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Insurance for Counselors, Therapists, Home Healthcare and Mo...

...if it’s right for you. School Counselors If you have a kid, their school ha...l healthcare, but only for certain counselors or therapists. Look them up and...

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... you will be repeatedly taken advantage of in the future. In conclusion, life is too short, and no business is important enough to consume personal emotions. Business (even your own) is only a way of making a living to support the really important things in your life, health, and family. Emotions should be reserved for those critical issues in life. Business may be troublesome at times but should be generally a pleasant and satisfying way of earning a living, whether you are an agency owner, producer, or service employee. The only exception we have seen in this process is when a person's personal life is in such disarray that they carry their emotional distress into their workplace. This is extremely disruptive to both the personal and business life and should be treated by a qualified counselor. If the problem is an owner, someone must alert him to that fact and suggest outside counseling. If the problem is with an employee, the owner must make the suggestion but must also guard against becoming that counselor. An insurance agency owner is rarely qualified to provide personal counseling and opens himself to serious liability issues if he becomes personally involved in employees' outside problems. If the recommendation is not heeded and the disruptions continue to affect the employees' business life, termination must be considered. E. Al Diamond is president of Agency Consulting Group, Inc., 507 North Kings Hwy., C., Cherry Hill, NJ 08034. You can reach him at (856) 779-2430, (800) 779-2430, toll free,fax (856) 779-6224, e-mail ...

... you undoubtedly have customers that will suffer, or at least witness, tragic accidents. How can you help them deal with this trauma? If it's you, a family member, or an employee who have experienced a dire event, how can you surmount the stressful reaction and resume a productive, happy life? TYPICAL RESPONSE TO STRESS People who witness a tragic accident have a wide variety of reactions. About 10 years ago, I saw one-and fell victim to the attitude that I did not need help. The following 90 days were a blur of mixed emotions. I had periodic flashbacks, wild emotional swings, nightmare-interrupted sleep, decreased productivity, anger, and depression. Now I'm keenly aware of the importance of critical-incident stress counseling and strongly recommend that anyone witnessing such an event contact a trained counselor as soon as possible after an incident (24 to 72 hours) . If the person experienced the trauma without actually witnessing it, there may be feelings of guilt and responsibility that also need to be dealt with. In Critical Incident Stress Debriefing, Mitchell and Everly write, Critical-incident stress debriefing accelerates the rate of normal recovery in normal people who are having normal reactions to abnormal events. If the event has happened to you or a co-worker, realize that it may have a ripple effect that will touch all your employees. Many companies have brought in a stress counselor to speak to their employees about the incident and some of the residual effects to expect. This counseling brings a great deal of comfort to the company and facilitates an internal support system that will see people through the crisis. You ...

... you will be repeatedly taken advantage of in the future. In conclusion, life is too short, and no business is important enough to consume personal emotions. Business (even your own) is only a way of making a living to support the really important things in your life, health, and family. Emotions should be reserved for those critical issues in life. Business may be troublesome at times but should be generally a pleasant and satisfying way of earning a living, whether you are an agency owner, producer, or service employee. The only exception we have seen in this process is when a person's personal life is in such disarray that they carry their emotional distress into their workplace. This is extremely disruptive to both the personal and business life and should be treated by a qualified counselor. If the problem is an owner, someone must alert him to that fact and suggest outside counseling. If the problem is with an employee, the owner must make the suggestion but must also guard against becoming that counselor. An insurance agency owner is rarely qualified to provide personal counseling and opens himself to serious liability issues if he becomes personally involved in employees' outside problems. If the recommendation is not heeded and the disruptions continue to affect the employees' business life, termination must be considered. E. Al Diamond is president of Agency Consulting Group, Inc., 507 North Kings Hwy., C., Cherry Hill, NJ 08034. You can reach him at (856) 779-2430, (800) 779-2430, toll free,fax (856) 779-6224, e-mail ...

... either your reactive or proactive efforts to serve their needs, that client's value diminishes for your agency. If you attempt to prospect your own client to mature their needs for insurance with you as the default insurance agent, you will certainly grow the lifetime earnings from that client. This brings us to our second point. All customers are not the same and should not be valued (or treated) similarly. A customer should be valued by you if he brings value to you. If you do not prospect your customers for all of their insurance needs, shame on you, but that still means that the client is worth $150 per year. If you prospect regularly, but the client does not react and places insurance coverage elsewhere, shame on them! They have passed up an excellent counselor that could protect their family and their assets throughout their life, but either way, the client is worth a minimal amount to your agency and cannot be logically treated as you would treat a $60,000 client. How much service can you afford to give a client? The best way to answer this is financially. Using Personal Lines as an example, compute the number of transactions generated in the department during a year. Those numbers are available to any agency using a standard agency management system (such as AMS, Applied, Ebix, etc) . Yes, I know that there are many transactions that do not hit' the computer, but the total transactions will be a factor of the computer transactions, even if they are actually double the number. Next take the ...

... food from 120 donors is delivered monthly to 70 agencies that feed homeless and hungry people in the community. The customer always comes first-and Zingerman's 160 employees hold the key to customer satisfaction. Consequently, the owners place great emphasis on the health, well-being, and training of all employees. During the past nine years, Zingerman's has provided a variety of helping services as part of an employee assistance program (EAP) it offers workers. The EAP has been a significant part of Zingerman's care for the people in its work force via bonus sharing, food and cookbook discounts, health insurance, and partial reimbursement for job-related education. The EAP also helps employees who are having personal problems that may include drug or alcohol abuse. Through a three-part process that includes consultation, evaluation, and referral, EAP counselors direct employees having problems to appropriate resources in the community. According to Zingerman's human resources coordinator, Suzanne Iott, the success of the program stems from the ability to offer employees the help that they need. The greatest comfort we feel with the program, ' says Iott, is being able to say to an employee, Call this number and they will direct you to someone who can help you. Also, because we maintain the utmost confidentiality in offering EAP services, employees are not hesitant to use them. The cost of EAP services for all employees and their family members is currently between $3 ,500 and $4 ,000 a year and is paid by the company. The EAP came into being through a regular patron who is an EAP services provider. Conversations with the owners about ...

... your needs? Do you have a vehicle, not your own, furnished for your use? Do you own a boat? If so, what horsepower? ___ Size? ____ Where used? _____ Do you own any camping or recreational vehicles (including electric or gasoline-driven golf cart or trailer)? Do you own any rental or investment property? Do you or any member of your family own a business? Do you have a Retirement Plan? Do you want more information? ___ Within the next year, would you be interested in discussing Life insurance? or ____ Do you have income insurance in case you are sick or hurt? If you are a self-employed professional, do you have professional liability and malpractice coverage (CPA, doctor, lawyer, psychologist, drug counselor, etc.)? Do you think your liability limits should be increased? Are you concerned about estate tax liability if you were to die prematurely? Do you have a mortgage cancellation policy? Do you plan to buy a new home (or mobile home) this coming year? Do you plan to start a new business in the near future? Do you own a swimming pool? Name ____ Address____ ____ Current phone ( ) ____ Login or Register (for FREE) to gain access to thousands of other great articles. Need more reasons to join? Need insurance for you, your business or your family? Get quality appointments - Save yourself a whole lot of time & money when you use our directory of carriers, wholesalers and service providers. Negotiate lucrative ...

... impress their customers. Fortunately, most insurance customers don't expect much from their agent (in this area), so the opportunities to exceed expectations are ample. Here are some ideas that firms, other than agencies, have already implemented. 1. One accounting firm offers a service for helping homeowners recover from losses, rebuild, collect claims, and get emergency housing and clothes. They do this on their own initiative, without depending on the insurance company to take action. Do you lead or follow your insurance companies when taking care of your customers? 2. Another firm sends flowers to their Personal Lines clients who have auto accidents that result in injury. What do you do for your clients who experience a loss? 3. Other businesses have arranged contingency plans with professionals such as grief counselors, public relations firms, and disaster recovery experts to help their Commercial Lines clients when they suffer employee deaths, negative publicity, or other disasters. Even though these types of perks are inexpensive — and some are free — few agencies use them. We know that customers want to feel special, to be cared for when claims arise, and are likely to refer more people after you've fixing a problem expertly than if nothing had happened. What are you waiting for? Chris Burand can be reached at Burand & Associates, LLC, PMB 345, 1829 S. Pueblo Blvd., Pueblo, CO 81005, (719) 485-3868, fax (719) 485-3895, e-mail [email protected] , or Web site www.burand-associates.com . Login or Register (for FREE) to gain access to ...