Innovation/Dig Deeper Newsletter September 2023

New Ideas. New Opportunity. Dig Deeper

What's new in the world of innovation and curiosity?

Here's your September update of the Acadia Innovation newsletter, your consolidated source for new innovation happenings at Acadia Insurance. Browse below to learn more!

Curiosity Workshop in CT

Check out how the CT oce held a curiosity workshop and involved their agents in the process.

Changes in the Innovation Team

A few members of the Innovation team have served their term on the team, so it is time for new members to come in. Read about these changes on page 2.

Meet an Active SPARK! User

Find out why it is important to Julie Forest to be actively engaged in Acadia's innovation efforts.

Knowledge Check

Answer an innovation question for the chance to win a prize!

September 2023

Dig Deeper Campaign

Dig Deeper and Stay Curious

Every Client Has A Problem. Do You Know What It Is?

Connecticut's Curiosity Workshop with Agents

by Jennifer Towne

The Connecticut oce held a Curiosity Workshop on September 12th involving the entire branch to hear and explore customer needs and to practice being curious! Three Connecticut agents participated in a panel discussion in the morning exploring topics around service, ease of doing business, and uncovering unmet policyholder needs. The agents shared insights into their respective organizations, how they make decisions regarding placing business and what they most value in carrier relationships (hint: each agency is unique!). Participants were encouraged to ask questions of the panelists to drill into particular topics or to clarify statements.

After the panel, employees broke out into teams and wrote down ideas or questions they wanted to explore further on curiosity cards. The teams then completed worksheets on each curiosity card to explore each idea further and made recommendations on next steps. The branch will prioritize and move ideas forward working within the Innovation framework.

Below are snippets of what we heard from the panel and what we explored in our team breakouts:

Agency Panelists:

Peter Houldin, President, Ericson Insurance

Cheryl Plawecki, Commercial Lines Manager, Bouvier Insurance

John McManus, Producer, Shoff Darby Companies

Ease of Doing Business/Service:

Ease of doing business is a factor in carrier selection

Pick up the phone! Have a can-do attitude. "You can hear a smile" - Cheryl Communication is paramount - listening is key Responsiveness - get back to an agent quickly Be a problem solver - that's why we're here!

Relationships:

1:1 Relationship building is very important between carriers and agencies - at all levels of agency hierarchy

"CSRs will place business with those whom they have a good relationship" "This is still a relationship business"

"Acadia is old school - but in a good way"

Service:

Agents value our local feel & touch - accessibility, responsiveness, willingness to listen

Our Loss Control expertise & service is valued

As a carrier, our customer facing touch points are important and differentiating: Loss Control, Audit, Claims, Billing

Providing service to smaller accounts is valued & differentiating, and is how our agents are winning business from other agencies. Good agents invest a lot of time in deeply understanding their customers' businesses - they appreciate it when we do the same. Don't be afraid to ask questions!

Customer Needs/Challenges:

Good customer service throughout the policy lifecycle is important - Billing and Audit issues are a frequent complaint/issue that agents and staff deal with.

Contract knowledge - Agents need to have a deep understanding of contracts and risk transfer mechanisms to effectively serve their customers as insureds often lack this knowledge.

Some customers lack understanding of what risk can be transferred and what cannot - They tend to assume that all risk is transferrable.

What fun way can your oce approach the Curiosity Wall?

Don't forget to brainstorm new ways that you and your coworkers can get inspired and come up with new ideas to help your department, your branch or Acadia as a whole.

New Ideas. New Opportunity. Dig Deeper

Changes in the Innovation Team

New Ideas. New Opportunity. Dig Deeper

The innovation team is at the center of keeping innovation in the minds of employees here at Acadia. From scoring to experimenting to moderating, there are many different roles that occur in the process to make sure every idea is touched and heard. Some of the team members have completed their term on the innovation team and this opens the opportunity for new members to join. Here is a list of the current innovation team:

Name Position

David Hart Scoring Coordinator

Lisa McPhail Experimentation Coordinator

Brittany Emerson Communications Coordinator

Tom Hambrick Moderating Coordinator

Matt McManus InnovationTeam Coordinator

Ryan Capponi Outcomes Coordinator

Meet an Active SPARK! User

Thank you Doug Freeman and Keith Gleason for time well served as Scoring Lead and Experimentation Lead respectively!

If you are interested in joining the scoring, experimentation, and/or moderator teams, please contact any of the individuals listed to the right.

We are continuing to highlight Acadia team members that are (the most) actively engaged in SPARK! The next active SPARK! user is Julie Forest, Senior Rating Technician. WeaskedJulie:

Why is it important to you to be actively engaged in Acadia’s Innovation efforts?

"Being actively engaged in Acadia's Innovation efforts is important to me because it gives me a say in the future of the company. Voting on SPARK! ideas lets me participate in prioritizing initiatives that impact me. Submitting my own ideas gives me a chance to initiate change meaningful to me."

Knowledge Check

We had ve employees correctly answer our last Knowledge Check questions, but Jim Kane was our lucky winner! Special shoutout to Jess Ogden, Kaylee Montelius, Linda Nielsen, and Harriet Buck for also answering the question correctly. Jim, please be on the lookout for your prize shortly

Answer our next Knowledge Check question to win a special prize! Click on the green button to the left to submit your answer

Next Knowledge Check: Which Berkley Team shown on the iLab worked on their strategy using World Cafe?