CEO Today Healthcare Awards

www.ceotodaymagazine.com CEO Today Healthcare Awards 2019 Among Jessica’s achievements is the launch of the organization’s “One Team” philosophy, founded on the principle that each employee plays an important role in creating the customer experience for brokers and their clients. This philosophy has become the leading driver in Word & Brown’s customer-facing value proposition. Jessica led efforts for the onboarding of Salesforce, a customer relationship management (CRM) program, which has taken the company’s previous proprietary CRM and catapulted her team’s abilities to new levels from a tracking, analysis, and reporting standpoint. Today, the company has real-time insight into customer activity, which has contributed to higher levels of customer satisfaction and increased sales. Ultimately, the tracking created by Salesforce allows the organization to build report cards that define a customer’s engagement with Word & Brown – validating the strength of the company’s partnerships and the value provided to business partners. Jessica is a fierce advocate for Word & Brown’s customers. Her customer-first mentality is what motivated her to create an Account Management team: professionals whose responsibility is helping brokers enhance their service to clients “post-sale” with the purpose of nurturing positive relations and increasing client retention. Since the launch of Salesforce, the team has received and processed 56,019 inquiries across a myriad of work types. Through mid-year 2019, 13,905 tickets have been created across 33 categories, including: • 1,900 employee Adds and Terminations • 1,200 requests for support of online enrollment (across 312 case setup requests) • 564 member-level changes • 489 provider search confirmations • 373 eligibility verifications Likewise, Jessica has been a driving force in developing technology to help brokers and their clients. She has the vision to understand the importance of Word & Brown being at the forefront when it comes to new technology in a rapidly changing business world. ` Some of Word & Brown’s most recent technology advances include: launch of WBQuote Lite (the only true mobile quote engine in the Small Group Health Insurance marketplace); WBBroker (which combines quoting, provider searches, and real-time case updates for brokers – so they can better manage their business and improve their service to clients); and WBMedID (a mobile app giving insured members access to their Medical ID Card information on their smartphones), among others. With WBMedID, members have critical policy information at the time of their health coverage approval. Rather than waiting weeks for an ID Card to come by mail, members can sign-in to MedID (the public name of the app) with their name, date of birth, and Home ZIP Code. Once in, the new policyholder receives a replica of his or her ID Card as well as integrated access to the California Rx prescription drug savings program and Heal.com (which allows members to schedule an in-home or in-office doctor visit). Under Jessica’s leadership, Word & Brown introduced a new way to educate brokers in 2018. A large part of the Word & Brown value proposition is broker training and education. Traditionally, staff traveled throughout California to host in-person Continuing Education (CE) classes to aid brokers in satisfying their California Department of Insurance educational and license renewal requirements. The prior level of effort required multiple staff members to travel between locations across the state and incurred considerable costs, while also limiting the reach of classes to brokers in specific regional locations. Prior to 2018, on average, Word & Brown would annually issue 1,800 CE credits to brokers throughout the state. With the launch of the now-annual “Week of Webinars,” the company hosted 12 different CE classes in 2018 (and 13 in 2019), inviting brokers from all over California to take part online. In 2018, Word & Brown issued more than 7,000 CE credits. This year, that number topped 7,800, and Word & Brown attracted nearly three hundred new leads from prospect brokers. Jessica is an active member of the Orange County Association of Health Underwriters (OCAHU), a regional trade group for health insurance professionals. She served multiple terms on the OCAHU Board of Directors as Vice President of Communications and Public Affairs. Under her leadership, the OCAHU newsletter earned multiple awards in competition with other health underwriter associations across the state. Jessica has also participated in the annual OCAHU “Women in Business” charity luncheon and fashion show as well as regional events focused on women in business. In 2019, she was a CEO panelist for a “Connected Women of Influence” event in Orange County, California. She also was among the featured speakers at the inaugural California Association of Health Underwriters (CAHU) “Women’s Leadership Summit” in Las Vegas in 2019. Away from the job, Jessica is supportive of local and regional charities, including a group that empowers and equips vulnerable teen girls and their babies to live lives of hope, dignity, and self-sufficiency. In 2019, Jessica joined the Titan Women’s Collective as part of a group of professional women recruited for a mentoring program for students at California State University, Fullerton. Jessica’s contributions to the health insurance industry have been recognized twice in the past five years. She was recipient of a Bronze Stevie® Award for Women in Business in 2015, and was named one of the “Top Women in Benefit Advising” by the editors of Employee Benefit Adviser (EBA) in 2018. Jessica is also a nominee in the 2019 “Innovator of the Year” awards competition sponsored by the Orange County Business Journal . CONTACT Word & Brown General Agency 701 S Parker Street Orange, CA 92868 John M. Word III, Co-Founder Edward J. “Rusty” Brown, Jr., Co-Founder Jessica Word, President Polly Neves, Vice President, Marketing T: 1-800-869-6989 (714) 835-6752 www.wordandbrown.com 19 USA