35 Finance Monthly. Bank i ng & F i nanc i a l Se r v i ce s Tell us a little bit more about Amerisure and the services you offer. Amerisure is a leading provider of commercial property and casualty insurance solutions for US-based construction, manufacturing and healthcare businesses. Licensed in all fifty states and available through an exclusive network of elite independent agents, the company upholds an “A” (Excellent) financial strength rating, industryleading service scores, and multiple awards for innovation. Amerisure has been in business for more than 100 years and is consistently named among the best places to work in the industry and throughout the nation. In what ways has the COVID-19 pandemic affected your work? The COVID-19 pandemic allowed us to think about technology differently and enabled us to — out of necessity in some cases — innovate. It allowed us to identify vulnerabilities and showed us the “old way” of doing things is not always as efficient. COVID provided us with a timely reason to explore innovation — in general, customers realised that because they were going through it themselves, we must also do things differently. We found that with so many people working remotely, everyone is more patient and understanding of these situations than they would have been before. In a lot of ways, we all became much more flexible and have learned to roll with the punches. What are the key lessons it has taught you so far? My philosophy in life is: out of any negative situation, seek to find the positives and silver linings. There have been a lot of negatives with COVID, and while we can’t change the negatives, I always like to reflect on: “What are some of the things I can see as a positive?” COVID has taught us how important it is to keep in touch and that relationships are truly sacred. At Amerisure, we started to look at how tomaintain those connections in this situation, including increased communication with our staff, especially as we move into a hybrid work environment. We used to believe we needed to be face-to-face with customers and now have found that virtual meetings can sometimes be more efficient, eliminating travel time and in-person technological challenges. The entire experience provides lessons in leveraging technology and finding a balance so that there is a nice blend of communication methodologies. What trends do you expect to see industry-wide in the next 12 months? There will be many trends focusing on the customer experience and digital journey. Especially because of COVID, the pendulum settles into a sweet spot where not all experiences are electronic, and yet not all are manual such as it was before. This balance will continue to be a conversation in our industry as carriers respond to what their customers need and where they want to conduct
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