A slow start and long finish yesterday…I got going and my first stop was the office…I had to get my “list” and check it twice..then off to one of those retail postage stores to send some cigars to Harvey….

I did some shopping and errand running including a short visit with a ham under my arm to my 92 year old Aunt and my cousin….I got home at 4:20 and my phone rang…It was “Cussing Guy”..he was really stressed…..and after a couple of really well thought out cuss-words..

“How did my clients policy get cancelled?”.. “I don’t know” I replied…”Well he’s pretty unhappy with us and doesn’t think I know what I’m doing, or you either for that matter!” 

“I’ll call the office and call you back”…”Glam Gal” (the Customer Service Agent in charge) was on the phone…so I waited and waited..then called “Like Me Gal”.. .she’s the boss.. and I dumped the problem on her..15 minutes later I get a call back..”The client hasn’t paid his premium on time once since last June and they don’t want to re-instate his policy”..”He insists he sent in a payment but they haven’t logged it in yet”……hmmmm..”okay”….” we must “bind” coverage with one of our carriers till we can get this resolved…we can’t have a customer without coverage overnight..”..these were my instructions to “Like Me”….by now it was 4:50..the office closes at 5:00…. I could hear her frustration….but this is our business….”I’ll call the carrier and see if we can get them to re-instate the policy…but we’ll need to upload at least a $1400.00 premium payment”… so I called “Cussing Guy” and filled him in… “All I need is for you to tell me YOU are good for the $1400.00??????”  total silence…it was 4:55 pm… our office phones automatically shut off at 5:00 pm…in the end he kinda sorta agreed….. then “Like Me Gal” called my house..”I got the carrier to agree to reinstate the policy but now the guy is mad at me….and I can’t get him on the phone (He was talking to “Cussing”)….” This needs to be resolved before you go home…either get him re instated or bind coverage with another carrier and I’ll get everything resolved when I get in in the morning….call me when it’s all done.”..These were my instructions…..and there really were no alternatives.

I waited….I waited….made a little dinner…. had a glass of red and finished dinner…I was thinking…. I know “Like Me Gal” too well to think she would’ve gotten angry and just went  home…. I thought of calling her at home..but I have too much faith….I waited….till about 6:20…the phone rang…”it’s all taken care of and I don’t think he’s mad at us anymore”……To be sure, I don’t know why he was mad at us to begin with…it’s his bill to pay..but I suppose he had to blame someone other than himself…I was relieved.. These are the sort of things Agency Owners worry about….assuming we couldn’t get coverage on him for the night and his house burned down, you can be sure there would’ve been law suits all over the place…plus it’s our moral and legal responsibility to try and fix these problems whenever possible..

I’m proud of “Like Me”… she’s done this before…when faced with a particular challenge..she has always come through for me…..my only admonishment (because I’m apparently never satisfied) is that she delegate this problem to “Glam Gal”…and let her resolve it.

“Like Me” already knows how to do this…..and putting her subordinate in this situation and coaching her would’ve meant that “two” people could resolve the problem…but I’m not complaining….my faith was rewarded, the clients as happy as possible and me and my CPAP slept well last night….