A Day in the Life: Bob Philip, _Assistant Vice President, Wells Fargo Insurance Services

Every day brings new client and market challenges/opportunities, and each day is different.  Producers are responsible for managing all client deliverables, which include: marketing to various insurance carriers, claims and loss control consulting resources, billing, policy issuance, renewal presentations, research on insurance coverage’s and options, emerging risks such as cyber, communication internal and external, problem solving, technology platform issues, and introducing new products or lines of insurance coverage. Customer service in our highly competitive industry is a given, anything less will equal losing clients. A typical day is described below:

8:15 a.m.: Arrive at office, log into my computer, and review various e-mails. Note: I have my Blackberry with me at all times, and am able to check e-mail while out of the office. This is challenging because I am always on call, even during vacations. For e-mails with attachments, it is much easier to review and respond via my desktop, versus a two-inch Blackberry screen. If the e-mail is something urgent, I do respond immediately or make a call. 

Read Columbus Business First e-mail updates, Advisen (an insurance industry news and resource center), Business Digest, and Yahoo Finance. If there is an article that I think a client or prospect would appreciate, I forward on with comments. 

9:00 a.m.: Work on open client claims, meet with our WFIS Claims Manager, call clients or carriers or TPA firms. Review policies to confirm coverage for a particular claim. Part of our value added service is claims advocacy and mitigation. If we do not shine here, this can lose clients who trust our judgment to help them procure coverages. If a claim occurs and there is no coverage: example, wage disputes, patent infringement liability, etc., it is our job to communicate why to our clients. Ultimately the person who handles the insurance has to answer to someone higher in their organization, and it is our job to help them.

10:00 a.m.: Meet with our loss control consultant to review open items such as client visits for carrier inspections. Review workers compensation loss control projects, set dates, review carrier concerns and communicate with clients. We try to be proactive in our approach with reducing future losses, versus reactive. WFIS has a lot of resources to help clients reduce their overall Total Cost of Risk (TCOR).  Since we only have one in-house loss control consultant in Columbus, it is my job to help manage the workflow.

11:00 a.m.: Work on renewals by reviewing proposal rough drafts. Make corrections and additions. If a quote does not provide what we want, e.g., bad exclusions, high premiums, missing coverage, I work with my account manager (there are four different AM’s that work on my accounts) to call or e-mail the particular underwriter to negotiate more favorable terms and conditions. This is an everyday task, and we are always waiting on various carrier responses/clarifications for clients. Most communication is done via e-mail. Every day I probably go through 75+ e-mails, which takes time.

12 noon: If really busy, I will eat at my desk while continuing to work. Most days, however, I try to go out of the office for an hour and eat somewhere else, including home. It is important for me to take a mental break during the lunch hour to “refresh”—running errands included.

1:00 p.m.: Work on prospect development. Researching companies through various sources, including Web pages, Salesforce, Advisen, FreeErisa, Yahoo Finance. Talk with my colleagues, work on prospect files, print information, and write notes. Call or e-mail prospects to make appointments. Input activity into Salesforce, which is the system WFIS uses to track sales development. 

3:00 p.m.: Work on internal reports such as monthly sales forecasts, expense reports, 2013 sales plan. If required, take online mandatory WFIS classes, ex: proper care of information. Note: we are required to take 20 hours of continuing education to keep our Ohio Property & Casualty license current. In addition, WFIS requires every employee to take up to four mandatory internal online classes each year.

4:30 p.m.: Continue to work on client open items, make sure everything is covered, including billing, certificates of insurance are e-mailed, calls are returned, applications are sent, claims are in process, information requests are answered, internal inquiries are answered, etc.

5:30 p.m.: Leave for home.