2001 Best Practices Study

Analysis of Agencies with Revenues Between $500,000 and $1,250,000

“Our website is a lot more interactive than it used to be. We’ve used some outside vendors to help us get the first stage done. Now you can get semi real-time quotes through our rating vendor’s program, obtain certificates through another vendor and enter change requests into a static form that we then process on our agency system.“ “I couldn’t juggle as many balls as I do without my Palm Pilot. My schedule is downloaded from our agency system so my office knows where I am at all times. Any requests that I get in the field or that are called into the office, I can scratch them down for follow-up.” “If someone calls on the phone and asks for a quote, the CSAs will decline unless we can schedule an appointment for that person to come into the office. It eliminates the spinning of wheels for ‘shoppers.’” “What is the path of least resistance? Who is the easiest underwriter to get hold of? If I’m getting my calls returned within an hour, as opposed to 3 days later, that’s who I’m putting the business with. It may not be the best commission, but overall it’s going to be so much less work.” “We continuously promote our website to our clients to try to reduce the number of faxes and phone calls to the agency and to drive more of the processing to the site.” “You want efficiency and effectiveness, use direct bill. The carriers do a much better job of collecting the premium than we do and they don’t have to be understanding of the ‘issues of the day’ at the contractor’s office.”

The majority of these agencies have websites which, through the use of third-party vendors, have become much more functional and interactive. Agencies are embracing technologies such as Palm Pilots and laptops to help producers become more efficient with scheduling, presentations, and communications.

E FFECTIVE P ROCEDURES /P ROCESSES The agencies in this study group tend to be “rigidly flexible” when it comes to procedures and processes. They have well-defined guidelines and strive to keep employees within the agency’s standards for using systems, entering data, and processing transactions. However, they give employees the latitude to do what is best for the customer. The use of carrier service centers appears to be driven by the desire to streamline and free up time for the agency to make value-add contacts with clients. They are continuously seeking the most effective and profitable way to work, with some agencies assigning certain people specific functions (e.g., generating certificates) to others having support staff assigned to specific producers or accounts and responsible for all functions. Frequent client contact is supported through the use of form letters and surveys. Transactional filing is widely utilized for both personal and commercial lines and upload and download are seen as critical to eliminating errors, duplication, and wasted time.

39