Sharing the tasks

Rough Notes, May 2001 by Maes, John

Westfield Services, Inc., a subsidiary of Columbus, Ohio-based Westfield Companies, offers outsourcing and consulting to insurance agencies. Its Agency Connected Solutions program provides automation consulting in design, management and maintenance of systems. Through its relationship with Dell Computers, Westfield can provide bulk-buying package deals on equipment at low cost. It has also developed a template Web site adaptable for insurance agencies, says Brian Bowerman, CPCU, Agency Connected Solutions assistant vice president and general manager.

Customer service outsourcing and agency educational seminars are also part of the program. "We want to allow an agency to focus on sales versus service," says Bowerman. "We remove all the responsibility of running a service operation. The hiring, the training, the continuing education and all the systems support becomes our responsibility."

Westfield runs a nine-person call center staffed by customer service representatives "grounded in insurance" who act as the client agency's customer service unit, Bowerman explains.

The outsourcing business has skyrocketed over the last year. Westfield Services currently handles $4 million in premium for its client agencies. A year ago, that total was about $400,000 in premium, says Bowerman.

"Our people do everything the customer service rep at the agency would do," he continues. "After the agency writes the business and turns it over to us, we're almost totally responsible for that customer for the life of the relationship." Answering the phone in the name of the client agency, Westfield Services reps handle questions about coverage, billing inquiries and renewals. They are authorized to make file changes, and they will work with the agency to resolve customer disputes. Teams of reps are assigned specific accounts. "The calls go to certain people who know the account better and have worked closely with the agency," he explains.

In some cases, Westfield Services has draft authority to pay claims "depending on what the carrier grants us," he says. Usually those claims will be for $1,000 to $2,500. Larger or more complex claims are turned over to the company's adjuster who then takes over handling of the claim.

For insureds facing a larger than normal rate increase, the Westfield Services system is set up so that the customer will be informed by phone. The representative will suggest that the customer consider cost-saving options such as switching insurers, changing coverages or raising deductibles, explains Bowerman. When the newly issued policy hits the Westfield Services files, a welcoming letter that also contains a service phone number is sent to the customer.

Some carriers also give binding authority to Westfield Services for spin-off business from the original policy (e.g., a policyholder's grown child buys his/her own vehicle and needs individual coverage), according to Bowerman.

Westfield Services houses all the policyholder data and software at its Columbus, Ohio, headquarters. Certain internal functions such as paying bills, calculating commissions and accounting are still done at the agency end.

Columbus, Ohio-based RHK Group uses Westfield Services to service its small commercial lines accounts, says Don Lambie, partner in the agency which writes for eight personal and commercial lines carriers. Westfield Service's CSRs, who handle five of these companies, are authorized to handle renewals, endorsements and, depending on the insurer, payment of some claims. "They handle the routine, daily customer service tasks for us that you would expect between an insured and an agent," according to Lambie.

RHK saw Westfield Services as offering an ideal way for the agency to get out from under the old 80/20 rule: that of spending more time servicing the smaller portion of its business at the expense of larger, higher-premium customers, Lambie says.

"We identified that the biggest issue we had to handle was finding a feasible. profitable way of handling our smaller commercial book of business," he notes. 'That's where we were spending the majority of our time and unfortunately with the smaller commercial accounts that's where you make the minimum amount of commission."

With outsourcing to Westfield Services, the small accounts don't suffer. The service level still maintain the look and feel of dealing with RHK. "Westfield Services CSRs treat our customers as if they were their own," Lambie explains. "From our insured's perspective, they don't know they're dealing with Westfield Services; they believe they're dealing with our customer service department."

On the consulting side, Westfield Services helped the Brower Agency of Dayton, Ohio, upgrade its network and file server from Novell to NT40, converted another server to Microsoft Exchange for e-mail and upgraded its Applied WinTAM agency management system to a newer version, says Gregg Gaughran, operations manager. Brower has some 30,000 clients for property/casualty and life and health coverages writing for about 20 personal and commercial lines insurers.