Insurance is a demanding business. Time away from the phones and desktops is productivity lost from processing quotes, new business, renewals and claims. So to pull my firm's entire staff from their jobs for half-day “brand workshops” took a leap of faith.

Several months later, I found that the investment of time was worthwhile, because investing in our brand is productive.

The word “brand” might conjure up images of sleek advertising. But for insurance firms it has a different meaning: It's the relationships that customers, prospects, business partners and employees have with the firm. Those relationships make up the brand and are the most important asset we have.

Building and maintaining a strong brand is vital. Even solid insurance products do not necessarily make a brand distinctive and provide sustained profitability and high customer satisfaction.

Insurance firms must drive all brand elements–service, products, technology, people, knowledge, response time, marketing and more. We must actively manage our brand with involvement from trusted employees–who, after all, are the voices of our brand.

The goal of our brand training was to get employees on the same page in understanding our brand. But more than that, this training aimed to continually empower our employees to know that they are the ones writing on that page. They must shape and “own” the brand.

Our brand workshops were a formal opportunity for employees to explore why brand matters. Led by a facilitator, the workshops gave employees the time to raise the challenges they face day-to-day serving customers, be heard more formally by management and peers, and share their perceptions of the strengths of our brand.

The brand workshops confirmed that employees are well-positioned to be “Brand Ambassadors” because they:

o See positive strengths in the brand.

o Believe in what we do as a company.

o Respect customers and our products.

o Realize that jobs and incomes are tied to the brand value that they create with their performance.

These strengths might sound obvious, but I don't take them for granted. Too many times in this industry, workers are not motivated enough to take the steps that customers need them to take.

Employees have to be self-motivated for a service organization to achieve and sustain excellence.

After the workshops, our management team took the employee input and created initiatives, including:

o A company-wide employee “Brand Council”–an action team to work on items raised during the brand workshops.

o “Usability Groups”–employee groups convened to review new procedures. The group tests out the new process prior to implementation, taking into consideration the impact on agent, consumer and internal staff functionality. Comprised of volunteers from each department, usability groups allow us to capitalize on diverse skill sets while minimizing negative impacts from changes.

Our brand efforts aim to empower employees to satisfy the customer. For example, we take a cue from renowned online shoe retailer Zappos: We don't penalize service reps for long phone calls; rather, we encourage them to establish a connection with the customer.

Why? The collector vehicle or collection we're insuring for them is valued and personal. It's not “just a car” or a garage full of memorabilia–it's something that's near and dear to someone's heart.

Customers can instinctively sense the culture of an organization behind a brand. We are actively working to have a culture where employees' input is valued, recognized and appreciated.

That culture makes our brand better to work with and more profitable long term. We think investing in developing that culture through brand training is paying off.

Jill Bookman is President and CEO of American Collectors Insurance (www.AmericanCollectors.com), which provides specialty insurance for collector vehicles and collectibles through independent insurance agents, in partnership with insurance carriers, and direct to consumers.

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Brand Training Aims To Heighten Employees&#039; Effectiveness With Clients

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