Citizens Consumer Services Committee Meeting Report

The Citizens Property Insurance Corporation (“Citizens”) Consumer Services Committee (“Committee”) held a meeting on Wednesday, January 23, 2008 to provide updates on its Policyholder Forums and Customer Care Call Center.

Chairperson Carol Everhart called the meeting to order with Committee members Suzanne Murphy, Richard DeChene and Paul Palumbo in attendance. Also in attendance was Market Accountability Advisory Committee member Greg Rokeh.

An update on Policyholder Forums was presented. Last year, Citizens held four general Policyholder Forums and two dedicated solely to sinkholes, the latter of which was designed to alert policyholders in sinkhole-prone communities that they could reduce their rates by dropping the now-optional sinkhole coverage. Citizens holds at least one Forum per quarter; these Forums are open to agents and policyholders alike. Policyholder Forums are announced on Citizens’ Web site in the What’s New @ Citizens section.

Marketing tactics used to contact policyholders were then discussed. Currently, Citizens sends notifications on what policyholders can do to harden their homes and reduce their rates. Citizens also strives to make sure agents know about the approved mitigation features and to make sure policyholders know they can have their homes inspected for mitigation credit factors through My Safe Florida Home for free.

The Committee suggested that Citizens advertise to consumers through public service announcements and newspaper advertising that its Web site provides consumer resources. Capturing policyholder e-mail information for marketing efforts also was suggested. The Committee would like to begin offering an option for consumers to input their e-mail addresses on the Web site. The usefulness of those addresses then would be monitored to determine if gathering this information is worthwhile in regard to re-writing the currently-used policy application form.

An update on the Customer Care Call Center (“Call Center”) was then given. The Call Center is designed to give additional support to the general in-bound call center. Many consumers don’t know whom to call with questions or do not know whom their agent is. Call Center employees listen to customer problems and then direct them to the Citizens business unit that can best help. In the fourth quarter of 2007, 1,479 calls were received in October; 1,333 in November and 1,118 in December.

The number one reason for customer calls has been payment-related issues. Citizens currently has an electronic payment option under development to help address these types of issues.

The next meeting of this Committee was not scheduled at this time.

 

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