News
News & Views: Change Never Stops
Newsletter – Wednesday, January 15, 2020
Did you know that we have been ‘publishing’ this newsletter continuously since the ’80s? In fact, some of you haven’t been alive as long as we’ve been sending this newsletter out. In the early days, we printed it on our own off-set press that Bill Tuscano bought and my sister Joady operated. Of course, we owned a printing press! Why pay to have printing done when you could do it yourself? We did mailings to all of our customers twice a month and a newsletter went into every mailing; on the 15th with expiration lists and around the first of the month with our broker statements. Thank goodness we are 100% digital now - think of all the trees (and postage) we’ve saved!
Regardless of your birthdate, many of you have been reading our newsletter for a very long time. But does anyone out there recall that before I became the essayist, Bill Tuscano was our in-house pundit? I remember a couple of famous ones: the sesame noodle and shrimp recipe, the “Be American buy American”, and the rant he went on about the elected politicians in Harrisburg. At one point I thought, this is it – we’re finished, no one will write business with us ever again! We’ve learned our lesson, now Jinny edits all of my writings and she won’t let me get political! I am always humbled by the many comments and responses we receive each time we send our newsletter, so we abide by Rule No. 1, never waste your reader’s time!
By now you may recognize I have a pattern to my writing. I try to tell a story you can resonate with or that you find humorous, and then I go into my Tuscano spiel with the hope that you’ll remember us and send us your brokerage business. This time around I am going to shamelessly ask you to send us more business!
Over the past several months we have been making some changes, all with the mindset that if you have a first-class customer experience you will keep coming back. We’ve restructured our property and casualty departments so that the underwriting teams are more agile, have more focus and are able to deliver an insurance solution you can sell. If we are more specialized, we can build stronger working relationships, have better communication and deliver a customer experience that will set us apart. And yes, we have a motive – to write more business!
Of course, even though I work with an amazing team, I know we don’t always have the market that will say yes, but we do promise to be responsive, be knowledgeable and seek out solutions. I think our greatest success stories are the ones where we hear “you make this easier”, “you really care” and “you put other wholesalers to shame”. If you are ready to up your Tuscano game and get to know us better, then give Jeremy George, our Marketing Director, a call. He’d be thrilled to do a personal webinar with your office or to arrange for a visit from either our marketing team or underwriting folks. My goal is to make 2020 the year of the Independent Wholesaler and we think it should start with us.
This last word goes to our American Modern Insurance Group producers in Pennsylvania. Hopefully, you have seen the announcement that some big changes are coming to American Modern – all for the great! We finally have a go-live date of April 1, 2020, for AmSuite, the brand-new Agent’s Portal that will replace ModernLink. Along with a new, easier to use, more robust platform, there will be new rules for engagement, new product enhancements, and a new issuing carrier! You do not want to miss out on any of the important news and opportunities being rolled out. Please, make sure you whitelist any communications coming from American Modern. Also, please verify that you have your own user account for ModernLink as there will be no more shared logins with AmSuite. And finally, be on the lookout as Tuscano will be offering numerous training and onboarding opportunities both on-location and online. Stay tuned! Exciting times and great new opportunities for writing business!
Best to you all in the New Year!