Stanley Mutual Insurance is a New Brunswick-based insurance company, with our head office in the village of Stanley, NB. When Stanley Mutual started in the 1930s, property insurance was next to impossible to obtain in rural New Brunswick. To protect their farms, four farmers decided to pool their resources and form their own insurance company. This was the beginning of Stanley Mutual.
At first, we wrote only farm policies for fire coverage. Over the years we’ve expanded our offering and now deliver, top-notch, industry-leading homeowner policies as well as auto and commercial insurance. We continue to protect many of the farms in the province. Our newly revamped Home Packages are second-to-none.
In 2018, a few years after our CEO Greg Dunlap joined Stanley, a personal experience with a customer would change how we treat total loss claims. Adding to the depth of our Home-Packages.
The team at Stanley has an open-door policy to chat about claims and policies together.
On this specific day, Tammy Ross, now Vice President, Finance & Administration, mentioned to Greg there had been a total loss fire. Later that day, something told Greg to take the long way home and stop by to see this claim for himself. He wanted to see it for himself.
Upon arriving, he got out to inspect the scene and came across the homeowner, standing among the rubble of his former home. The man was clearly devastated and exhausted, as one would expect in such a terrible situation. What took Greg by surprise, was the stuffed bunny he was clutching. He had been sifting through the remains of his life, seeing photos, children’s toys, and all his possessions, destroyed.
Greg was hit by a wall of grief for the man standing before him with the bunny. He introduced himself, and the man explained his whole family was at the hotel, however, his youngest daughter wouldn’t sleep without her stuffed bunny, so he had to come back and find it. Greg offered if there was anything he could do, not to hesitate. The entire way home Greg put himself in the client’s shoes the night before. In the dark, you smell smoke and feel the heat of the fire. You wake up, grab your family, and then watch your house burn. The area they were in was very secluded, there were no neighbours to run to – what must they have been feeling and thinking?
Afterwards, he thought about the man, and his family in a hotel room, emotionally drained, scared and nowhere to call home. That’s when he knew he had to help this family, and any subsequent families that will inevitably be in the same situation in, anyway he could.
That is a traumatic, as insurers we don’t think of it as a traumatic event, we think of it as a property loss. We can paint the walls, and buy a new fridge, but we need to be more human.
The traditional process of handling claims is what we have come to know, however, it makes the experience worse for the customer. We need to try and make it better for them, to help reduce the trauma of the event they just experienced.
Back in the office the next day, Greg drafted the Stanley Mutual Insurance Member Care Program.
If you suffer an insured loss requiring you to leave your home for a minimum of seven nights, we will provide up to $250 per household member for trauma counselling.
Any loss triggering the Additional Living Expense coverage will be enhanced by providing the insured with $250 in gift cards of their choice, to be used for family activities such as dinners a movie night spa etc.
Our claims team will ensure you are provided with a written plan for outlining the process you can expect, during the claim process.
We will provide a claim satisfaction guarantee where we will honor our promise in the settlement of your claim, or we will refund your premium.
If you experience a loss that is part of a single natural event, which produces more than 20 claims for Stanley mutual members, we will not apply a deductible to your loss and we will not remove your claims-free discount on your next renewal.
We will provide you with $500 for the restoration of personal photographs or videos damaged from an insured loss.
If you suffer a total loss, we will forgive your deductible.
If you use the service of one of our trusted contractors to repair damages from a loss, we will provide a one-year guarantee on their work.
Caring for customers is what Mutuals are all about. Mutuality enables us to create meaningful connections with our clients. It enables us to have a say in how things are run. Stanley’s Member Care Program is a perfect example of how being in the Mutual Industry, we have the flexibility in the ownership structure the bigger Insurance Companies don’t have. That is one more reason we can all feel good working where we do.
Stanley Mutual Insurance – Together, we are stronger!