STANDARD COMPETENCIES:

 

 I.      Communicating orally and in writing complete information of the overall insurance business by weekly lesson and reading materials

 II.     Meeting objective of defined time lines by completing weekly assignments, reading and quizzes.

 III.    Apply in case problems what they have learned regarding the many aspects of insurance services  to a given insurance situation, whether the situation is on the national examination or in real life.

 TOPICAL OUTLINE:

 

 I.      The Nature of the Insurance Business

         A.      Explanation of why insurance organizations are experimenting with quality initiatives.

         B.      Characteristics of the insurance product and influence on customer satisfaction.

         C.      Benefits of insurance and relating to personal experiences.

         D.      Explanation of insurance classed as a service.

 II.     Customer Identification

         A.      Diagraming and describing the work process.

         B.      Description of work outputs.

         C.      Identification of customers on personal basis.

 III.    What Customers Want

         A.      Strategic definition of quality.

         B.      Description and examples of work process measures, output measures and outcome measures.

         C.      Application of work process measures, output measures and outcome measures to analysis of an insurance function.

         D.      Distinguishing between voice of the process and voice of the customer.

         E.      Description of the eight dimensions of quality and RATER criteria.

         F.      Customer expectations ¿ Implicit, Explicit and Latent.

 IV.     The Voice of the Customer

         A.      Distinguishing between reactive and proactive methods of listening to voice of customer.

         B.      Relationship between understanding customer expectations and ¿zero defections¿.

         C.      Differences among benchmarking techniques: Internal, Competitive, Functional and Generic.

         D.      Recommendation of reactive and proactive methods for given examples.

         E.      Benefits of customer orientation for insurance organizations.

 V.      Key Processes

         A.      Defining and describing key processes.

         B.      Drawing a work process model.

         C.      Describing and listing questions needed to identify key processes.

         D.      Given a situation, identify key processes.

         E.      Describing process management.

 VI.     The Process Improvement Model

         A.      Describing and listing the six steps in the process improvement model.

         B.      Restating specific objectives in terms of the process.

         C.      Distinguishing between voice of the customer and voice of the process.

         D.      Applying the process improvement model to given situation.

 VII.    Process Improvement Tools

         A.      Data collection tools ¿ what are they and what can be achieved with data.

         B.      Analysis tools ¿ what are they and what can be achieved with data.

         C.      Recommending appropriate process improvement tools to be used in given situation.

         D.      Four dimensions of organizational performance.

 VIII.   Leadership, Teamwork, and Organizational Structures

         A.      Distinguishing between leadership and management.

         B.      Preparation of sample mission statement, vision statement, and statement of values, goals, and objectives.

         C.      Differences between compliance and commitment.

         D.      Three requirements for empowered employees.

         E.      Four stages of team development.

 IX.     Different organizational structures and reasons for them.

 X       Checking on Progress

         A.      Five stages of maturation.

         B.      Role of awards in evaluation of continuous improvement efforts.

         C.      Determining stage of maturation reached by organization given examples