Hart Insurance special to the community.
“I want to make sure they’re adequately insured (so) I explain to them what it covers to make sure they’re protected because I want to be able to sleep at night,” Navarro said.
“It might sound a little cliché when we say ‘We have a heart for personal service,’ but we really do,” Navarro said. “We really take care of our customers. We’re all sincere and empathetic.”
“With a lot of them I just build a special bond with and they become friends, or more like family,” she said. “When they’re older (than me) I feel like I’m taking care of my grandparents; when they’re in their 20’s they’re like my kids; and the middle ones, well, are like me. I love my customers.”
“It’s not just about selling the policy, we want our clients to be here for years,” Navarro said. “It’s not just me that cares about my clients, we all do. We really care.”
The pleasant work atmosphere has led to many of the Hart Insurance agents working for 17 years, 12 years and the like for most in addition to Navarro’s 20 years, she said.
Gonzales said while Hart was able to stay open during the COVID pandemic because they fell under banking and finance, the restrictions did make it more difficult to run a people-centered business, not only limiting person-to-person interactions but also upping the emotional toll of sending out more sympathy cards than birthday cards to clients.
“After COVID we needed something … a refresher, I needed to uplift them because we were in a slump,” Gonzales said. “And just as that was happening this building came about. Some people call it ‘luck’ but I call it ‘a force from above’ (because) I wasn’t even looking for a place.”
“Right now I am probably more excited than I’ve ever been,” Gonzales said. “I attribute our success to God.”
Gonzales said Hart Insurance will move in to their new K and South First Street corner building this fall but will wait to hold a Grand Opening until February, to be held sometime around Valentine’s Day in keeping with their “heart in Hart” theme which they so love.
“You can’t fake real,” Gonzales said. “My staff are all genuinely good people, and I think that’s really important. We literally do have a heart for personal insurance.”
“It really is all about the Hart,” Navarro said.
Owner and insurance agent, Elizabeth “Liz” Gonzales, smiles while fondly remembering her long-time client Tunney Williams wile looking over a funeral program at Hart Insurance Center, September 1, in Brawley.
The new Hart Insurance location will be at 580 S. First Street in Brawley by early October. Hart Insurance is also located at 1503 N. Imperial Avenue in El Centro. Business hours are currently 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., with hours extended to 5 p.m. once in the new Brawley location.
For more information on Hart Insurance coverage contact the Hart Insurance team 760-344-1400 or email Liz Gonzales at lgonzales@insurehart.com. Find Hart Insurance Center on Facebook at facebook.com/HartInsuranceCenter and Instagram @hartinsurance.
Based in New York, Stephen Freeman is a Senior Editor at Trending Insurance News. Previously he has worked for Forbes and The Huffington Post. Steven is a graduate of Risk Management at the University of New York.