E&O Exposure - Not Communicating with Your Customers!

I recently attended a seminar on E&O Exposures for CSR's and Producers conducted by Virginia M. Bates of VMB Associates, Inc., Melrose, Mass. Virginia was a great speaker and kept the class interesting and moving along at a good pace. She covered many different types of exposures a typical agency might face, but the one that intrigued me was the one about not regularly communicating with your customers. If you don't routinely update your customers on changes in the industry, regulations, risks and exposures, or changes in your own office, you may be opening yourself up to a lawsuit. One way to help mitigate this risk is to implement a customer communication program for your agency. It's pretty easy if you have your customers' emails. And if you don't, your first communication should be to get them! Send monthly emails on subjects they would be interested in (recent COBRA changes for commercial clients, summertime risks for personal lines), quarterly e-newsletters, or printed newsletters help, too. Post a customer survey on your Web site and invite your customers to complete it. Not only will it give you some great insight into your customers' expectations, but will help to further the bond between you and them. There are lots of great ideas for building customer communications. Contact me at laurie@aartrijk.com for more suggestions. Once you get your customer communication program up and running, you'll have one less E&O exposure to worry about!