Total 644 words used.
The Agency Services team is a four-person support unit dedicated to helping our independent agency and brokerage partners succeed. The team provides world-class service, helping business partners navigate the intricacies of increasingly complex systems, products, underwriting, and state compliance requirements.
Lean Kaizen
The team held a two-week multidisciplinary lean Kaizen event focused on identifying process improvement opportunities, developing solutions, establishing KPIs, and setting goals. Executing the plans included working closely with the Underwriting, Product, IT, Compliance, and other departments. Three Agency Services representatives took additional professional training and earned a senior level of underwriting authority, which allows them to greatly expedite the decision-making process and help partners close business much more quickly. The additional authority allows them to be agent/broker advocates and make on-the-spot coverage decisions, including making exceptions for nonstandard situations that may otherwise be declined for coverage.
The result: unparalleled expertise coupled with phenomenal service – a winning combination for our business partners.
“I just can’t say enough how great it is to have a relationship with your team and to be able to count on them to help us through any situation. We truly appreciate it.” – B.H.
Partner-Focused Goals
In 2022, the team’s range of responsibilities increased greatly. It onboarded two national brokerages (encompassing 160 client organizations in total) and seven independent agencies while still supporting 1,282 existing appointed agencies.
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2022 ONBOARDING & SUPPORT
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VOLUME/RESPONSE
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RESULTS
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Training: in-depth product and administration system
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222 agents
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- Brokers: earned commission volume increased by 92%
- Agents: earned commissions volume increased by 12%
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Account management and technical support
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19,000 policies
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Underwriting support and risk management
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- 3,052 calls
- 1,300 online transactions
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Total transactions with agents/brokers
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22,000
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“I just wanted to give you feedback about our agency’s appreciation of Bill Reilly up in Agency Services. He's one of the best we work with among all of our carriers. He is consistently generous with his time and always makes a great effort to help our staff.” – M.M.
New Technology & Partner Training
To help handle the tremendous increase in support activities resulting from adding brokers with a national client base and new agencies, Agency Services implemented Salesforce Chat so partners could get quick answers to simple issues. As a result, call volume dropped, allowing the team more scope to provide quicker solutions to complex issues.
Agency Services also helped partners upskill. In 2022, the team focused on delivering enhanced product,service, and technology training and added a system that allows agency/broker customers to electronically sign their policy documents, cutting the post-bid issuance cycle time by 24 hours.
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KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS
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Average speed to answer
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60 seconds
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45 seconds
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Service level – percentage of calls answered in 60 seconds
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70%
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79%
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Average request handle time
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14 minutes
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9.5 minutes
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DocuSign adoption
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18.6%
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62%
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Post-bind document issuance time
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3.7 days
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2.7 days
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Even more impressively, the team managed to exceed the service level goal and agent/broker expectations while a new policy administration system was implemented.
2022 Summary: Significant Improvements for Partners and Their Customers
Agency Services’ “Always On.®” team ethos ensures a quality of service that gives agents and brokers confidence their accounts are well managed, helping ensure their own customers’ satisfaction and freeing them to pursue new business opportunities.
The Last Word
“I just wanted to let you know that I had a great experience with Jaclyn McCarthy. She went above and beyond to help me, and I appreciate her and Electric. This is not the first time she has helped me. She always has a good attitude and willingness to dive in and help rather than treat my call like I am a nuisance (which is probably the case at times!). These days we don’t see this much attention, empathy, or assistance from many carriers or underwriters.” – D.A.
Nomination Title: Electric Insurance Company® Agency Services
