OPERATIONS SERVICE UPDATE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Policy Processing At the June 24 Citizens Board of Governors meeting, Staff committed to achieving year end policy processing service goals by September 1, 24. Staff is pleased to report that the goal has been exceeded. As of August 27 th, the processing service levels were as follows: Processing Activity by Account Days to Process December 24 Service Goal HRA Applications 5 days 1 1 days HRA Endorsements 8 days 1 1 days PLA Applications 1 days 1 1 days PLA Endorsements 8 days 1 1 days 1 During the 2 nd and 3 rd weeks of August, processing turn-around times on all HRA policies and PLA applications and endorsements from the 19 counties affected by Charley was one day or less. The numbers above reflect up to a 15 day improvement in the turn-around time in processing applications since the July report to the Board. The hiring of ten additional staff and initial benefits gained from changes to workflow have made a positive impact. However, as a result of resources recently being diverted to Catastrophe Operations, internal processing capacity has been reduced by up to 25 percent. Fifteen underwriting employees have been reassigned to work in a special Policy Verification Unit (PVU) and provide support to the LYNX call center in verifying policy coverage and taking first notice of loss. In addition, six people were deployed to the field CAT location. Hurricane Charley Processing Capacity Impact Processing Output Required to Meet Service Levels Processing Units Completed 4 35 Processing Output Required to meet service levels. 3 25 2 15 1 Processing Units Expected to be completed with reduced internal staff. 5 6/28/4 7/5/4 7/12/4 7/19/4 7/26/4 8/2/4 8/9/4 8/16/4 8/23/4 8/3/4 9/6/4 9/13/4 9/2/4 Figure 1: The chart above shows the difference in processing output in the weeks before and after Charley. It reflects a reduction in staff from 84 to 63 FTE. Weekly Productivity Loss equals 7,232 units. If reduced internal staffing levels continue for the next 4 weeks, we will have lost the equivalent of one full week of production.
Staff is comfortable that favorable policy service levels can be maintained despite reduced internal staff through the new working relationship with MacNeill. Arrangements have been made for the additional workload to be seamlessly transferred to MacNeill for completion. MacNeill has committed to processing any additional work within contracted service levels. The transfer of work between Citizens and MacNeill has been tested and was a significant contributor to the achievement of the current service levels. Full implementation of the new processing structure with MacNeill is schedule to be completed by October 1, 24. In addition to their processing responsibilities, MacNeill will continue to handle phone calls on certain policies until the call volume in the Citizens Call Center is stabilized. New Policy Inflow The improved processing times were accomplished even though new application inflow remained high. Through August 27th, Citizens received a total of 32,21 new applications (26,389 PLA & 5,652 HRA applications). APPLICATION PROCESSING Applications Received Applications Processed 5 46,534 45 43,18 4 37,456 Volume 35 3 25 31,546 31,99 34,79 34,536 31,786 33,71 24,537 24,889 27,351 28,726 3,479 31,11 25,34 29,769 31,741 27,14 27,6 25,276 33,399 32,21 25,931 2 2,644 15 16,47 1 5 Aug-3 Sep-3 Oct-3 Nov-3 Dec-3 Jan-4 Feb-4 Mar-4 Apr-4 May-4 Jun-4 Jul-4 Aug-4 Figure 2: The chart above depicts the trend of the inflow of wind and multi-peril applications during the last 12 months. The blue line represents the number of applications processed by Citizens internal staff and MacNeill. Citizens realized a significant productivity gain in July by processing approximately 13, more applications than received.
Call Center Performance The Citizens Call Center has had three weeks of record call volume. In the week following Charley, Citizens received over 21, phone calls. Most of the activity was driven by agents and policyholders calling to confirm coverage and verify policy status. However, the HRA Rate Increase, Implementation of the Florida Building Code, Changes to Wind forms and the Office of Insurance Regulation Consent Order extending payment periods for victims of Hurricane Charley were all contributing factors to the call volume. On average, Citizens is receiving over 7, more calls per week than the same time last year. Average Weekly Volume of Calls Received Calls Received 23, 22, 21, 2, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 1, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 11,55 13,786 13,926 14,566 16,6 17,26 18,15 21,25 19,691 August '23 Feb Mar May July Aug 2nd - 6th Aug 8th - 13th Aug 16th - 2th Aug 23rd - 27th Figure 3: This chart shows the week -by-week call volume in August as compared to the average weekly volume in prior months. A comparison is also made to the same time last year. The trend line clearly shows the steady rise in volume during that period. August Results With the excessive call volume during the month of August, service levels fell further below the year end goals. Calls Calls Answer Average Received Answered Percentage Hold Time 76,297 54,745 72% 5:11 Figure 4: Call statistics above include activity through August 27 th. The statistics also include calls made to the Policy Verification Unit.
CALL CENTER PERFORMANCE Through August 27, 24 Call Volume Abandonment 9 6% 8 7 63,9 71,4 7,68 76,297 5% CALL VOLUME 6 5 4 44,222 36% 54,78 27% 44,123 43,64 51,912 57,653 34% 4:18 55,13 55,651 58,119 32% 3% 4:28 4:19 28% 4:39 28% 5:11 4% 3% 3 2 1 19% 14% 2:13 16% 2:28 3:8 2% 1% AUG '3 SEP '3 OCT '3 NOV '3 DEC '3 JAN '4 FEB '4 MAR '4 APR '4 MAY '4 JUN '4 JUL '4 Aug '4 MONTH % Figure 5: The graph above represents the trend for calls received and the percentage of callers that abandoned ( hung-up ) in the call center over the last 12 months. The blue line also indicates the average time callers had to wait before their call was answered. The performance trend deteriorated in August due to the significant increase in call volume. Also, call handle times increased by over one minute, from 3:35 minutes to 4:36 minutes. What is Staff doing to prevent further deterioration of Call Center performance? Operations Staff continues to focus their efforts on reducing the number of calls being made to the call center and improving call center service levels. Prior to Charley, Staff initiated the following key initiatives: Additional Staff There are currently 72 full time employees in the Citizens Call Center. Of those FTE s, 27 have been added within the last 3 days. The new staff is in the final stages of training and should be on the phones full time by the second week of September. Already, we have seen up to a 3% improvement in average hold times when the new staff is on the phones. Phone System Upgrade By September 15th, we will have completed the first phase of upgrading the Jacksonville phone system. The upgrade will allow more sophisticated routing, tracking and management of calls. In November, we will complete Phase 2 of the upgrade which will enhance the automated payment inquiry functionality of the system. Agents, policyholders and mortgage companies will then be able to use an automated system to check policy status and verify payment information for HRA and PLA policies. This automated inquiry can be done without having to talk to a live person thereby reducing the staffing demand in the call center.
Upgrade to ewind System Within the next 3 days, we expect to launch a new web based application for Agents to inquire on HRA policies. Currently, Agents have no means to obtain policy or payment information without having to call our call center. There are other longer-term projects under development that will focus on improving agent communication and training so that agents will have better access to information. During the next month, Staff will closely monitor the new application and call activity that may be generated as a result Hurricane Charley. Workload and staffing resources will be managed between Citizens and MacNeill in order to maintain target service levels.