How to insure Risk-specific online training helps agents enter new markets, earn CE credits By Elisabeth Boone, CPCU Ask independent agents what they most enjoy doing in their nonworking hours, and you’ll hear everything from golfing and gardening to snorkeling and snoozing. At the bottom of almost everyone’s list, not surprisingly, is studying. Classes, textbooks, commuting to and from school … long hours of home study … grueling exams … these are the realities that cause shudders and groans among busy agents who are already ultra-pressed for time. The good news is that there’s a growing trend toward creating online learning opportunities for insurance professionals. The even better news is that a new series of online training courses is now available to agents who seek to fulfill continuing education requirements or to learn about the exposures associated with specific classes of business. Developed by experts at The Rough Notes Company and SilverPlume, whose Sage library provides electronic insurance and risk reference material to the property/casualty insurance industry, the new series is called “How to Insure.” The practical, hands-on program explores the insurance needs of a commercial lines customer in a particular industry. Each online session has been assigned continuing education credit hours based on the particular course material and state in which it has been approved for CE credit. Each module addresses exposures, risk-specific coverages, and account development. The courses are designed to be introductory rather than in-depth. They can help a producer, CSR, and others in an agency gain the confidence needed to pursue and work with clients in a new niche market. Five courses currently are available, and more are being developed. Users now may choose from: • How to Insure Electrical Contractors
Step by step guidance Each course follows a producer as he or she moves through the process of working with a client in a specific industry. The risk-specific approach was chosen over a coverage-specific focus in order to make the learning experience more realistic and practical. “Our idea was: Why not give agents training that they could use immediately? We decided to design each course around a risk, and talk about the coverages as they relate to that risk. Our aim was to teach the course the way we thought the agent would approach the account,” Nelson explains. “First, the agent needs to learn something about the industry, so the course begins with screens on the key characteristics of the industry and its major exposures. The next step is to put together a survey to gather information from the client, so we provide a list of questions that includes an explanation of why these questions are important in choosing appropriate coverages,” Nelson says. Information about the account is developed by using Sage’s Commercial Lines Survey. Next the agent views a checklist of all the coverages to consider for the risk, along with a description of each coverage. Also presented are coverages that are unique to the particular risk, such as liquor liability for a restaurant. “We give a general definition of liquor liability coverage and refer the user to the Rough Notes PF&M (Policy Form & Manual) Online site for an in-depth analysis of the coverage,” Nelson explains. The “How to Insure” courses have been approved for continuing education credit in almost all states. The work of filing the courses with state insurance departments is handled by WebCE, a leading provider of online insurance education that also distributes the courses. The status of state approvals is provided at www.roughnotes.webce.com. Also available at the Web site are each state’s licensing and continuing education requirements, as well as state-specific frequently asked questions (FAQs). State-specific needs In the process of reviewing state requirements, SilverPlume discovered that by meeting one state’s unique requirement, it was able to enhance the “How to Insure” courses for users across the country. “We found that Minnesota requires that a quiz be provided at specific intervals in the course,” Nelson says. “To satisfy that requirement, and also to make it more interesting for the user, we decided to use a storytelling approach to designing the quizzes.” A fictional agent and a fictional client are used to present the facts to the person who is taking the course. “We introduce the agent to the user and explain how the agent got a contact to the new client, and describe the environment they’ll be working in,” Nelson says. “At the end of each course section, before we ask questions, we present some of the information the fictional agent gathered in his survey of the client’s exposures. We point out that if the fictional agent hadn’t asked the right questions, he wouldn’t have discovered some important information about the client’s risk.” Another advantage of the story-telling approach, Nelson notes, is that it helps the user remember what he or she is learning throughout the course. Teaming up Before the launch of the “How to Insure” program, SilverPlume for several years had participated in a strategic alliance with The Rough Notes Company. “When SilverPlume established a partnership with WebCE to offer online education, we realized the benefit of making ‘How to Insure’ courses available to subscribers of Sage,” Nelson says. Adds Shaun McNeill, director of marketing for SilverPlume, “We’re very excited about this opportunity to deliver the ‘How to Insure’ content online to Sage subscribers.” SilverPlume has strategic partner-ships with numerous insurance industry organizations and publications, and its Sage P&C product can be customized to meet an individual customer’s needs.
Equally positive about offering the new “How to Insure” courses is Gary Henkel, founder and CEO of WebCE. Since WebCE was established in 1999, Henkel says, it has formed a large number of strategic partnerships with insurance industry entities. His organization places an especially high value on its relationship with The Rough Notes Company and SilverPlume. “We’ve developed a series of technologies that enable us to use ‘How to Insure’ content in courses that are state compliant nationwide,” Henkel explains. “We can put the ‘How to Insure’ courses on our delivery platform and provide the branding of SilverPlume. “We’re very excited about working with The Rough Notes Company because of its undisputed knowledge and content in the insurance business and its proven ability to impart that knowledge to its constituents,” Henkel continues. “We thought this would be a great marriage of The Rough Notes Company’s deep knowledge of the insurance industry and our strength in technology as it relates to insurance continuing education, and it’s turned out to be a really good match.” * For more information: |
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