For Award Winning CSR, Going ‘Above and Beyond’ is Part of the Job

What does it take to deliver outstanding customer service? Kimberly J. Muesse, a senior account manager with the Lockton Companies in Houston, should know. She’s won a string of awards during her 25-plus years in the insurance industry, the most recent being named the Accredited Customer Service Representative (ACSR) of the Year by the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America.

Muesse joined the Lockton team two years ago and works exclusively with commercial customers. She holds three ACSR designations, having earned the personal lines designation in 1991, the commercial line designation in 1994 and the life/health designation 2004.

The Big “I” said Muesse stood out among the candidates for the ACSR of the Year honor because she consistently goes beyond the call of duty. Her professionalism, time management skills, and exceptional work ethic were among her many attributes highlighted in letters recommending her for the prestigious award.

Shortly before she took off on a cruise with her three teenage sons (paid for with her ACSR award money), Muesse shared with Insurance Journal some of the secrets of her success.

Insurance Journal: What kinds of service do business customers want in this economic environment?
Kimberly Muesse: What do they expect today? … They expect precision customer service.

What do I mean by precision customer service? They want what they want, when they want it and at a price these days that they are willing to pay. And as insurance professionals we’d better be able to deliver that or they will go look somewhere else.

IJ: What are some of the practices agencies should follow in order to assure that customers are getting what they need?
KM: When you’re trying to place coverage you have to go to multiple markets. When you look at those markets you not only have to look at the price but you have to look at their products as well. For the price that clients are paying these days they want everything possible that they can get. It’s up to us to be able to find it.

IJ: How can insurance professionals enhance the quality of their customer service?
KM: My adage is to always deliver what I promised, when I promised, but to excel at that promise. I always have to go beyond that and deliver better and more, ahead of the deadline I set. It’s the concept of going above and beyond.

IJ: Do you try to assess things that clients maybe have not thought about?
KM: Always. That’s part of the reason we are here, because they may be thinking only inside of the box.

Part of the reason they have us working for them is for us to think outside of the box. We think of the “what ifs.” What’s keeping them up at night? Or maybe it’s not keeping them up at night and it should be. That’s where we come in.

When we do think of an item that they may need, not only do we suggest it, we need to have a solution in order to provide that coverage for them.

IJ: How do you assure clients they are receiving value in their insurance decisions?
KM: We make sure we bring them more than just products and price. Specifically at Lockton, not only do we bring that, but we bring our expertise and our knowledge and additional service to our clients. Because that’s what adds the value to them.

IJ: What do you see as the most significant hurdle to great customer service?
KM: The most significant hurdle is our own self-imposed roadblock. A CSR is only limited to the roadblocks that he or she places in front of himself of herself.

In any difficult situation, there is always a way around the roadblock; the key is not to rush into it head-on at 100 miles per hour. The key is to slow down, take a break or detour, get navigation assistance, and eventually a solution will present itself and that hurdle, that self-imposed roadblock, can be jumped, so you can sprint to the finish line.

IJ: Is constant staff retraining on technology necessary as it evolves?
KM: I wouldn’t say retrain, I would say refresh. For example, when an agency migrates to a new version of Microsoft Office, there will always be new bells and whistles on the newer version. You’re not going to have to go back to the basic training; you’re going to be trained on the updates. And that’s always important. If you update the technology but don’t let people know what the new bells and whistles are, they’re not going to utilize it.

IJ: Do you do that in house or go outside for help with training?
KM: At Lockton we are able to do it in house. That may not be true for smaller agencies. They would have to go to a local vendor to present onsite, or if you can’t pull your entire staff in at one time, send them out two or three at a time to get that training.

IJ: How can agencies develop and retain great CSRs?
KM: The real estate adage is location, location, location. My reply to that one is education, education, education. … I see education as a key.

At Lockton Houston we are very lucky in that we offer the ACSR program in-house. Our office is dedicated to that program. … We have an associate staff development consultant here that takes care of that. But we do use other staff members to offer different types of classes.

We have somebody here in the Houston office that has been doing a series of in-house risk management classes. We also implemented an internal training program for individuals with no insurance experience at all. Several different employees at different levels, background and experience took different areas to specifically train the trainees in. So they got a broad background, broad spectrum training that they were immediately able to put to use.

What they would do is attend the training session and they would immediately be able to go work on that item. I happened to do a two-day session with them on the basics of insurance. Someone else trained them on the technical system. Here’s the training, let’s go back to your desk and do a practical application.

IJ: How would you describe the quality control process you call “record and recite?”
KM: In a nutshell, sometimes in communications, whether it’s written or verbal, what the speaker says and what the listener hears aren’t absolutely the same thing. With record and recite, I make sure that in a verbal conversation I’m recording and documenting that information. And before I take action on it, I recite it to make sure that my understanding is the same understanding as the person who was giving directions.