Pat's Outlook on the Future of Insurance Agencies

2015 and Beyond - TAAR - September 2009

2010-01-10T14:05:09-06:00

In October 2008 I attended the ReSource Pro Innovation Summit in Qingdao, China. The attendees were led through a number of activities which had them thinking and planning for the agency of 2015. Every attendee that I have spoken to said that this meeting was phenomenal in opening their eyes and minds to how to plan and think about the future. There were both wholesale MGAs and retail agencies involved in this summit. However, as a group the came to same common themes. 09.09 2015_and_Beyond.pdf Subscribe to The Anderson Agency Report

My Most Important Noticer & Mentor

2010-01-10T14:04:42-06:00

I have been reading The Noticer and it has caused me to think a lot about mentoring. By the time I was 21 years old I had been in the insurance business 3 years, but I had no idea where I was going or what a career was. I was so very fortunate while looking for a new job to find Mr. Russell Grace, owner of Russell Grace Insurance.

I had no idea what a mentor was, but I had just met the most important mentor of my life. He was a tough interviewer. He made it clear from the beginning that he would not put up with any nonsense and while I was at work I was expected to be working. However, I was so very unhappy at the agency where I was working and this seemed like such a nice place I took the position. On my first day Mr. Grace explained the rules: 1. The customer was our first priority as that was how Russell Grace Insurance made its income. 2. Never bind coverage without the premium or a downpayment and signed premium note agreement. 3. I was here to be working, not visiting with other employees or having personal phone calls. 4. And a few others. You get the idea. For the first few months I learned the ropes in the agency, did my job and stayed out of trouble. I earned a raise after my ninety day probation period and just kept my nose to the grindstone. One day Mr. Grace and the other employee in the agency came to a file cabinet in my office to discuss the up-coming quarterly billing of the physician's malpractice policies that the agency wrote. She had a negative approach to almost any discussion. Her comment that afternoon was that “these doctors are more trouble than they are worth”. Now I did the deposits and I saw the amount of money these quarterly billings generated and knew that this book was growing by leaps and bounds each month. That afternoon after she left, I went to Mr. Grace and told him that I would be interested in learning the physician’s program and take over the quarterly billing and certificate renewals as it seemed the other lady was too busy. For the next five years I handled this program, our hospital malpractice program and supervised the other specialty lines as well. When I left we had 1250 physicians and 250 hospitals in the State of Texas as well as a full fledged managing general agency. In this time I had developed a career in the insurance industry in the special risk arena. My noticer, taught, coached, mentored and let me grow in knowledge and confidence to move ahead in life and my career. I will forever be grateful for his confidence in me. Do you have a mentor? Do you actively mentor others? Do you think mentoring is important. Let me know.

Technorati Tags: The Noticer, mentor, managing general agency, agency culture

You Never Know Who Is Watching and Listening

2010-01-10T14:00:15-06:00

Agencies tell me that they don't know what to blog about and who would be listening to them anyway. It is always interesting to me after I post a blog to watch for comments. Even when I ask an interesting question there are not always comments. Other times when I don't expect a response, I receive several.

Sunday evening my husband Gene and I changed our settings on each of our facebook accounts to Single. We are trying to resolve an issue we have with facebook not letting us show the individual to whom we are Married. So our thought was to change our status and then try again. My comment to Gene as we made our changes was it would be interesting to see if anyone noticed and what the comments might be. The comments began almost instantaneously. Later in the evening there was a call from Gene's youngest daughter. Her daughter, our youngest granddaughter, was concerned that there was some real problem. The comments continue this morning. People who have never commented on anything I have ever said or posted on facebook made comments. Now the subject of the change would be shocking to a lot of people. Thus comments were inevitable. So this shows that when you post or blog it should be meaningful. That does not mean it has to be shocking. You don't need to be a professional writer to spark interest. I am far from a professional writer. What I have learned in posting on twitter, facebook and my blog is that my subject just needs to be meaningful. I am learning about being clear. Making each blog an opening for a conversation instead of a monolog. And being passionate about the subject. I have found that it takes time to build a following, the same as it takes time to build a client base. You might be surprised by who is watching and listening. Technorati Tags: blogging, facebook comments, who is watching and listening, twitter, social media

Analyzing Processes - Why?

2010-01-10T13:59:25-06:00

I am currently working on writing standards and workflows for a client on the filing of surplus lines taxes. Now this is a sticky wicket in almost any agency I visit. This used to be so easy. The broker that placed the coverage for the retail agency filed the taxes. Well, that is not the case any longer. So the workflow has just happened over the years and is jumbled and confusing.

When I was last in this client's office they indicated this process needed help. They provided me with copies of the needed documents and their one page written process. Seemed simple enough. You would think that after all these years I would know that updating and defining any process is not always as simple as it seems. The documentation, nor any staff member I have spoken to about this process had told me that they retain an original copy of the affidavit that is signed by the producer and notarized. A question to them today on how the affidavit is provided to the broker finally brought out this revelation. Additionally, I was told that each client has a "Permanent File" which contains similar documents. Now this agency scans their paper documents and attaches in their agency management system. So why are they retaining some hard copies of certain documents? Now this is not really a surprise to me. While I spend a good deal of time asking questions and securing information before beginning a project, little tidbits like this surface all through the re-definition of that process. There are several steps in their current process that I believe are unnecessary. In addition to the retention of the signed document there are several unnecessary steps in their current process. Unnecessary steps cause extra work for everyone involved. Unnecessary steps impair the ability of the staff to be their most effective. Everyone at this agency recognizes the importance of determining if the agency or the broker pays the tax on a particular policy. They understand the importance of completing the correct forms properly and getting this all done timely. What they have missed, is taking a step back as their systems and processes have been updated and determine how this particular process should be re-designed. So my thought is that agencies need a framework of how to analyze their processes. People are usually focused on the major processes and some of the more specialized processes are overlooked. What do you do at your agency to get the "fat" out of the process? I would like to incorporate your ideas in future blogs on this subject.

Technorati Tags: Insurance Agency processes, insurance agency workflows, analyze

Accomplishing Change

2009-11-06T10:07:35-06:00

In a few presentations on the subject of change I have made a point that change is easier if it is for something we want to do than something our employer wants us to do. I use the example of how easy it is to change when we want a new cell phone. If we choose to change to a new cell phone you don't hear a lot of grumbling. We tend to embrace the learning process and in a short period we know almost everything there is to know. We are telling everyone that will listen all we know and how wonderful our new phone is.

In reality not everyone adapts well to change even when they have elected the change. I find adapting to change is a mindset. Adapting to change involves learning and planning. I recently bought a MacBook Pro. I was up and running quickly. I just knew I could teach myself all I needed to know. I mean really, my business is about helping insurance agencies understand and maximize the use of their technology. So I decided that I would commit time each week to going to Apple School and learn from the pros. It has really paid off. I was stumbling around trying to figure out how mail, ical and the address book could interact since they are separate. Well the answer is that they actually work together in a number of awesome ways. I've spent time in a class on Pages which is Apple's word processing program. I need more time here to be as comfortable as I am in Microsoft Word but I think it will come very quickly. Monday I am taking a Keynote class. According to Michael Hyatt's various posts on this subject, Keynote is far superior to PowerPoint. So I am excited about moving on with Keynote. So what do you do to accomplish change? I am always looking for pointers.

Technorati Tags: technology, macbookpro, apple school, learning, michael hyatt, powerpoint, microsoft word, change

Apple School

2009-10-28T11:15:20-05:00

Last week I attended my first Apple school session. My One-On-One session was great. Rachel, my instructor, was knowledgeable, had great teaching skills and was fully engaged in our session. However, it was a challenge to keep my people watching habit under control and pay attention to why I was there.

This picture is not exactly representative of the two different groups I saw that morning. The 8AM group was entirely made up of over 65 students. One couple had brought in their desktop Mac and were working together with their instructor. Now sharing a computer is just not in my thought process. For a number of years Gene and I shared my laptop when we traveled together, but we rarely do that any longer. We usually travel with two laptops. I am not sure how you would negotiate who gets to use the computer when. In the 9AM group which I was attending there was a father and his teenage daughter who is being home schooled. However, I was the youngest of the other attendees. Again in this group there was a retired couple with their desktop Mac. There was more than one occasion when there seemed to be some dispute within the couple as to how they were going to set up different areas of their system. I have to say this may have been the quickest hour ever. I thinking I'm booking back-to-back sessions next time. There is still much to learn and master. Technorati Tags: technology, macbookpro, apple school, learning

Integrity

2009-10-22T11:00:13-05:00

I was taught long ago that without integrity my knowledge means little. Of late, roads that I have taken have caused a number of people to question my integrity. So I think it is time to address these issues.

As a consultant I work with insurance agencies on best practices and maximizing their technology that they have or may be considering. It is important that I keep up with what is happening with a number of systems. If you have been paying attention you have seen that I have attended the Brokerage Builder User's Group meeting, the Vertafore Industry Forum, the AMSUG Power User's Conference and two Nexsure User Group conferences this year. I have also been involved in looking at the new Impowersoft product Aspire, I have helped an agencies evaluate Microsoft Dynamics CRM, etfile, CSR24 and been approached by a couple of other vendors about working with them on their products. I also attend numerous other industry events where vendors exhibit their products.

Based on my relationship with each of these vendors I may or may not have signed a non-disclosure agreement. But having or not having a non-disclosure is not of significance to me. I handle the information I am privileged to acquire from interacting with each of these groups and their customers confidentially. I will not divulge to one vendor information about another vendor or the functionalities of their product information that is not public information. I have added a disclosures section on my website on my About page I have added a section for Disclosures and Relationships. I want to be as transparent as possible. Being an independent consultant means just that. However, to be the most effective for my client, I need a lot of knowledge. To acquire a lot of knowledge you must be involved. Technorati Tags: integrity, brokerage builder, nexsure, etfile, csr24, vertafore, amsug, technology insurance agency

Moving to MacBook Pro

2009-10-20T19:31:01-05:00

I have been thinking about a new laptop for awhile. My current one is 4 years old and giving me a good deal of grief. When we visited with our granddaughter in September she had acquired a MacBook Pro. She is studying graphic arts and the classes require that she use Mac software. I enjoyed using her MacBook and added this to my list of considerations. I have spent a great deal of time researching what I want. I am tied to a windows computer in order to work with certain programs used by my clients. So who says I can't have two laptops? Here she is all dressed up and ready for the party(ies).

Why Would I use Twitter?

2009-10-13T09:56:06-05:00

Last week I was privileged to be the facilitator for two sessions at the Big I of Nebraska's first Technology Day. In the afternoon session we discussed the potential errors and omissions issues that using social medial my pose and then we looked at the different social media resources. When we were discussing Twitter.Com, a lady said the following: I have read that the majority of tweets are meaningless, so why would my agency want to use them?

I agreed that a very large number of tweets were meaningless to the majority of the world. First I sighted the success of the Dell Twitter program. But that doesn't exactly put it into perspective for an insurance agency. As with any new tool a business is going to use, they need to understand the tool, what it does and how it can benefit the business. Or maybe, more importantly, how it might benefit the agency's clients. So here are a few examples of how an agency might use Twitter.

Announce a new blog post.
Provide links to changes in laws that might affect the client, such as new rules applying to the use of cell phones.
Raise awareness to a civic event that needs support.
Announce promotions within the agency.
Announce special occasions within the agency, such as a wedding, birth, etc.

For this to be effective, you will need to let your clients and prospects know you have a Twitter account. You might need to provide them with some education about how to sign up for Twitter and why your agency will be using this tool and what for. This allows each client to decide for themselves if they want to follow your agency on Twitter or not.

Please share your Twitter success, ask your Twitter questions and let me have your feedback on social media issues you would like to hear about.

Happy Twittering!!!

Technorati Tags: Twitter.Com,social media,insurance agency technology,business tools,BigINebraska

Make the Noise Go Away by Larry G. Linne

2009-10-12T09:07:00-05:00

I met Larry Linne several years ago at a Sitkins 100 meeting now known as Sitkins International. He was a speaker and his subject was on sales management. Who knew he was writing this wonderful book? I so wish I had known all that is in this book when I owned a managing general agency. Oh did I lose sleep and it was very noisy. It would have also been helpful for those positions where I was second-in-command.

My review of this book is really redundant. A forward by Ken Blanchard should say it all. However, I have insights to share. On page 48, Larry quotes Jim as saying "I have owned this business for sixteen years, and I can't tell you how many times I've watched employees walk out the door at five o'clock on the dot, leaving a huge problem behind for me to solve." Jim also said earlier in the book that he was disappointed to learn that his employees didn't care as much about the business as he did.

I had these thoughts almost everyday I owned my own company. I had these thoughts many days as the second-in-command. I still have these thoughts sometimes when I am consulting with an agency. I hear these thoughts in one form or another from every business owner I work with or know. Another thing these business owners express as a frustration is not only the problems you know you need to solve but there are always problems hiding that no one has told you about yet.

My words to every business owner, no matter what your business, get this book and read it as fast as you can. If you don't have a second-in-command get the right one, then do everything this book says. If you have a second-in-command, you get the picture.

Larry, thank you for this new resource that I have added to my arsenal for working with my clients.

Technorati Tags: Make the Noise Go Away,Larry Linne,Ken Blanchard,Sitkins,first-in-command,second-in-command