ALEXANDRIA, VA, July 23—Virginia customer service representative Barbara S. Jenkins, AAI, ACSR, is the 2001 National Accredited Customer Service Representative (ACSR) of the Year, announces the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America (IIABA) today.
Jenkins began her employment with DeJarnette & Beale, Inc., of Bowling Green, Va., more than 16 years ago. The ACSR of the Year honor is based on her outstanding individual contributions to her agency, her community, the insurance industry and the strength of her essay on customer service.
Jenkins receives a cash prize of $1,500, registration for one CPCU or IIA course administered by the American Institute for CPCU/IIA, and a plaque commemorating her achievement. Independent Insurance Agents of Virginia (IIAV) Executive Vice President Robert M. Bradshaw Jr. and IIAV Education Director Diane Mattis, CPCU, presented the honor to Jenkins during a visit to her agency. In addition, Jenkins was honored at the recent IIAV convention.
The IIABA National ACSR of the Year Award recognizes the value that customer service representatives (CSRs) bring to the independent agency system. CSRs often coordinate two roles within an independent agency: assisting agents in researching and providing the best combination of price, coverage and service to their clients; and being the agency “point person” for handling coverage questions, complaints, claims and policy changes. Considering the average independent agency represents eight insurance companies and thousands of clients, providing these services is no small task.
“Barbara is a unique individual. She has obtained her ACSR life & health designation to become Virginia’s first ACSR to earn all three designations—personal, commercial and life & health,” said IIAV’s Mattis. “We started the ACSR program in 1988 in our state and Barbara was among the first to obtain the designation.”
To be eligible for the ACSR of the Year Award, nominees must hold the ACSR designation from IIABA and uphold the professional standards for which ACSR designees are recognized.
The ACSR accreditation is an international designation program developed by IIABA and administered in conjunction with The American Institute for Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters (AICPCU) for the promotion and recognition of customer service expertise throughout the independent agency system.
More than 13,000 ACSR designations have been conferred on customer service representatives in the past 11 years, making the IIABA program the largest CSR training program in the country. In addition, ACSR courses are approved in most states for continuing-education credit toward agent licensing renewal.
Founded in 1896, IIABA is the nation’s oldest and largest national association of independent insurance agents and brokers, representing a network of more than 300,000 agents, brokers and their employees nationally. Its members are businesses that offer customers a choice of policies from a variety of insurance companies. Independent agents and brokers offer all lines of insurance—property, casualty, life, and health—and employee benefit plans and retirement products. Web address: www.independentagent.com