This designation is a joke. I worked for a company that “purchased” this designation. The fee is $5,000. An examiner was supposed to spend an entire day interviewing key managers about business processes. Instead, the examiner interviewed only the COO, and spent half a day in the office. This isn’t close to a legitimate quality award.
Robin, I am afraid you are confusing this designation with something else that your former agency might have done.
There isn’t, nor has there ever been a fee associated with participation in the annual Best Practices Study. To earn the Best Practices Agency status, an agency must be nominated by an insurance carrier or state association to participate.
Participation does, however, require a lot of hard work on the agency’s part to gather and submit all the required data needed to complete the comprehensive financial and operational survey for both their prior and most recently completed fiscal year-end.
It may take a couple of days for the first time participant to complete the survey. No one visits the agency to gather any data. We rely on the integrity of the nominees to submit electronically accurate information which is then analyzed and crunched by a non-biased computer program to determine the highest scoring agencies.
After the highest scoring agencies are identified we will contact and interview various agencies that scored very high or that have provided interesting responses to management issues. The purpose is to verify information and/or to learn what business practices have enabled the agency to achieve their financial and operational results.
I am sure you are confused about the Best Practices status and that you mean no disrespect to those agencies that have worked hard to partipate in the annual study. They should be recognized for their participation which has provided the independent insurance agency system a set of benchmarks that allow other agencies a way to measure and improve performance.
This designation is a joke. I worked for a company that “purchased” this designation. The fee is $5,000. An examiner was supposed to spend an entire day interviewing key managers about business processes. Instead, the examiner interviewed only the COO, and spent half a day in the office. This isn’t close to a legitimate quality award.
Robin, I am afraid you are confusing this designation with something else that your former agency might have done.
There isn’t, nor has there ever been a fee associated with participation in the annual Best Practices Study. To earn the Best Practices Agency status, an agency must be nominated by an insurance carrier or state association to participate.
Participation does, however, require a lot of hard work on the agency’s part to gather and submit all the required data needed to complete the comprehensive financial and operational survey for both their prior and most recently completed fiscal year-end.
It may take a couple of days for the first time participant to complete the survey. No one visits the agency to gather any data. We rely on the integrity of the nominees to submit electronically accurate information which is then analyzed and crunched by a non-biased computer program to determine the highest scoring agencies.
After the highest scoring agencies are identified we will contact and interview various agencies that scored very high or that have provided interesting responses to management issues. The purpose is to verify information and/or to learn what business practices have enabled the agency to achieve their financial and operational results.
I am sure you are confused about the Best Practices status and that you mean no disrespect to those agencies that have worked hard to partipate in the annual study. They should be recognized for their participation which has provided the independent insurance agency system a set of benchmarks that allow other agencies a way to measure and improve performance.