This past June, as part of its strategic planning process, the Florida Surplus Lines Service Office (FSLSO) contracted with Beacon Research, Inc., of Tallahassee to conduct five online surveys with key customer groups throughout the state. The surveys attempted to affirm FSLSO's core services: Marketplace Monitoring, Assistance, Representation, Information, and Education (MARIE). Those surveyed were asked to rate each of the office's services or reply that they did not use the service or were unaware of the service. Contacts also were asked to name the top challenges they encounter in performing their jobs.

The key customer groups participating in the study were Surplus Line Agents (161), Agency Submission Contacts (184), Agency Accounting Contacts (14), Surplus Lines Insurer Contacts (99), and Independently Procured Coverage (IPC) Submission Contacts (199). The surveys were sent to 3,186 potential respondents; the overall response rate was above 20 percent, which compares favorably with the 2005 survey results.

As compared to 2005, most of the services and programs offered by FSLSO received high marks among the respondents who knew about the program or service. However, for surplus lines insurer contacts, agency accounting contacts, and especially IPC submission contacts, there were a large number of respondents who were unfamiliar with many of the FSLSO's available services and programs.

To Know MARIE Is to Like MARIE

FSLSO's core services MARIE received high marks from respondents who were aware of those services. Of the respondents, IPC had the least awareness of these services. Below are the rankings [total of Very Important (VI) and Somewhat Important (SI)].

Surplus Lines Agents:

1. Assistance (96 percent)

2. Monitoring the Marketplace (94 percent)

3. Information (90 percent)

4. Education (86 percent)

5. Representation (78 percent)

Agency Submission Contacts:

1. Assistance (98 percent)

2. Information (94 percent)

3. Monitoring the Marketplace (93 percent)

4. Education (91 percent)

5. Representation (75 percent)

Agency Accounting Contacts:

1. Assistance (92 percent)

2. Education (92 percent)

3. Information (92 percent)

4. Monitoring the Marketplace (85 percent)

5. Representation (77 percent)

Insurer Contacts:

1. Assistance (94 percent)

2. Monitoring the Marketplace (89 percent)

3. Information (81 percent)

4. Representation (68 percent)

IPC filers:

1. Assistance (90 percent)

2. Monitoring the Marketplace (87 percent)

3. Information (86 percent)

4. Education (74 percent)

5. Representation (71 percent)

The Hard Part of the Job

In order to more fully meet the needs of its members, FSLSO asked the respondents to list their top business challenges. The top five per respondent group were:

Surplus Lines Agents

oAttracting new insurer markets (77 percent)

oFinding, training and keeping qualified staff (62 percent)

oRetention of insurer markets (55 percent)

oAttracting customers (47 percent)

oRetention of customers (42 percent)

Agency Submissions

oReceipt of timely information from agent (65 percent)

oReceipt of policy information from insurer (60 percent)

oIdentifying questioned transactions in a rejected file submission (28 percent)

oAccess to information to maintain compliant submissions (28 percent)

oMulti-state policy filings (27 percent)

Agency Accounting Contacts

Note: The results for agency accounting contacts are computed on 14 responses and should be interpreted cautiously.

oReconciling amounts billed to submissions (77 percent)

oReceipt of invoices and reports from agents or staff (46 percent)

oReceipt of policy information (39 percent)

oRetention and access to insurer markets (39 percent)

oMulti-stage policy filings (39 percent)

oCollections from the insured (39 percent)

oFinding, training and keeping qualified staff (39 percent)

Insurer Contacts

oDealing with different state regulations for compliance issues (85 percent)

oMulti-state policy filings (75 percent)

oStaying informed of legislative changes (54 percent)

oReceipt of accurate policy information (37 percent)

oOverwhelmed by regulation (36 percent)

oFinding, training and keeping qualified staff (29 percent)

IPC Contacts

oDealing with different state regulations for compliance issues (70 percent)

oReceipt of policy information from the insurer (54 percent)

oAttracting and retaining customers (39 percent)

oReceipt of policy information from agent or submission contact (37 percent)

oRemittance of surplus lines taxes and fees (37 percent).

Seven recommendations came out of the survey, and FSLSO has already taken positive actions on many of them. Sean Fisher, assistant director of education and information services, said several new programs or processes have been implemented in recent months or are on a fast track.

“In this and in past surveys, our members have requested access to a pre-filled Quarterly Affidavit form. We are happy to report that we will have that available through SLIP (Surplus Lines Information Portal) on the FSLSO web site in December for January filings,” he said.

“Providing information is one of our core services,” Fisher stated, “and web page search capability was one of the more predominate responses we had in the survey. We are currently testing a search function where you can search by type of coverage and agents for a listing of who has written the coverage in the past month. We expect to have that up and running by the end of November.”

Survey respondents also listed multi-state filings data collection and reporting as a major challenge. “This is really a national issue,” Fisher stated. “However, we are spearheading the working group for a lot of the stamping offices. There are 14 other states with offices similar to ours, although in Florida we take it a little further and actually do the collection of taxes and some assessments. Somebody needed to step up to develop a common data dictionary and help develop a prototype. We took that on. The work we will do here at FSLSO will help provide a mechanism to develop one system for multi-state filings.” The goal is for agents with multi-state policies to only have to make one filing, not one for each state.

Proving that the agency world is increasingly going electronic, FSLSO has budgeted funds to offer webex next year – web conferencing in real-time using the Internet and phone. “It will be structured around those users who have specific questions related to our software,” Fisher reported. “We probably will make it a quarterly opportunity with a limited number of participants. It will be more geared toward agency staff, the people who actually process the data.”

Also on the front burner are additional modifications to SLIP to accommodate contact information updates. Fisher said the office is still researching new online technology to facilitate payment collections.

Special Reports /

FSLSO Asks, &quot;How We Doing?&quot;

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