Every agency owner should be asking themselves “How healthy is my agency?  Am I really managing well? Do I need a professional checkup?” If your agency is a little under the weather, make an appointment with the doctor—an agency management consultant.

Before you pick a “doctor,” ask yourself these questions:

• Are you happy with your workflow, turnaround times, output quality and ability to meet client service deadlines?
• Are your clients aware of the great job you have done for them, not only lately but over a period of years?
• How satisfied (or dissatisfied) are your clients?
• What are the best and least expensive ways to create employee job satisfaction?
• If you pay bonuses, are they based on individual effort, team effort or overall agency results? Are the bonuses motivating your people?
• Do employee performance evaluations include salary discussions? Should they?
• Is new business production or retention more important? Does your operation reflect your decision?
• Have you implemented cross-selling strategies that really work?
• Do you use claims service as an image builder for new clients who haven't yet had a claim?
• Are your business goals developed, measurable and communicated to your employees?

Unless the answers to these questions are all positive, you need to contemplate how to make your agency operations better. Agency improvement can only be achieved by a concerted attempt to make things better.

Read last month's For the Manager column, “Speed vs. Human Nature” by Lisa H. Harrington.

Do you need to see a doctor? Evaluate your symptoms and make a self-diagnosis:

1. Schedule an on-premises visit with key agency people to establish trust, learn operations and create a positive environment. Review perceived agency operations in detail with management.
2. Conduct a confidential survey of all employees to elicit attitudes, feelings, thoughts and ideas about their jobs, agency and supervisors. The survey can be customized to elicit feelings about specific agency initiatives.
3. Tabulate and evaluate survey responses and review for patterns of attitude, pointing the way toward strengths, weaknesses and areas of potential improvement.
4. Develop recommendations based on the survey responses, key interviews and management review. Prepare a report encompassing all areas.
5. Meet with management, either in person or via teleconference, to discuss the report in detail. Solicit management input and refine recommended actions.
6. Begin a total or selected-step program to implement the desired changes.
7. Conduct periodic follow-up with management to track results and make any necessary modifications.

After the initial meeting outlined in Step 1, conducting a confidential survey is a key ingredient of the evaluation process and should be done with care. Here's one view of how to proceed:

1. Management delivers the survey to all employees, with a letter asking for participation. The letter outlines the process, making clear to each participant that the objective is to initiate agency improvement.
2. The letter encourages honesty and confidentiality by assuring anonymity: No individual attribution and management will not review individual responses. Survey responses are sent directly to the doctor.
3. Employees are discouraged from telling the doctor what they think he or she wants to hear. Rather, encourage employees to take the opportunity to “make a difference.”
4. Ask employees to complete the survey in the quiet of their own homes and to return it directly to the doctor within one week.

After all of the responses are tabulated and the report delivered to management, proceed: 

1. Decide which areas of focus are a priority so that an implementation program can be designed and executed jointly with the doctor; or
2. Advise the doctor which areas need immediate attention and the doctor can design an implementation program, segment by segment.

Agency improvement is an ongoing process, not easily achieved in a single stroke. Approach it intensively or more deliberately, but with the goal to unlock the  potential for improvement.

Fortunately, finding a good agency management consultant is often easier than finding a good medical doctor. Start with the American Assn. of Insurance Management Consultants. This organization promotes professional standards for knowledge, experience and conduct amongst consultant-members and offers a framework of how to select a consultant and clarify key issues.

National, well-known consulting firms include Accenture and MarshBerry, but these often are more focused on agency financial evaluations or producer recruiting.

Smaller, more focused firms such as Agency Management Resource Group or Full Circle Agency Management concentrate on agency operational improvement, setting goals and designing methods to achieve them.

Related: Read “Training is the PITS” by Philip Lieberman.

Recognized leaders in the insurance industry include Reagan Consulting, which is known for its annual Best Practices study that provides key financial benchmarks against which your own agency's performance can be measured.

Aggregators such as www.agencyequity.com offer a variety of management consulting firms.

But as with medical doctors, the best source is referrals. Speaking with other agencies can unearth management consultants with favorable referrals. Personal interviews should yield the best possible result.

Just like doctors, consultants can be expensive, but the cost of a good one is negligible when compared with the significant positive changes that can take place within your agency. A successful consulting process goes beyond theory—it provides practical tools to help achieve desired results. A good consultant will not only provide the tools but teach you how to use them effectively.