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Strategies & Market Trends : Three Amigos Stock Thread

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To: Sergio H who wrote (2528)	4/1/1998 11:33:00 PM
From: Magnatizer	Read Replies (3) of 29382

Amigos Y Amigas Lets see where to begin. The complex: APCO headquarters are nothing out of the ordinary. They are definatly not wasting money on crystal and marble. Just the ordinary everyday business plaza, stuffed to the gills with a young energetic staff which has entrepreneurial spirit seeping out of every crack. Reception area: Cool salt water tank. Could use some algea though. Again, nothing fancy just the basics. This would be the general theme for the entire office area. Met with Todd for awhile discussing the company and its current positions. Once again he said he is comfortable with analyst expectations. That the Allstate deal will not be accretive to earnings til next year. dadadadada He will be getting back with me regarding the confusion with the 7/100k Allstate claim question. Then the good stuff IMO We started the tour of the headquarters by visiting the area which processes claims > $850. This is where I started to get excited. They are using digital cameras at many of their affiliated dealerships to send pictures of damaged vehicles directly to headquarters through a network. This enables APCO to make decisions more efficiently. It eliminates the need to send out an inspector many times as a picture says a thousand words. They have been using pictures for quite some time but the new setup allows for the pictures to be stored digitally and if an area needs to be given a closer look they can simply circle the area in question with a John Madden style telestrator and the dealership knows instantly what to do. The transfer of information should prove to be quite a cost cutting venture as 1) time efficiency (instantaneous) and 2) cost efficiency (less need for on site inspectors). It also helps propel APCO to the forefront in their field on a customer service level. The longer a customer has to wait to hear if the problem with their vehicle will be covered the more anxious that customer is going to get. Next we went to the electronic brain room. A gazilion feet of wire. all the goodies you would expect. Switching to an NT server which has been up and running continuously for months at a time without needed to be rebooted. (Better sell my SUNW shares) The next step is a switch to digital office. Throw out the paper chaps (sell my IP) and lets get into the 21st century. Again steps towards higher efficiency through innovation. Not much of a techie here so if there are questions regarding the system call the company. Telecommunications. The area which best portrays what APCO is all about. The room was a buzz with typing fingers, pages flipping and telephones ringing. The call center for APCO was, in a word, efficient. The average wait time for a caller once the call has been answered and transfered to a customer service rep was 15 second (? may have been 5 sec.). The average call total time is 5 1/2 minutes. To put this into perspective the average WAIT time for the competition was 4-5 minutes. Watching as one rep handled a call was a site to see. He quickly assessed what the callers needs were, consulted his manual for verification and replied in the wink of an eye. If service is what will drive a company to the next level and beyond APCO will be to the front of the pack before long. APCO mission statement goes something like this: If the customer is not satisfied when they have dealt with us then we have not done our job correctly no matter how good we think we are. This is not verbadum as I am sure they put it more eliquently than I but the point is customer service is above all else in regards to APCO performance. How refreshing. Well I will post more tomorrow. I need some sleep. ht david

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