As expected, 2007 was an eventful year for Embrace - in a good way, of course!
Our big event for the year was the launch of The Embrace Pet Insurance website on March 29 2007 to rave reviews. It was a lot of work but totally worth it as there's a wealth of information on pet ins
urance and Embrace for anyone wanting to learn more, get a quote and even buy a policy (!). We even won a Pinnacle Award from Microsoft for the innovative use of their Dynamics package. Not bad for a start up without an IT department. You can look forward to further web developments in 2008 - I can't spill the beans as to what's coming up but we think you'll like it, like it a lot.
Once our online business got going, we started seeing some great reviews on www.petinsurancereview.com. Our practise is to ask every claimant to review us, even those who might have had a claim denied, so you see the real deal, not just the sugar-coated reviews.
2007 brought some excellent media attention from CNN.com, NPR, Pampered Puppy, Doggie Chronicles, Startup Spark, and American Venture Magazine to name a few. Embrace's annual Pet-related Small Business Trends article was profiled on the APPMA's home page for a while until the pet food recall hit in May 2007. Since it was early days for our business, we only saw one claim related to the recall but we watched with sadness as so many pets died from the tainted food.
We used 2007 to get out and about across the US. We had a warm reception at the conferences we attended in 2007 including the Global Pet Expo in Orlando, AVMA's annual meeting in Denver, the Animal Care Expo in Dallas, Blogher in Chicago, and so on. Laura presented at three actuarial events in Seattle, Phoenix, and New England and was named an Actuarial Pioneer by the Society of Actuaries, which is nearly as exciting as being an official Bushmills Taster (a much-cherished certificate Laura accidentally-on-purpose got from her visit to the distillery)
We continue to grow and added Belinda and Chris H early in 2007. Belinda is our Claims Manager and occasionally brings Daisy (her Yorkie) into work. Chris is the team lead in our Contact Center and he brings his 2 boys (the two legged variety) in to visit us every now and then as well (the youngest being born just a month ago). As you can expect, we've always got something going on around here. Talking of which...
At the end of 2007, we moved offices down the block into our very own space. We were in a shared space before so while we could bring our own dogs and cats to work, we had to keep them confined so they didn't bother our office neighbors. Now we can let them roam about as they wish. I think I'll have to add a dog bed to my desk space so visitors can make themselves comfortable.
Finally, we have most of all enjoyed interacting with our customers over the year. Thank you so much for the Christmas cards with pawprints from our Embraced pets, the wonderful comments about Embrace on blogs and discussion boards, all your photos of your Embrace pumpkins (many of which you'll see here and on our Community blog), and the efforts you've made to spread the Embrace love. They pretty much made our year - keep it all coming!
Of course, we paid out on a lot of claims, answered the phone in person, satisfied a great number of pet parents but that's all in a day's work at Embrace - nothing exceptional to report there.
2008 is already shaping up to be an eventful year and we're looking forward to even more pets and fun this year.
Anything in particular you'd like Embrace to do for you in 2008?
Laura Bennett
Chief Embracer
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