Pros
Company has strong claims department. Both home and auto claims are fairly straightforward. Auto claims are especially well handeled by a network of body shops that adjust and repair cars. Allstate adjustors don't even need to see the car, making the process as quick as possible. Company also has a nice network of financial services it makes available to its customers. Turns into a one stop shop.
Cons
Company is definately a top down system, with management TELLING agents how to act. While they recruit agents telling them they are independent contractors, a several hundred page manual about expected results and how, when and where you will run your agency tells the real story. Company hires non sales people into "Sales Management" positions and these clueless managers come out to the agency sites and tell agents how to sell, using worthless techniques they were told by top management. Of my last 4 sales managers three were from claims or underwriting, and one was an agent that failed in the field. The computer system is a collection of different systems that have limited ability to work together, and transactions can take up to a week to post. The company is difficult to do business with, and blames its agents, when in fact its management and its computer systems that cause issues for both agents and customers. Company has been losing agents and customers, and putting more pressure on agents to reverse the trend. Company spends large amount of time on preparing agents to answer incoming telephone calls from prospective customers, when 99% of sales come from agents calling out. Company wastes time with calling agents offices to check on how they handle incoming calls, when many agents find the only incoming sales call is generated by the company checking on whether or not the agent is complying with company standards. Allstate has spent large amounts of money on training videos - Woople - that agents find amusing. Its simplistic, doesn't get to the heart of the matter, and almost degrading to watch. And they wonder why agents aren't purchasing the training modules from the company. I had all the agents in my office watching their first one and we were laughing so hard at times we couldn't hear the next boneheaded comment.