Mike Davis opened his State Farm insurance agency in 1973 on Main Street in Grapevine.[/caption]

Mike Davis said he has seen a lot of changes in Grapevine throughout the past 42 years.

He opened his State Farm insurance agency in 1973 on Main Street, and as the city has grown, he said so has his business.

“[There’s] a lot more [happening]on Main Street today than there was when I moved here in 1973,” Davis said. “In 1973 it was like most other cities that had a downtown; it was dying somewhat, and the city of Grapevine came in and revamped it in the ’80s and ’90s.”

Davis said he did not know anyone when he first came to town, but he quickly became involved with the community. He said he worked with the Grapevine Chamber of Commerce, Grapevine-Colleyville ISD, the city and the Tarrant County Appraisal District in prominent roles.

He has tried to take a step back for the past decade or so, “working in the background,” he said, to allow new people to share their ideas about the community.

When Davis started his agency, only he and one other man worked in the office. Today, he has 18 employees. The number of services the agency offers has grown as well.

“State Farm, at that time, probably sold 20 different types of policies,” Davis said. “Now we offer over about 110 different products from financial services to retirement plans and banking products. It’s totally different than what we did in 1970s.”

Technology has also changed how Davis and his employees handle claims and manage other parts of the business. Now, customers can use their smartphone to submit a claim or deposit a check.

“The way we did business in 1973 is totally different in 2015, and we’re adapting to the change,” Davis said. “We still offer the 24/7 service.”

Davis said he finds that no matter how much technology changes, his customers still want someone real to pick up the phone when they have a claim or a question.

“I’ll never go to an automated answering service because you’d take [the personal experience] away,” Davis said.

Resisting the trend to go toward an automated phone system is one way he tries to stay competitive in today’s insurance market, he said.

Offering good coverage is another way he stays competitive, he said.

“We try to sell on coverage, not price,” Davis said. “Because when you sell or buy on price, you’re not getting the coverage that you should have.… We get a lot of our clients back [from other insurance agencies] because they find out what they’ve bought isn’t that good of coverage.”

Davis said the agency tries to accommodate customers who have a range of preferences, including those who want to conduct their business in person and those who would rather have zero face-to-face interaction.

“Our business is based on relationships,” Davis said. “But we can do business whether our clients want to have a [in-person] relationship or if they want to do all of their business by emails; we’re equipped to do it any way they want to do it.”

At the end of the day, Davis said he wants to help his clients manage their financial and insurance interests.

“We enjoy what we do, and I enjoy helping people solve their problems,” Davis said. “And that’s basically what we do.”