Q&A with
CATHERINE KRAMM Catherine Kramm, CIC, CISR, CLCS is a producer with The Coup Agency, a full-service insurance and real estate firm with offices in Lewisburg and Milton, PA. Q. How did you get your start in insurance? A. Insurance was never the plan. When I moved to Lewisburg in 2009, I really didn’t know what I wanted to do. My husband had been insured with The Coup Agency, which is how he found out they were hiring a Customer Service Representative. The office actually hired someone else who already had earned her P&C license, but she decided insurance was not for her. It was a few months later that Jeff Coup called me to say what had happened and asked if I would like to come in for another interview. He offered me the position, and I quickly accepted. I really liked the idea of being part of a family business that had been serving the community since 1926. As soon as I earned my P&C license, I was encouraged to start working on my CISR designation. Within my first year of employment, I earned my CISR and began working on my CIC designation. After a year of working as a Customer Service Representative, I was promoted to a personal lines producer, and the following November I added commercial producer to my title. After a couple more years, Jeff Coup shared his plan for retirement and asked if I would be interested in joining a few others to purchase the agency. This was an opportunity I never saw coming, but I was very excited to play a bigger part of the Coup Agency legacy. Over the next few years, I began to take on more roles within the office, and with Jeff Coup retiring in 2022, I am now the office principal. I’m excited to move forward in this new role and keep the Coup Agency legacy thriving.
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Q. What does your typical workday look like? A. A typical day starts with checking my emails and voicemails and seeing what reminders I have set for that day. I like to spend the mornings getting office work done and the afternoons meeting with clients and working on new business. It’s a tough market right now, so we are spending a lot of time remarketing our renewals. Luckly we are an independent agency with several carriers to make sure we always have the best option for our clients. Q. What’s the best part of your job? A. The best part of my job is working with new people. I love to meet new clients and find out who they are and what is important to them. There is no cookie cutter policy that is right for everyone, so I like to take the time to figure out what is most important to each insured. No two days are the same, and that’s what keeps me coming back. Everyone hopes they never have to use their insurance, but when they do, I want to make sure they are covered. Clients call us when the worst happens, and when we can make sure they are covered and can be made whole, that is what matters most. Q. You – as well as the rest of The Coup Agency team – obviously value professional development and designation programs. Tell us what drives your commitment to education. A. As soon as I was hired, Jeff Coup encouraged me to pursue my CISR certification. After my first class, I completely understood why these programs were so important. Each class was hyper focused on an individual topic, so I was able to better understand all of the different areas of insurance. Every class I went to taught me something that I was able to bring back to the office and use to help Coup Agency clients.
NOVEMBER 2023
