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Marketing Keeping up with contractors Regional agency's expertise in construction and other contractors includes workers comp loss control By Dave Willis From some of the smallest mom-and-pop operations to the largest construction companies in the state, Florida’s Lassiter-Ware Insurance has contractors covered. Headquartered in the Orlando suburb of Leesburg, the agency has six locations statewide. And they’ve put together a team—teams, in fact—to serve the range of contractor businesses, not to mention health care facilities and other firms that drive the state’s economy. “We insure everything from artisan contractors with two or three employees, through our small business unit, all the way up to accounts like one I’m working on, one of the largest builders in the state, with some $120 million in sales,” says Doug Childers, Jr., CIC, ARM-P, agency construction specialist. Lassiter-Ware, an Assurex Global partner, serves contractors nationwide but focuses primarily in the southeastern United States, insuring 3,000 or so contractors in Florida alone. The agency has a bonding department in its Tampa office to help with a variety of construction bonding needs. According to Childers, Lassiter-Ware built its business on staff expertise, something the agency’s principal drills home regularly. “Agents are in front of the clients, and they really need to know the business,” Childers says. “Our president, Ted Ostrander, is passionate about that. He wants to make sure our people know what they’re doing.” They achieve this through internal development initiatives, plus involvement in client industry events and organizations. The latter, participation in construction trade associations, delivers added benefits. Not only does the agency stay in tune with contractor issues, but it also gets opportunities to share insurance and risk management expertise with its target market. “We’re involved with many associations,” Childers says. For instance, agency personnel belong to homebuilders associations in several counties, as well as the Electrical Council of Florida, Road Builders Association and the Underground Utility Contractors Association. Childers works with these groups and others, including the Florida Onsite Wastewater Association, setting up programs and seminars. Market issues Market involvement is important, as the Florida construction market deals with a variety of issues. In some areas, for instance, the housing market is showing signs of weakening, Childers says. “I’ve seen one builder who asked all subcontractors to take a 10% pay reduction for the next three months to help the general contractor through lean times,” he says. Work reductions have made it difficult for some of the agency’s insureds to keep fully staffed. Other market conditions—materials and manpower—also present challenges. Post-hurricane construction in the state and in neighboring states has driven up the cost of building materials. “The effect of these higher costs hurts the builders more,” he says. Dealing with undocumented workers and going up against firms that employ them makes it even tougher for law-abiding contractors to compete. A softer insurance market and legislative initiatives compound the troubles. “There’s a lot of legislation changing things here fairly rapidly,” Childers says. “We had another workers comp rate reduction this past year—somewhere around 10% to 15% across the board.” That has led to program changes. Dividend programs have been replaced with guaranteed-cost programs for smaller accounts. Larger accounts may have been able to participate in a retro program before, and now they may be offered only a sliding-scale dividend. But Lassiter-Ware is making the best of these changes and is using them to showcase what it offers. “In some ways, it’s easier for us because we provide a lot of training in workers comp and the statutes and their effects,” he says. “When the programs are tighter, our services stand out more.” Added services To bolster its market position—and the workers comp arena in particular—the agency tries to go above and beyond what other agencies offer. To do that, it operates a team that delivers expertise in functional areas, including claims advocacy, loss control and human resources. “Anybody can come in and open an experience mod worksheet and say, ‘You have an open claim and the sky is falling,’” Childers says. Lassiter-Ware actually employs a claims advocate—an agency staff member with more than 15 years’ experience adjusting claims—who has the background and expertise to take on challenging claims. “Once we find a problem—for instance, an experience modification or something on a current claim—he really attacks that,” Childers says. “He gets much more technical than the typical agent.” Recently the advocate reviewed a heating and air-conditioning contractor’s loss reserve. “He found the estimated legal expenses would be much less than what the unit stat card showed, so he got the reserve taken down,” Childers says, a move that saved the insured $50,000 in annual premium. The advocate’s successes, Childers believes, are attributable to his relationship with the NCCI and his ability to “talk the language of the adjusters.” The agency also has a loss control/risk management professional—an OSHA-certified trainer—on staff. She helps clients handle potential safety or liability concerns, from property and auto fleets to liability issues. But the lion’s share of her time is spent on workers comp. “She’ll help clients set up programs, making sure they meet all OSHA standards,” Childers says. “But she goes a step further and helps businesses set up their own tailored safety programs. She shows contractors how the soft costs of safety affect the bottom line, and that’s really an eye-opener.” She helps contractors comply with OSHA requirements. “It’s one of their biggest fears,” Childers says. “They feel like these people are the Mafia—out to get them. So she’ll go in and do an OSHA seminar for management and the owners. She’ll break down OSHA requirements, go through loss runs, then tailor a loss control program that goes well beyond the generic template of what OSHA requires.” He notes that, when she sets up a program, the client sees a definite reduction in losses and claims, if not in the first year, usually by the second. Beyond that, the agency uses an in-house human resources professional to answer client HR questions and help contactors streamline processes as they grow. “He’ll set up hiring and firing programs, drug-free workplace programs and so on,” Childers says. “The larger contractors find this really helpful.” This individual brings to the table more than 25 years of professional human resources experience in the manufacturing and health care industries. Topped with technology Besides the staff expertise, Lassiter-Ware taps technology to serve its clients, and even prospects, so they can see the added value the agency brings. One tool, ZyWave, provides an online safety manual, safety library and series of newsletters and checklists that risk managers or owners can print out and use with employees. Plus, it leads users through the process to determine if an accident is recordable under OSHA regulations. “This is a popular feature for larger contractors,” Childers says. Once OSHA reports have been made, the service helps with simple organization and calculations, another benefit for larger contractors that often have multiple incidents and must manage information surrounding them. “Reports can be printed and handed out to whoever needs them,” Childers notes. The agency also offers access to ModMaster software, which lets clients evaluate what their next experience modifier will look like before it’s published. In addition, I-Rep, another service, provides client access to certain policy-based functions. “They can access their policy and, with limitations, add drivers or vehicles, send certificates of insurance and make other changes,” Childers says. Activity notification goes directly to the agency management system as an e-mail, which attaches to the client record. The combination of market expertise, added services and technology helped Lassiter-Ware earn market share in an important business segment. And it’s helped the agency earn the respect of clients—from the smallest to the largest—that make up the industry. * The author |
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