Excellent Service

At our house, October is when our insurance policies come up for renewal. Since the bills are sent out several weeks before payment is due, we have time to review everything prior to sending any checks out. The review this year was an uncomfortable experience. The result was, “We’re not paying that much for insurance!” And so it began—the dreaded search for another insurance provider. I say that because it’s a boat load of work, it means working with several different companies, and it’s complicated.

After getting a handle on what coverage we had (envision the kitchen table covered in papers), and what we really needed, I then went online to locate insurance brokers in our area. There were small family owned brokerages, big name brokerages, and some that weren’t clear on what they were. I clicked through websites finding broken links and outdated information. Locating contact information on some sites was almost impossible. Some sites were amazing!

After choosing four brokers to work with, I began contacting them. For some this involved phone calls and others, emails. The initial response ranged from very pleasant and helpful to being on hold for ten minutes—at which point I gave up. The next step involved much emailing back and forth with three brokers. One never bothered to get back to me. The information I received, and the timeliness of that, varied. My anxiety was starting to rise when working with one broker while there was growing confidence working with another.

By mid-October, the dust had settled, the decisions were made, and the checks were in the mail. As I was going through this process, I began to think of church members and community folks contacting the church for something.

Maybe they have a question about Sunday School or they’re looking for the youth pastor’s contact information or they need the names of the church supported missionaries. What kind of experience do they have when checking out the church’s website or calling the church office? Do they get connected to the right person when they call or is their call forwarded to a couple of people before getting to the “right person”? Are they getting correct information? If the church sends out emails to the congregation are they friendly, helpful, and clear?

We’re here to serve. And we need to do it well—very well.