Customer Spotlight – Susan Coblin

By Karyn Buckley | October 13, 2020

Meet Susan Coblin, Agent/Owner of Chenault & Hoge in Frankfort, KY!

How long have you been with your firm and what’s your role there?
Unofficially 40 years. My dad owned the agency and I was here all the time (after school, snow days) answering the phones, filing and helping out. I worked here all through high school, too. Officially I have been here 23 years – starting after college. On January 1, 2016, my brother Will Coblin, Matt Harville and I bought the agency from my dad. Matt has been friends with Will since childhood, so he’s like family and that makes us a family owned business. My great uncle owned the agency before my dad. Dad still works a couple hours a week half the year and I talk with him every day. I love my role as Owner/Partner and enjoy working with everyone here.

If you have a niche market that you’re involved with, how did you get started in that niche?
We are a general independent agent in a small town. We write all kinds of different things, the more complicated the risk, the more interesting we find it. We appreciate being able to help our clients and make a difference. Just the other day we had an opportunity to work on an account that does metal sculpture work and works with hot molten metal.

What is the favorite part about working in the insurance industry?
The variety of clients and I love being in a family owned business.

What is your proudest moment in serving a client?
Taking care of my clients and helping them through claims/losses. We had a very large fire across street from our office. Half the block was on fire. We opened our office to the fireman, police, clients to allow staging and help with the process. Our client’s buildings were on fire. We were glad we could be there for them. Then to see everything through and watch everything slowly be rebuilt was rewarding, too.

What are 3 words you’d use to describe what you do?
Analyze, Produce, Listen

How would you describe your productivity before and after using eForms Wizard?
The process was very time consuming, fragmented and involved too many people before we got eForms Wizard. As a producer I would hand write on applications that were hard to find and often out of date. Our agency management system didn’t make it easy, I had to ask my employees to help me or I would just write down some notes and give it to the CSR to do. The CSR had to ask me additional questions that I had in my head but forgot to write down. At that point we were both inefficient. Now I can prefill information that defaults into all the other applications. Every application is there, I don’t need to ask underwriters for applications. It’s just genius! I wish I had thought of this! Now I can quickly and easily send submissions to 5 underwriters in minutes. eForms Wizard really is saving us a ton of time!

What is something most people don’t know about you – maybe a unique hobby or interest?

I was born in Nuremburg, Germany. My dad was in the army and stationed there during Vietnam when I was born.
I studied photography, I like birding, needle point and am an avid sports fan.
My favorite podcast is “How I Built This” an entrepreneurial podcast on NPR.

What does an ideal weekend look like?
A weekend with my daughters, walking, kayaking on Elkhorn Creek, reading and cooking.