Company: Electric Insurance Company
Company Description: Electric Insurance Company® is a national leading provider of personal and commercial lines insurance products. Established in 1966 specifically to serve GE employees, Electric Insurance now extends its superior personal lines products and outstanding service to discerning consumers inside and outside of the GE community.
Nomination Category: Support Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Support Team of the Year

Nomination Title: Electric Insurance Company Agency Services

Tell the story about what this nominated team achieved since January 1 2013 (up to 525 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

The insurance industry continues to face unprecedented transformation as 2013 comes to a close and we move into a new year. Large and small carriers alike must continue to focus on improving the customer experience and growing market share—all while driving deeper insights through analytics and optimizing operational performance through cost containment and the elimination of process inefficiencies. Independent insurance agents have their hands full as they work to attract new clients, retain existing policyholders, and keep pace with the rate of change in the industry. At Electric Insurance Company® the Agency Services team delivered on their brand promise to be Always On®, supporting growth and improved policyholder retention for our external agency partners.

Commonly referred to as the “A-Team” by our agent partners, the Agency Services team is comprised of nine licensed professionals and supports 128 agencies, representing about 1,100 agents, serving 32,000 policyholders, and generating 57,000 transactions annually. The A-Team provides technical support, consults on risk management , promotes increased product awareness, and enhances account management.

This highly skilled team provided crucial support for key 2013 business initiatives. Their most critical contribution was performing more than 1,400 hours of development and user-acceptance testing related to our two major growth initiatives. The first, was a new automated home quoting system—Agent’s Quoting, Underwriting Issuance & Rating Engine (A.Q.U.I.R.E.) which ultimately improves our agents’ overall experience with Electric Insurance. This new system has its greatest impact during the quoting phase, automating underwriting decisions and increasing sales with enhanced application and binding functionality. The second, the introduction of the PL Rating system for auto—a comparative rater platform—has reengaged over 20 percent of our existing agents who in recent years had generated minimal quoting activity. The new platform, launched late in 2013, is expected to drive a 25 percent increase in quotation count and a 6 percent increase in new business premium over prior year. The Agency Services team’s flexibility, depth, and breadth of knowledge—combined with its strong partner relationships—were integral factors in the successful launch of these new quoting tools.

In addition to these growth initiatives, the Agency Services team handles almost 60,000 agent contacts annually and assists with field visits and training. Our theme is consistent: the Agency Services team at Electric Insurance represents the model for best-practice customer service in our industry. We hear and humbly appreciate all the plaudits: “best support team in the business,” “a breath of fresh air,” “other carriers should model their support teams on your group,” “eager to help,” “a joy to work with,” “we prefer doing business with Electric Insurance.” The team continues to work hard every day to deserve that praise and the trust that goes along with it.

We are proud to submit our Agency Services team as a candidate for the American Business Awards(SM).

Upload a collection of supporting files and web addresses to our server to provide more background information to the judges. You may upload any number of attachments and URLs through the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above. (Do NOT list your URLs below.)

Provide a brief (up to 125 words) biography about the leader(s) of the nominated team:

Mike Mucher is the vice president of sales and marketing. He leads the personal lines sales and marketing teams and is responsible for all direct and independent agency distribution channels.

Prior to joining Electric Insurance in 2004, Mike held various field and corporate leadership roles at The Hanover Insurance Company. He holds a B.S. from the University of Massachusetts Lowell and an MBA from the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business, Babson College, in addition to the CPCU designation.

.