who is the redheaded stepchild of allstate's Distribution system?

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feature A Field Adjuster’s Perspective Allow me to be the first claims employee to congratulate your recent affiliation with the Office and Professional International Union (OPEIU). I have discreetly spoken with others within Allstate and we applaud your efforts and hope the affiliation with OPEIU will help resolve the many issues agents face at Allstate. Linking forces with OPEIU will give agency owners a larger voice. I hope other agents who have not yet joined with you will reconsider to make NAPAA a stronger group. The company won’t make it easy for you though, as they are trying hard to discredit you. In claims, for example, we have been told that all those joining NAPAA/OPEIU are just disgruntled former employees. As I wrote in your last magazine, claims employees have issues, too. No one hears us when we speak. Our concerns fall on deaf ears. Some employees have even gone so far as to file notices with Human Resources, but we have yet to see any results. Instead, they were told that the company is moving forward with its initiative to change hours and days of work. This includes making field adjusters work holidays, which includes Christmas Day, Thanksgiving Day, Labor Day, Easter, New Year’s Day, and Memorial Day. I don’t know what the people at the top think they are doing. It seems that they do not care for their employees and the employees’ families. It’s hard to understand the rationale that led to this new practice, unless management was focused purely on profit and blind to the feelings and concerns of their employees. Let’s look at that. First, you downsize the claims department and many lose their jobs. This might have been for a number of reasons; the recession, Next Gen computer changes and people doing the same job in different areas. Well, if you let a lot of good people go and then decide to assign more work to those left behind, here is what happens: the employees are resentful because they already have a full plate of assignments. They are overburdened and their work suffers as a result. Their family life is disrupted and possibly damaged due to higher stress levels. They begin to cut corners just to get their work completed. They don’t smile as often and they become short with customers. There is simply not enough time to complete things as needed and customer service suffers, customer satisfaction goes down and customer retention is adversely affected – all of the things good companies strive to avoid. Then in our spare time, we are asked to help by volunteering to do things to address customer satisfaction. Allstate, now hear this: if your frontline claims employees are unhappy, overworked and mistreated, they aren’t interested in putting forth additional efforts! Employees do not feel appreciated for all their ef- 46 — Exclusivefocus Winter 2011/2012
forts to help the company when they are treated as expendable help. All of this also affects agents. Agents have a hard time selling a product after prospective customers talk with other people who’ve had an unsatisfactory claim experience. This cannot go on. I and others hope that someone in management will see what is going on and fix it. We in claims wish to support the agents and what they do. I believe the people running the company have lost touch with the everyday issues that confront us and the customer. Based on conversations with some of the agents, it appears that Allstate does not want elderly customers. I’m told that if an elderly person wants a quote from Allstate, the agent cannot compete with other companies because Allstate’s price is too high. This seems strange when insurance companies all claim they are looking for new customers. How about helping the agents out and set better rates for our senior citizens We pour a ton of money into advertising. This is okay, as we need to grow and retain more customers. Keep in mind that the more customers you have, the more work is put on those who deliver the company’s promise – and you can’t keep adding more assignments to the existing workforce. The company also has many processes that bog down our efforts to help customers. These cumbersome processes prevent the adjuster from helping the customer as quickly as he or she would like. How about get rid of, or changing, these processes so they don’t slow us down Currently, if you don’t dot the i’s and cross the t’s, it is reviewed and you are put on a “noncompliance” list, which leads to annoying and distracting e-mails letting you know that you messed up. In claims, we also have a reinspection process. It exists mostly for containing wages for the adjusters. The reinspector’s job is to re-examine the adjuster’s estimate to make sure the claim is not overpaid. The company assigns each reinspector an arbitrary list of claims to review. Nationwide, the company could possibly save millions of dollars a year by eliminating the reinspectors and empowering the field adjuster’s immediate manager to review these claims. If this isn’t possible, there is another process called the “desk review” that could be utilized. How about that Just by implementing this simple change, the company could save hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars a year. As employees and agents, we just want the people running the company to understand that we want the company to Abandoned by Allstate prosper because most of us are stockholders too. Mr. Wilson: I will vote not to retain you when the shareholders vote again. I am just one of many of small-time stock holders who at one time thought you knew what you were doing. Don’t be surprised if you are not retained and or a no confidence vote is made at the next stockholders meeting. Ef Discover the Brightway difference. More Carriers, More Support, More Profit. We take care of your customer service work so you can focus on what you love to do, sell insurance. Call us at (877)893-1824 or visit www.brightwaydifference.com Winter 2011/2012 Exclusivefocus — 47
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Page 8 and 9: NAPAA Board of Directors 2011-2012
Page 10 and 11: feature The Redheaded Stepchild How
Page 12 and 13: Letters to NAPAA An agent friend of
Page 14 and 15: list of things and hand me a letter
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Page 22 and 23: SAVE THESE DATES... March 2‐4, 20
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