Diane Hagen, 'Life is short- let's dance'
Date: 3/29/2007Contact: Joan Barrett/800-690-0070
Diane Hagen doesn’t let much stop her. When she first saw Arizona as a teenaged babysitter to one of her Northern New Jersey neighbors, she knew she loved it and vowed to return. 15 years later she packed up her stuff in New Jersey and headed ‘home’ to the area she was sure held her destiny.
She began to work as an administrative assistant to the Director of Risk Management for the self-insured Consumer Products Company and realized that she was interested in the documents about product liability, worker’s compensation and auto liability that she was typing up for the adjusters. Soon she was an adjuster herself and liking her workday much better.
From that position, she went to work at a major car rental company, also self-insured, negotiating bodily injury claims among others.
Her experience was helpful in her next job as an auto claims representative for American Family Insurance, a carrier with very strong customer service commitments. This is an attitude that mirrors Diane’s own commitment to her customers, many of whom have never before been in an accident and rely on the adjuster to supply the framework for their recovery from the loss. Diane relishes the opportunity to carefully guide the customer through the processes as many times as necessary to prevent misunderstanding. She feels that the first call is the most important one, in which she can inform and assist the customer, who may react to the crisis at hand in any manner imaginable. “The rest of the claim goes more smoothly if the time to explain the details is set aside in the initial call” However, “Patience is a virtue in dealing with some insureds who don’t want to hear what you have to tell them”, she says. “Sometimes I have to get up from my desk and decompress for a couple of minutes. It can be very intense sometimes.” If the customer comes to the office, Diane says that she has the management’s blessing to “drop everything to meet with them face to face”.
Diane loves her job and would recommend working for her company to anyone ‘in a heartbeat’. She says that the company treats them like family and that is important considering the amount of time one spends at the job, time there than with family. She has a wonderful relationship with her co-workers and loves the fact that they all help one another. The fact that management will stand behind the adjuster’s decisions is a big issue with her. “A bad day here is better than working someplace else”, she states with a laugh. “It’s never boring,” Diane states. “Just when you think you’ve heard it all, something new comes down the Pike.”
Even though Diane is technically an inside adjuster, she has the ability to come and go as necessary to check out a situation for herself. Technology is a great boon to productivity and the office will soon be paperless- a situation Diane feels will help to prevent misunderstanding.
She also participates in the Arbitration Panel once each quarter and finds it very satisfying to utilize her knowledge and experience to participate in group decisions on cases that come before the panel.
Outside of work, Diane is a movie buff that finds that a good film will take her away from the work that can leave her mentally drained at the end of a long day. She also likes to work on her home and frequently tackles projects that would be unimaginable to another single lady. “My boyfriend never knows when he’ll come to visit and I’ll have plastic draped over a whole room.” Diane said. She likes to travel and recently got to spend 10 precious days with her twin sister in Hawaii.
Diane is an enthusiastic supporter of the AICA. “Whenever the topic is auto insurance matters, I’m there if I can be”, she says. “I pay my membership dues and feel that I get a lot out of belonging to the AICA.” “I’m fortunate that my company supports the association and encourages our participation “she went on.
Valley Leadership also gets a share of Diane’s time. In its 27th year, the community-oriented group accepts 40 nominees each year to be part of the ‘Class’ that learns about and volunteers to enrich the culture and community of the area. Diane’s ‘class’ was 10 years ago and she still volunteers to work on charitable projects from building birdhouses at the Bird Sanctuary in North Scottsdale to wielding a paintbrush at a day care facility.
Diane quotes an email she received recently from her sister as reflecting her philosophy- in part “Let’s dance- life is short- break the rules-laugh uncontrollably. Life may not be the party we expected, but let’s dance.”