This survey will help you to answer the question— and identify areas that might need improvement.
To keep E&O claims under control, I'd recommend that you and your staff rate your agency based on these criteria (thanks to CPIA Executive Director Kitty Ambers for allowing me to steal some of her ideas):
- Our staff receives regular training in people skills
- We devote office meeting time to discussing our customers' needs
- We regularly seek and review client feedback and modify and improve our internal systems based on this input
- We have an internal program to educate our staff and our clients about changes in the insurance product
- We make an ongoing effort to improve the quality and accuracy of communications with clients
- We communicate each year with customers to identify any change in their exposures
- We document any product offerings that our customers don't want
- When switching coverage from one company to another, we identify and communicate any differences in the coverage offered
- In addition to advising our customers about what is covered, we advise them about what is not covered
- We work hard on preventing, not correcting, mistakes
Most agencies know what they're good at. Hopefully this survey confirmed what you knew — but I also hope that it identified some areas that need improvement. If you asked your staff to complete the survey, it might be hard for you to hear about some weaknesses that they see in the agency. However, this gives you the opportunity to set some goals. As an owner, you must be prepared to accept the bad news, together with the good.
Each of these criteria has an E&O element. If you didn't fare well in one or more areas, think about what you can do to change things. Dedicating an agency staff meeting to brainstorming ideas for change makes a good starting point. Since you are nothing without your customers, treat them professionally by asking them to rate you: Send them a survey and reward their response with some type of gift. It's essential to improve your communications with both your clients and your companies.