This month we shine a Team Spotlight on our Director of Account Management, John Darragh, for his two-year anniversary at Field Pros Direct. For those of you who are new to our series, our Team Spotlight is a Q&A style-blog that will introduce you to our team on a deeper level. We highlight a different team member on their anniversary and ask them questions ranging from professional to personal matters.
Part of providing a great experience is having the knowledge to understand what experiences need to be improved. John Darragh has been in the claims industry for over 45-years, providing us with a wealth of knowledge on good and bad experiences over time in insurance. If you haven’t met John, you will feel right at home when you do. While he may consider himself “shy,” others who have met him know that’s not the case. Join us on our journey to get to know John a little more during our Spotlight interview.
What is your role at Field Pros Direct? What does your average day-to-day look like?
As far as my role goes, it is the Director of Account Management. The position is a hybrid between sales and client support, as I manage client relationships and also nurture those relationships even after a sale is completed.
Each day varies based upon the day, but generally, it starts with reviewing incoming correspondence from Carrier partners to ensure all their needs are taken care of. Then I move over to working on our Carrier Stewardship reports to provide them with performance trends and to help build a better relationship with them.
Over the past year, what was your most rewarding experience?
There’s been a lot. I guess I would say that when I came to Field Pros Direct we were in the early infancy stages. It has been truly rewarding to see how the company has grown, from the people, to the technology, to the clients. I am genuinely proud of the team’s efforts under Matt Anderson’s guidance.
What is your favorite benefit or feature of the Field Pros Direct solution?
I’ve been in the industry a while and have seen a lot. The most rewarding part of being here is really the team and the growth that has stemmed from such a great team. It’s very interesting to see how growth really looks, especially being that my history has generally been with more established companies that were entrenched in their ways. I need to be dragged into some of the technology, but it’s been a lot of fun learning along the way!
Over the past year, what is the biggest lesson you’ve learned?
Everything doesn’t fit into the same mold. You need to be flexible and must be able to mold your product to the client’s needs. The reality of molding our services to fit their needs is not easy, but it’s necessary to maintain those relationships in the industry. Another lesson is that listening is really the key. People are used to salesmen and women walking in and talking the whole time – sometimes talking entirely too much. Being able to listen and really hear what their needs are is something we all need to be able to do.
In 3 words, how would you describe Field Pros Direct?
Collaborative. Flexible. People-focused.
On Monday morning’s we spend time on a call with senior staff to get a report of what’s going on throughout the company. There’s a lot of collaboration that goes on within those calls to get input from everyone. Even if you don’t have direct dealing with a situation, we have the opportunity to share our perspective and get the perspective of others. As far as flexibility goes, we have been quite flexible. We’ve been focused to service our clients and have had the flexibility to add people when we need to change and grow on the fly. As for being people-focused, that word really says it all. We pay attention to our people and know how important quality of life is for everyone. It’s essential to make sure they have the best quality of life to couple with their job so that they can get through life without the stress and strain that can come with working in this industry.
What is something that people may not know about you?
I’m basically shy. I don’t like to talk about myself and would rather focus on others. It is very difficult for me to sit back and talk about myself. My joys in life are my wife, my two children, and my 6 grandkids and watching them grow, even though we haven’t been able to see them much with the pandemic. The grandkids range from 4-17 with 4 boys and 2 girls. When I’m not with my family in New Jersey, I like golf because I’ve gotten too old for all other sports.
And that’s a wrap! You can find more about John Darragh at www.fieldprosdirect.com/meet-the-team or connect with him on LinkedIn.
