MARKETING AGENCY OF THE MONTH
Clients, companies and employees all come first at Brewer & Lord
By Dennis H. Pillsbury
The "MAD" (Major Account Division) group meets monthly to discuss large commercial accounts. The group includes (from lower left, clockwise): James A. Serevitch, CPCU, senior vice president; Jane F. Calley, CPCU, ARM, vice chairperson; James R. McSherry, ARM, manager-commercial accounts division; John J. Hickey, CPCU, CIC, vice president; Anne E. Dee, CPCU, senior vice president; Patricia M. Condon, CPCU, ARM, account manager-key accounts; John F. Tarantino, Jr., vice president-risk services; John J. Zawilinski, vice chairman; and Melissa A. Straka, manager-marketing department.
The original agency founded by Cyrus Brewer in 1859 was housed in The Old State House, Boston.
For nearly 150 years, Brewer & Lord, LLC, Norwell, Massachusetts, has succeeded in the Boston-area market by focusing on "doing the right thing," say John Zawilinski and Jane Calley, vice chairmen of the agency. Adding, "The customer is number one, but we know that part of making certain the client gets the best service is making certain our staff and our companies are motivated and challenged. This top-down attitude is reflected in the way they treat the client. We're not your typical insurance agency."
When Cyrus Brewer founded his agency in 1859, he established the tradition of strong client service and unparalleled ethics that continues today. At that time, the agency was surrounded by competitors at its State Street, Boston location. Fire and marine insurance offices lined the street, competing for the shippers and the merchants who dealt with the clipper ships that plied their trade at the busy port. At the same time, a growing textile industry was springing up, as were other manufacturing enterprises.
Brewer, a highly respected New England gentleman, competed by allowing his kind and generous nature to spill over into his business and succeeding thereby. Clients came and almost never left.
Today, Brewer & Lord is a bank-owned agency (the agency was purchased on June 1, 1999, by U.S. Trust, which in turn was bought by Citizens Bank of Massachusetts) with 140 employees in nine locations in eastern Massachusetts and one in Providence, Rhode Island. It provides insurance coverage to 24,000 personal lines customers and 3,000 business customers. Property/casualty premium volume totals around $140 million, with about 25% personal lines and 75% commercial. It also provides employee benefit coverages to its commercial clients, an area that has been the fastest growing, rising from 2% of revenues four years ago to around 10% today.
Housed in a modern office in the Boston suburb of Norwell, the agency hardly resembles the original agency, which sat in an office in the heart of the Boston mercantile district, except in one very important way--it continues the tradition of high ethical standards and honesty in all its dealings.
The 80/20 rule
Believers in the concept that most of the agency's commercial results come from a minority of its clients, Brewer & Lord has developed a Major Account Division to create a superior service environment for its best customers. The idea is to put B&L's best talent to work providing risk services, claims analysis, marketing expertise, and loss control at a level equal to or better than that of larger national brokerage firms. Facilitated by Anne Dee, senior vice president, the "MAD" group meets monthly to discuss large commercial accounts in a detailed manner, from coverage and market intelligence to planning strategies on how to improve and bring to the client products and services that separate B&L from the rest of the pack. "The goal is to institutionalize our most important accounts and maintain this business for the long run," Anne observes.
Bench strength is not lacking at Brewer & Lord and allows for their most experienced staff members to participate in servicing their largest clients.
Longevity at Brewer & Lord extends to all levels of staff. The seven division executives average 28 years in the business and 20 years at the agency. The agency has one producer who is "third generation" and a senior vice president who is "fourth generation" at B&L. John adds that it also is "an experienced group, many of whom have been through hard markets and have been able to prepare our clients for this one. They also can work with company underwriters who are under a lot of stress these days."
Niches have developed
Although Brewer & Lord provides coverage for a plethora of different business and personal clients, some areas of specialty have been developed in niches where they could make a difference. "We're big in private schools and colleges, financial institutions, nonprofit social service agencies, real estate, light manufacturing and artisan contractors," John points out. In fact, the agency has two exclusive programs--one for private schools and the other for financial institutions. Both programs provide coverage for all lines.
In the private school arena, Brewer & Lord established a self-insurance group for workers comp in 1990--the Independent School Compensation Corp. "The group has more than 120 members, enjoys 100% retention and continues to add new members each year," John says. "When we set it up during the previous difficult market for workers comp, we made a decision that the SIG needed to be owned and managed by the schools themselves--that it would be their assets at risk so they would be vested in the results. The program has been very successful. The member schools have excellent loss histories and have benefited each year from significant dividends that have been paid by the corporation."
Jerry Ramella, (standing on right), created the financial institution program in 1989. Other members of the bond/financial institution department are: Judy A. Nelson, CPCU, AU, marketing specialist, and Domenic P. Ritucci, marketing executive.
Jerry Ramella, a vice president at the agency and a former bond manager, created the financial institution program back in 1989. "At the time, the marketplace was very difficult for financial institutions, especially smaller banks," John says. "Jerry set up a Community Bank program that we now operate on a wholesale basis. And that is the extent of our wholesale operation. Most of our business in the program is in New England, but we have been used as consultants by our insurer to help sell the program in other parts of the country."
In every case, the niches evolved from Brewer & Lord's solving a problem for a client or group of clients. Another example is the agency's payroll deduction plan for property/casualty personal lines business. "We have about 50 employer-sponsored personal lines groups," Jane says. "The business is still individually underwritten, but participants benefit from a discounted rate. Personal lines rates, particularly auto rates, are pretty steep here in the Northeast and we wanted to find a way to bring the cost down for our clients."
John Zawilinski is part of the agency leadership that makes certain the agency keeps its focus on "doing the right thing."
John points to the effort to improve service for the small business market. "We saw a number of carriers experimenting with different ways of handling the small business market efficiently. Several established small business service centers that focused on this market segment," John says. "So we figured--if it could work for them, then we could probably do an even better job. After all, we agents are the people who really understand service and are called on to provide it on a daily basis. We created our own Small Business Service Center at our headquarters office in Norwell. Small commercial business is sold, serviced and underwritten out of that center."
Cross-selling to bank customers
Brewer & Lord, LLP, was purchased by U.S. Trust in June of 1999, and became an LLC. U.S. Trust, in turn, was bought by Citizens Bank of Massachusetts. Citizens owns two other agencies--one in southeast Massachusetts and the other in eastern Pennsylvania. Its total premium volume, including life and annuity sales developed by the bank, is approximately $335 million. Three bank officers--Tom Hollister, president & CEO, Citizens Bank of Massachusetts; Brad Kopp, group executive vice president, Citizens Financial Group, who is in charge of mergers and acquisitions; and Michael O'Neill, president, Citizens Insurance Services, who serves as liaison between the bank and its agency subsidiaries--are on the five-member board of Brewer & Lord. Jane and John are the other two members. "Mike tries to make this whole thing work," John says, pointing out that developing cross-selling opportunities is "one of his main goals."
John continues that the cross-selling is just beginning to work. "It's successfully provided about $1 million in new revenue at this point. It took a couple of years for us to get comfortable with each other and develop a trust. One of the first things we did was to create an employee group within the bank to which we provide personal lines coverage so they could see first hand how we do business and become comfortable with recommending their clients to us. We insure roughly 2,000 bank employees under this program.
Jane Calley continues a long tradition of putting the customer first. She and other executives have taken calls at midnight and on holidays as part of the agency's 24/7 service.
"It's really all about relationships. We're comfortable sending our best clients to Citizen, and bank employees seem to be comfortable referring their customers to us. Citizens has shown us that it is really serious about growing the agency side of its business and that it is focused on strong customer service."
24/7 service
The regard for customers that started with Cyrus Brewer continues today and is evidenced by the fact that the agency has had extended telephone hours for more than
10 years and now also has 24/7 emergency service. Experienced staff members are available from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on weekdays and half day on Saturday. "We have to be available when people want to talk to us," Jane says. "That means we have to have be there when people are off work. Our automation network allows us to provide this service."
Brewer & Lord established its own Small Business Service Center, following the example of several carriers.
The agency also provides a 24/7 emergency phone number to all its clients. The calls go to a call facility that then contacts one of the officers of the agency at home. Regardless of the nature of the problem, the client can always reach someone in authority. Jane notes that she has had calls from customers on Christmas and New Year's Day. "We have good relations with cleaning services and local adjusters and are able to get them out to an emergency even on holidays."
A recent call involved an equipment rental client whose vehicle struck a bridge abutment while delivering equipment to a motion picture set. The entire production crew was on hold waiting for the equipment which, fortunately, was undamaged. B&L was able to expedite a substitute vehicle rental and get him on his way so that the filming could proceed without delay.
The agency also has gotten calls from clients who are overseas and wanting to check coverage. One called from Ireland to make certain he was covered. Another call came from a client who was on a sailboat going through the Panama Canal. "Those are the kinds of calls you get at midnight," Jane says. After all, John and Jane agree, "this is where the rubber hits the road" in B&L's business.
"It's all paid off in the end," John adds. "We retain between 96% and 98% of our customers. And we analyze every one that we lose. Most of the time, we've lost the client because they've left the area."
An eye to the future:
Tradition has its place, but to stay ahead of the pack in today's marketplace you need the best staff and company relationships. Being an old, well-established agency will get you nothing today--it's all about being on the cutting edge. The fact that B&L is a wholly owned subsidiary of Citizens Bank indicates that the firm is ready and willing to change and adjust as necessary. Not only to survive but to come out on top.
In the final analysis, Jane concludes, "there's no great secret to our success. It's built on basic, core values of unparalleled ethics, hard work, honesty in all of our dealings and treating people well." And for that alone, the agency deserves recognition as February's Marketing Agency of the Month. *