Agent News

NewsLink: December 2021

Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays

From all of us at Accident Fund, we wish you a happy, healthy holiday season and prosperous New Year! We’re so thankful for your support in 2021 and could not be more grateful for your partnership.

Sincerely,

Mike Valiante
Vice President, Business Development and Operations
Accident Fund

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AF Group Named Customer Experience Innovator by Property & Casualty 360

AF Group Named Customer Experience Innovator by Property & Casualty 360

We’re excited to announce that AF Group has been selected by NU Property & Casualty magazine and PropertyCasualty360.com as a 2021 Customer Experience honoree in the inaugural PropertyCasualty360 Insurance Innovators recognition program!

The program was designed to honor insurance carriers, agents and other industry professionals who are developing innovative ways to modernize and humanize the property and casualty business – and our Digital Customer Portal (DCP) is doing just that.

Group agent partners, policyholders, injured workers and vendors across our workers’ compensation brands with a seamless and customizable digital experience and real-time, 24-7 access to important policy and claim information, ultimately creating a better customer experience.

In the past year alone, we’ve seen a 38% increase in DCP adoption among policyholders, as well as an increase of 136% among injured workers utilizing DCP. According to Jessica McGregor, manager of Customer Experience for AF Group, this is just the beginning.

“The Digital Customer Portal has created the foundation for us to connect with our customers in an ever-evolving digital world. We have many important enhancements to the portal planned as a part of the five-year strategy that will continue to take our service delivery to the next level,” said Jessica.

To read more about the PropertyCasualty360 Insurance Innovators awards, click here.

A.M. Best Rating Reaffirmed

A.M. Best Rating Reaffirmed

We are proud to announce that our A.M. Best rating of “A” (Excellent) was recently reaffirmed with a ‘stable’ outlook. This accomplishment reflects the success of our continued partnership with our valued agents and the ongoing hard work of our teammates. Thank you for your role in our mutual success.

 

Reporting System Enhancements Coming in January!

Reporting System Enhancements Coming in January!

Earlier this fall, we announced exciting new enhancements coming to our digital reporting experience. Officially set to launch in Q1 2022, these enhancements will provide you access to new, more dynamic data 24/7.

Some of the new features include:

  • Easy, secure, self-service accessibility to data and various reports with various printing/exporting options.
  • Additional loss run report options for agent partners.
  • New agency reporting capabilities (available on the homepage of our secure customer portal in the ‘quick links’ section).
  • Ability to create dynamic reports for customers to better service their account.

We look forward to bringing these new capabilities to life for our agent partners and customers and hope you find the system enhancements useful and convenient. If you have any questions, please contact [email protected].

Introducing Texting Option for Enhanced Claims Correspondence

Introducing Texting Option for Enhanced Claims Correspondence

After a successful pilot with select customers, we’re excited to announce the launch of new texting technology for claims correspondence. Beginning Dec. 13, 2021, AF Group Workers’ Compensation Division Claim representatives and nurses will have the ability to communicate with injured workers, policyholders, agents and medical providers through a texting platform provided by our new vendor partner, Hi Marley.

As part of our Claim Center of Excellence, this new communication option will improve efficiency and service for our customers. Here are just a few of the features and benefits:

  • Translation – Hi Marly translates messages so we can ‘talk’ in real-time with customers in more than 10 languages without the need for a translator.
  • Documentation – Customers can send photos/documents via text.
  • Speed – Provides the ability to get answers quickly rather than playing phone tag.
  • Privacy – Allows for speedy, private communication and responses for customers who don’t have a quiet area to talk on the phone.
  • Efficient – Correspondence and documents sent via text are automatically integrated into customers’ claim files within our Claim systems.
  • Options – For customers who prefer other communication methods, and/or as business needs require, phone and email will still be available.

A few other things to note as we prepare to launch this new product:

  • The texting option applies to existing and new workers’ compensation claims.
  • When a claim occurs, the injured worker/policyholder will receive a text to their mobile number and will need to opt-in by texting ‘Yes.’
  • Litigated claims require a written exception from legal representatives.
  • Text correspondence is specific to the claim itself, so if a policyholder has more than one claim, they will have multiple text strings.
  • Standard messaging rates apply depending on carrier text settings (texting only available within the United States).

According to a recent State of Business Texting Survey conducted by Hi Marley, texting was listed as the top choice for communicating during an insurance process with 71% of respondents stating they’d prefer a text over email when interacting with a business. To this end, we are very excited to begin offering this communications solution to our valued customers and injured workers as part of our ongoing efforts to improve our claims processes and customer service.

If you have questions or experience any issues with this texting feature, please email [email protected].