wfn.org | Board Of Pension Intensifies Customer Service Focus

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

CONTACT: 	Tim Tanton
(10-71B){163}
		Nashville, Tenn. (615) 742-5473 	      March 19,
1998

Board of Pension makes key changes
aimed at improving customer service

	EVANSTON, Ill. (UMNS) -- The United Methodist Church's Board of
Pension and Health Benefits has put itself in crisis mode in an effort
to resolve its lingering customer-service problems.
The agency has been overwhelmed by a high volume of calls since it
converted to a new investment plan in January. It also  has a backlog of
information that must be processed in order to bring customers' records
and accounts up to date.
"What we need is for our whole organization to pull together and work
together to resolve our customers' needs," said Barbara Boigegrain,
general secretary of the Board of Pension.
As a result, she said, she has raised the customer service problems to
crisis status and created a new senior-level position to oversee the
resolution.
"It's solvable, it's manageable," she said of the challenge ahead. "It's
just that we need to get in and identify priorities and do them."
Larry Loeppke has been named customer service crisis plan manager and
interim operations officer. He will oversee all the agency's major
departments except the investment and legal areas, which will continue
to report directly to Boigegrain.
Meanwhile, Len Lacouture, chief operating officer, has left the agency
effective March 17. He joined the board in June 1995.
The Board of Pension handles pension and disability benefits for United
Methodist clergy, church workers, lay employees and their families. It
is one of the biggest pension plans in the country and the largest of
any Protestant denomination.
The agency has been trying to work through the bugs involved in its
conversion to the Personal Investment Plan at the beginning of the year.
"The good news is that the conversion . . . has gone well," Boigegrain
wrote in a March 18 letter primarily to bishops, United Methodist agency
heads and other leaders throughout the denomination. "Accounts are
intact and investments are sound.
"The bad news is that we are behind in entering data and applying
changes (customers) have sent to us. As a result, bills and statements
do not reflect current data."
She went on to cite the high number of phone calls and the fact that
"information is not being sent to participants in a  timely manner."
Boigegrain told United Methodist News Service that she wanted to put the
whole organization's focus on resolving the problems. She began looking
around for someone who had the experience that was needed to accomplish
that. 
She turned to Loeppke, who had joined the Board of Pension recently as
director of communications. Loeppke has a background in customer service
operations, marketing, operations turnaround,  business development and
communications research. He joined the agency from Kendall/Hunt
Publishing Co. in Dubuque, Iowa.
The job of chief operating officer was eliminated with the creation of
the position that Loeppke now fills.
"What Larry will bring to this is a strategic planning process and
facilitation that I think we have not had as well as we needed to,"
Boigegrain said.
Boigegrain, Loeppke and a crisis management team are working on a plan,
which will be announced next week.
Boigegrain said she elevated the problem to crisis status in order to
get it cleaned up before "retirement season" -- a period that falls
roughly in the second quarter, when most clergy retirements occur.
During that time, the board is providing information to and working
closely with retiring clergy in setting up benefits.
"Through the retirement season, everything else is subordinated to
customer service and making sure we meet our customer service needs,"
Boigegrain said. That interim period should last through July, she said.
As the agency contends with the customer service problems, Boigegrain
emphasizes that the accounts and investments are fine.
The changes at the board are the latest in an ongoing restructuring
process that began three years ago, when Boigegrain joined the agency
and began turning it around. The board has been working to improve its
billing, get more accurate data and be more responsive to customers
calling for information on their accounts.
The recent volume of calls has been so high that people are placed on
hold for long periods or they receive busy signals, Boigegrain said.
"The calls have been literally four and a half times our normal call
volume," she said. Recently, the agency has been receiving roughly 1,200
calls a day, she said.
Most of the calls have come from pastors wanting to check on their
accounts, and calls also have come from church treasurers and conference
officers, she said.
Working through the crisis will probably take until about May 1. Then
the agency will focus on continuing to improve its current systems and
processes, Boigegrain said.
"It's just a long-term fix."
				# # #
United Methodist News Service
(615)742-5470
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