Peggy Von Kaufman.txt
English (US)

00:00:05.080 — 00:06:41.570
S, p e, g g and the last name is von von Kaufman. Kaufman. And what is your job? And I am the assistant. Excuse me. I'm the vice president of Catholic Life insurance in the operations department. I oversee member services, which is customer service in new business and our mail, file and imaging department.

So it's very technical. What you do operations is a very technical thing. But at the end of the day, if something if somebody is not happy, it usually ends up with you. That is correct. I have a little plaque in my office that says the fixer of everything. So I sometimes I feel that way. Very much so, but I enjoy it.

Do you have an example? Give me an example of anything yet? Well, when we get sometimes the customers call in if they're unhappy about anything that occurs, uh, if the call is escalated, I try to make the customer realize that you're being heard. You're very important. I am very concerned about your concerns and I deal with them on their level.

I always try to tell my staff, always try to be able to read your callers, read your member and you know, and give that empathy and sympathy with them and also try to understand where they're coming from, which is very important. You have to understand that they may not know all the technical part or the intricacies of what they have, and it's our job to make them feel comfortable what they have and reassure them that everything that they do and they invest within Catholic life, that we're taking care of them 150%.

Were you ever an agent? No, I was never an agent. I became a member of Catholic Life when I was eight years old. And that's a very funny story. But, uh, my, what happened was, uh, my parents saw an ad in the church bulletin, and they called. And the agent? He came out to our house. I am one of five children and the only daughter, and I'm the youngest.

So I had some very older, rambunctious brothers and they, as the agent came in, they sat down with my parents. I was in another part of the house, and my brothers thought it would be a good time to play a practical joke. So they put cherry bombs in the water cooler and my parent's living room filled with smoke.

Red smoke. At the same time, they let loose my pet rabbit in the house. And so as he's trying to sell life insurance, red smoke is filtering through the house. And there's this little girl, which was me running on her hands and knees after this large white rabbit. And I do remember the agent, because I remember he looked like he was petrified to death.

And but he walked out of there and he sold five life insurance policies and man did that. That's where you were introduced to Catholic life. Yes. It was. After that, we started attending the branch socials, and we used to have them here in MacArthur Park in San Antonio. And they were wonderful. They were very elaborate.

And as I grew older, my parents are always reminded me about their life insurance policies. I'm very thankful to Catholic life. My parents and to my siblings have all passed, and they were members of Catholic Life. And because of the safe and sound security that we had with those life insurance policies, I was able to take care of my parents and my two siblings who passed before me.

Uh, two passed earlier that, uh, make their arrangements for their funeral and have a little bit extra left over. And it was very comforting to have that ability. And it's one of the things I'm very proud of here at Catholic Life. Yeah. When you when you talk to the people that are in the in the field or agents, you said you you want to counsel them to make sure that the clients want to make sure I'm using these names correctly, but the people who hold the policies that they're feeling, all right.

A lot of times you approach people at the worst moment of their life anyway. That is true. But right when when it's going to become necessary and the members, the members, especially when death occurs. Part of my job responsibilities. I do approve death claims as well. So at times I do have to meet with beneficiaries.

I've met just trying to comfort them, and we always try to make to reassure them, we're not going to rush you. We're going to tell you everything that you need, and we're going to help you as much as we possibly can. And we don't give financial advice to the fact that we tell you this is what you have to do. What we give is just a reassurance that, you know, we're here for you.

We can coach you on what you need to do, how you need to go, what direction you need to go in and just give you a good guide. And that's one of the things that it's been very appreciative of. Our members, uh, especially we have a lot of clientele that's, uh, elderly. And they need that comfort zone. It's very important.

So what I try to tell my staff and, and everybody is just just listen to them. Sometimes they just want to hear someone listen to them and take them very serious that you just want to tell them, here's how this works, how we're going to operate for you and what we're going to do, but reassured we're here for you at all times.

And that's kind of at odds with the way things are going right now with technology. I mean, it's very insincere to text someone how sorry you are. Yes, I'm there for you, he texted. I mean, that's a difficult situation, uh, to be in. Having technology is the anti-human contact. Um, but you've got to have the human contact.

You do especially good at that at Catholic. Yes, you do have to have that human contact. You've got to let them know that they're there. Yes we can. We could try to text someone. We can email. We do a lot of things through email, but we can still. There is a way, though, when you do that to show that compassion, there is a way.

You just have to take the time and the forethought to think about and show them and make sure that you know that you care. A lot of our communication is email. It is also through phone work. And also we're one of the few companies that a member can just walk through the front door and say, can I talk to someone?

And we meet with them in person? And that's a very much rarity here nowadays. So I take pride in that, and I always try to tell my team, remember, we're always going to help them no matter what, and we're always going to be here.


00:06:42.810 — 00:07:44.540
Uh, you've been to conventions? Yes, sir. How are they? That's fine. The conventions are fun. They're a lot of hard work, but you can learn a lot. Uh, Um, you get to connect with the not only the members, the delegates and the branch officers. Uh, with the agents, it's a time to just connect and just make sure that, you know.

Hey, I'm here for you. Uh, I like to assist everybody. Usually, I'm on my feet throughout the whole time of the convention, but it's it's, uh. I think it's a lot of educational as well as just fun, but it's a good opportunity for everyone to to know that face behind the the email and the behind the phone call.

So, uh, I know we get a lot of compliments in that respect. And, and, uh, a lot of times before convention happens, if you should be talking to someone on the phone, they'll say, I'm going to be at the convention. And I will tell them, so will I. So we're going to have to connect to make sure we get together, and we talk, and we try to set time aside for those people.


00:07:46.620 — 00:07:48.059
You were in your


00:07:49.060 — 00:17:35.229
current job, your current capacity When things when when Mike stepped down and Chris came in, I was I was made of vice president of operations in June of 2025. Prior to that, I was an assistant vice president, uh, still overseeing the same departments. So you were there. They're very hands on. Yes. Can you talk about that transition a little bit?

I when we first heard that was going to happen, one we couldn't believe it was because Michael Bells had been here for so long. But once we started hearing about who would be taking over, I think me personally, I, I get excited because I do like change and I like to see what new doors are going to be open for this and what new opportunities are going to be given to us, where there's also a part of me, though, that's going to miss the old guard, so to speak.

And so it was to me. It was a very exciting time. Um, it's just the just the change of the times and, uh, you know, I like to. I don't I'm not one to. Well, I'm going to push back and everything, but I want to see that change go on. I'm always advocating for something like that. Do do you think that Catholic life generally is not only accepting of change, but maybe looking for it and wanting wanting some of it, like you?

Or do you think it's a little more? Don't you know? Don't push me. I like the status quo. I can you go in one direction or the other? We're going into Catholic life right now. Is going in the direction that we want to be here another 125 years. So we are doing everything we possibly can to ensure that and to make sure that we will be there.

And I feel very confident we will be there on another 125 years. My children who are adults now are members. I, I know that when their time comes, when they're Elderly that Catholic life will be here to take care of them. And who knows what the possibilities, you know, will entail that they can do, and how quickly things can be done for for them and their families.

Your your life has been in San Antonio. You've worked in the central office, but have you ever gone to any of the socials out in the. Yes. I mean, how often do you get out and see the other members? Every year I travel through at least 2 or 3 of the branches. Every year. I try to make sure I try to never. I try to go to once to where I haven't been to before so I can meet new people.

Uh, in the it can be somewhere locally, or it can be 4 or 5 hours away from here. So I do enjoy that. I always take my husband with me, and it's kind of a nice little day trip for us. We take these trips and then we engage with everyone. It's it's, uh, it's it's fascinating because a lot of these members that we meet at these social I've spoken to them throughout the years over the phone or communicated with them, which somehow or they've come to the Home Office for a flag day or or any other function that we may have.

So it's it's good to meet these members because we get to talk to them one on one and just kind of set some time aside. I always set time aside at the branch socials. I tell them, if you have questions, come see me. I will wait here until the last person leaves and I will assist you. And do you do? Yes. You have on that.

Yes I do. Every branch I've gone to, I've always had a member come approach me and just ask me questions about their policies, or they'll give me their opinion on something or they just want to speak in general. They may know a family member of mine, or they just knew someone who used to work here. But most of the time I will always get questions about their policies, their annuities, their life insurance.

And they seem to be attracted to me because I do work in customer service and I familiar with what they may need. I'm always come prepared. I bring forms for them. I bring anything I could possibly think that possibly they could use or need at that time. One of the big things I like to talk about is beneficiaries of how important it is to review your beneficiaries every year, uh, because a lot of things can change.

A lot of our old since we've been in business 125 years, a lot of our policies have we have some from the 30s and 40s still in existence, but they have Grandma and grandpa who have passed 50 years ago as the beneficiaries. So a lot of this this is a good opportunity to tell everybody. Now is the time to update your files.

We can look up things. We can check to see how or who your beneficiaries are. Maybe we can talk about how, you know, you can take a distribution from your annuity, uh, how the life insurance policies works. And at times also they say, well, I have a neighbor who may want life insurance. Well, then I can connect them with their agent and tell them this is the opportunity for you to connect with the agent.

If they don't want to do it, I offer to do it for them and I say I can connect with the agent, give me the information and I will pass it along. I never thought about the idea that a lot of your policies still, in effect, were started almost 100 years ago. You know, I mean, this summer, 90, 80 years old. Yes. That sounds like something I would be good at is going through reviewing every policy, matching the numbers with who's dead and who's alive or something like that.

It's fascinating. Yes. What kind of what kind of things are on the horizon that are modern to you that you're bringing to the Capitol? I think some of the things that we are doing here now is, uh, we're getting more technical to where it's processing is quicker. And because everybody wants speed now, they want everything.

They want everything yesterday, so to speak. So what we're trying to do is making sure that we're coming in with those times and generating processing to to expedite to everybody's benefit. We're trying to make everything accessible online as much as possible, and hopefully the future will have to wear.

Uh, yes. We do still want them to contact their agent. It's very important for that connection, because sometimes that one on one can lead to a lot more things and a lot more information than just, uh, the, the AI on the computer. So we tried to tell them that, yes, everything you can do is online, but we still welcome you to contact us in person.

Peggy, do you have one story in your own mind that stands out being in customer service? I'm sure you've had lots of praise and lots of complaints. Do, um, does anything stand? I mean, do you have a single story that you know where you felt good about about like, don't mean a single story? Well, yes. Good. I'm sure you enjoy your job very much, but customer service is a tough gig.

Yes, customer service can be very tough at times, but also it can be very rewarding. Uh, I take a I like challenges and it's funny, but anytime I'm told, well, there's an escalated call, I readily want to take that call because to me, it's a challenge. I want to see what exactly I pride myself on being able to read our callers.

And what I mean by that is that I can tell where they're coming from with my expertise and my knowledge, and what I've done for the past 30 years here at Catholic Life, I know that I can pretty much ascertain within just a few short minutes how this call is going to go, what direction is it going to go and how to best help them.

Now I say I have a success rate of 98% in the helping them. There's always going to be one of those customers that no matter what, it's not going to help them. But I always try to reassure them. I go, I completely understand where you're coming from, but I'm always going to be here, and so is my team going to be here to help you.

So in challenging what I find, success stories are individuals who seem frustrated because they don't understand what they have and maybe how the processing works. A lot of the challenges that individuals don't realize is that sometimes we are constricted not by our own rules, but by the Department of Insurance or by the federal government.

And we have to adhere to that compliance. And I take very much pride in that. And what I'd like to do is I like to explain to anybody in detail how that works in the reasons behind it. One of the things I'm known at work is but the why person, why she has to always know why. And I convey that to our members and our agents.

What? Because I feel that if you don't know that, you're not going to understand what's going on. So the big challenge is why we have to do it. We I had a case recently where an individual couldn't understand why they couldn't make their, uh, daughter the owner of their IRA. So we got to explain to them, well, according to the federal government how the IRA works.

It's an individual account. There's no owners. It's that for that one individual person. So it's just something as simple as that. They go, well, I never knew that. And go exactly. This is how the and what the purpose of the account is for. However, what we can do is we can make you the beneficiary or instead and how that works.

Then I go into the conversation of what happens at death, and then they get the whole big picture of the whole idea, and then they have a better comprehension of why they couldn't do that. Members who never come to socials or


00:17:36.310 — 00:18:58.410
don't complain, or don't have really any contact with Catholic like, luck. Do you guys still talk to them? Well, yes, we try to. We try to contact them. If. Especially if we need something. If we. If the member. Occasionally they don't go to branch socials. Occasionally we'll get a phone call from another family member, and we tell them that we have to contact them in some capacity.

Uh, we where we have to get some legal documentation to authorize us to speak to another family member, or we just tell the, uh, whoever's calling us that we need in some way to actually speak to that individual, and perhaps we could do a conference call with them. Or you can, you know, make up a time. One of the things I pride myself is I try to be as accessible to our members as possible.

So I will stay after five. And if they can't talk until like 6:00, I will stay here and I will assist them in any capacity that I can, just so that we can help them in any way. I also tell them, well, if you would like your family members to send us an email. I can look at my emails 24 over seven and I'd be more than happy to at any time.

You know, if you send it on a Saturday, I can still look at them. And if I can, I can answer you that weekend if that's the only time you can be with someone.


00:19:00.610 — 00:22:14.990
I am sorry, I was getting coffee. Sorry. You know me, Peggy, and I. I'm sorry if he asked this question when I was at it. Tell me about your team. Kind of in a general impact. How many? How many people were you on a team? And then tell me a little bit about the traits that that they have that make them the team that you have.

Well, I oversee here at Catholic Life, I oversee member services, which of course is generally speaking, it's a customer service unit. And I have three members in the unit currently. And they their capacity is, of course, to take any phone calls. And they also answer any correspondence either by mail.

Fax. Uh, however. And so I also have an assistant vice president. Susan, who oversees helps me oversees that unit. It's a very good team. They're very tight knit. Uh, have a supervisor. Heather. She's very good at what she does as well. And, uh, they they they have a good camaraderie. I must say, that's one thing I love about Catholic life is how these teams seem to mesh so well.

And in member service, I always advocate for the member and the agents. Uh, I'd say at least half of our calls can come from the agents because they're acting on behalf of the member. So a lot of times that I will advocate, you must act on behalf of that member, and you must deal with them and help them in any way.

Capacity. We're not the normal call center. We we take the time. We don't metric the calls like you have to be over in five minutes or more. It's five minutes or less. Excuse me. What we do is we take the time to make sure that all their questions are answered and that they feel comfortable with what they get.

And if that should take 20 or 30 minutes, we're going to do that for the member on the average. A call can be about five minutes at the most, but we get those occasional like, well, we do have members who have multiple policies. They have life insurance, annuities. They may have a just for kids, for their grandchildren.

And they like to sometimes just review that all over the phone. So we take a lot of pride in that. We're not the average call center, and we have more of a personal connection with our members. I also oversee at the time as new business, all the new applications. We come in, uh, we have a team of four that review all the applications come in.

They work extensively with not only sales, but with our agents as well. And they have a great connection. They, uh, they're not only coworkers. their friends, and they worked very well together and they mesh well together, so I interact with them every day. I helped them with compliance. I helped them with any issues that they have.

Uh, my AVP, Susan, also oversees that unit as well. And then, uh, since June, I now oversee the mailroom, imaging, anything that has to do with receiving and outgoing mail. Uh, that is a very challenging task because they're set on specific timeframes, just like anyone else. And, uh, it's a new experience that I've welcomed very much.


00:22:16.310 — 00:24:24.130
I'm curious, how many calls a day do you get in the call center? It depends on the time of the year. So right now we're in January. That's our heavy time of the year between January and April, which is tax season. Our calls can double per person so normally average throughout the year. They each specialist in membership service can receive anywhere between 15 and 20 calls a day.

So on average they could get 60 to 70 calls starting in January after about the first week after New Year's. Those calls double and triple. We have seen where the specialists can each receive more than 50 calls a day, and usually these calls pertain to their 1099 IRS reporting to their required minimum distributions.

They want their year end annuity statements. These calls start on January 2nd. And it's fascinating. And, uh, we we tell the team that this is going to be the heavy time around February. They're still heavy. And then after that they kind of slow down a little bit. And then again we go back to that average between 15 and 20 calls per specialist.

And what and what I think I understood you to say was for other insurance companies, they're going to put it once. Once. Yes they are. Same goes up. They'll put a time limit on. That is correct. Most companies put a time limit. They have metrics set for their call center, and they put a time limit on there of how they actually have clocks there in.

The specialist has to watch it, and they have to cut that call off at a specific time. Whereas here at Catholic Live, we will take the time with our members and whatever time that they need from 2 to 3 minutes to 15, 20 minutes. Uh, I think the longest call I've ever been on is an hour and a half, and it was just to make sure that they understood what they had.

They had multiple policies, and we wanted to make sure that they got everything done. And at that time, what I'm doing at the same time is I'm taking notes and then updating their system and making sure. And at the end of the call, I always repeat in this zone of our team members, what exactly we went over what we need and what we need to do for them.


00:24:26.010 — 00:25:56.830
I think that makes sense to just listening to it. I don't know. I know I, I was just thinking, well, I mean, do you cut the calls off at 530. Or if you're talking about 70 calls a day. What happened to our call? So what happens is, is that when we get an escalated call since near 5:00, uh, the team member related means more, more, more heavier volume of calls.

More. So closer to the end of the day when we have, uh, high volume calls in our membership service center, we don't cut the customer off at 5:00. We continue the call. We don't we don't tell them, I'm sorry. It's 5:00. The only time I've ever cut a call off is during a fire drill, I think. But other than that, we we we never forced the call.

We never tried to force to end the call. We've never done that. Uh, I wouldn't allow it. Uh, but it's never had to happen. The team member knows that if they're. If it's time for the calls to the system, the the membership service center is to shut down, and they're on a call. They'll just. We chat with each other through teams, and we'd communicate that we're still on a call, and they continue it until they're finished and they finish their notes, and then the then the whole unit then shuts down.

And then if I, if I'm a member and I want to call it nine a night, is there, I'd leave a voicemail or. Yes. So call in. After hours of Catholic life insurance, you would have to leave a voicemail. And we returned those calls the very next day. Yes.


00:25:58.150 — 00:27:57.410
Iraq. She's amazing. No. I'm just you know what I'm thinking? That is a hard job. Yeah, I did a really hard job. Did you ask her about anything about the future? Like, um. Let me ask you. Yes. How do you feel? Like, you know, we don't have to go into what we talked about yesterday in our meeting or anything like that, but do you think you're.

Do you think your team is excited about the next growing with Catholic life and what's coming on? Yes, I actually had conversations with some of my team members today about the future, and what I did was I asked them what they felt that we needed to do. I wanted their input, so I got a lot of good, great information.

They are very much excited. Uh, a lot of people think, oh, change. A lot of people don't like change. In actuality, a lot of people do like change. They want to see that change. They want to grow with it. Uh, I tell my staff, I go, you either have a job or you have a career. And that's where you have to decide for yourself whether this is going to be your career.

This is my career. When I started here in 1995, I was an administrative assistant, and at that time, I never thought to myself that I would one day be a vice president of Catholic Life. Uh, I'm very proud of my accomplishments here, and I'm very happy. And I will be here until the day I retire. Uh, God willing.

And, uh, I've always advocated for the company. Uh, it's funny, when I every time I go to a doctor's appointment or anything like that, I make sure I wear my Catholic Life shirt, and I. That's how proud I am of this company. So I just want to make sure that everybody knows where I work. Every, of course, every time they ask, where do you work?

I tell them, I work for Catholic Life Insurance. They say the company with the flag. And I said, yes, that's very much so. So I take pride in that as well, because they do know we're out there.


00:27:59.130 — 00:28:22.010
Does anyone on the calls ever raise the issue of whether or not you have to be a Catholic to be a member? Yes, we get that question occasionally. And of course, the answer is no. You do not have to be Catholic to be a member of Catholic Life Insurance. It doesn't matter what your nomination is, it doesn't matter what your affiliation is.

We accept any individual.


00:28:24.930 — 00:28:30.780
You know, I always thought you. Right. Oh, well. Thank you. I've just recently met you, but now I think you are too.


00:28:31.860 — 00:28:33.380
Flattery will get you everywhere.


00:28:34.860 — 00:29:14.580
You can actually get a payment on the phone. Yeah, it's almost impossible. You get in this endless loop of voice messages. Yes. You can't get a human right. And that's where I've actually called. Call centers. If they. And they'll give me this whole menu thing and I go, representative, representative, I want to speak to a human.

And now I found out an AI does click onto that. But a Catholic life you always will speak to an individual. They give you a menu, but it's always going to be that person. And we have gotten compliments of that. So it's becoming more and more rare. But I think it's something that makes us special here. Yeah.


00:29:15.940 — 00:29:51.100
Well you can't take away that human element. No, definitely speed up the electronic services. Yes, yes, exactly what you're wearing. You're wearing Catholic live shirts. I mean, you really love to come. Do you love to come to work Yes, I do. I do love the you know my it's yes, I do I work, I do work long hours.

But I choose to do that because I want to do it. Uh, I'm a very much I made that conscious decision. I had a long conversation with my husband many years ago, and because I decided to make this a career. And so, um, I,


00:29:52.220 — 00:32:43.970
you know, I do make time for my family as much as I can. Sometimes the hours are long to where, you know, I can't, but I have a good connection and good system at home, so it's the long hours can there they there are rewards with it. It's the sense of satisfaction that I've done something, I've accomplished something.

And if I set up certain goals during the day, what I have to get done and if I if I have ten things I need to get done, if I accomplish 3 or 4, I'm happy because I've accomplished something. So at least there and also between 5 and 7:00 at night, I get most of my work done. And so you. And this is the busy period for you?

Yes it is, yes, I see that. But at the end of the year, excuse me, a piece of end of year, end of year is tough to we have to close everything out. We get everything we can issued and process everything that we can and get everything, uh, you know, on our books and just close out the entire year so it can get tough at times.

Uh, we kind of prep for it all through the out the whole year. I had a conversation with a coworker, I believe it was yesterday. And I've already been thinking about times we're going to work in December of this year. Have you ever like Bob Cratchit, do you have to work on Christmas Eve or anything? No, no. We always like our closed Christmas Eve and Christmas Day if it comes into falls on a weekday.

So we we make sure a family comes first. That's another thing about Catholic life. The, the a lot of things we do around here. We work, we work, we work. But we have a good community connection here at Catholic Life. Uh, we have a good rapport. Uh, I've always used to tell my family and friends that it's it's really something.

When the president and the CEO of a company can walk up to you and say, hey, how's your husband, Fred? How how are you doing that? And that. And that's one of the big things that I do like about Catholic life, is that feeling of family and openness and that we can all connect very well. It's, uh, we get together, at least the whole company once a month for what they call it.

It's just a team meeting, and we communicate that way. Uh, a lot of companies can't do that. And I think that's something great. We make sure that we try to communicate in other ways. We have a lot of community service. We do some volunteer opportunities. Uh, the flag day is great. It's it's it's very interesting that every time I've gone to Flag Day here now for close to 30 years, and every time that flag goes up, I just feel something very warm inside it really.

It sounds corny, but I actually do. And I always just love seeing that. And I just love that that I can say, yes, we are the company with the flag, but we offer so much more.


00:32:46.450 — 00:32:50.209
When we walk through the doors every morning is a common thought. But


00:32:51.530 — 00:33:24.130
I'm sorry, what's going through your head when you walk through the door? Usually when I walk through the door, the first thing I do here is think what I have to do during my day. And by the time I get to my desk, that changes to 180 degrees because things happen, you know? But I when I walk through it, I try to say, try to meet certain goals if I can.

Uh, sometimes, though, life happens and you just can't. So, uh, I think I'm pretty good on my feet to change directions very quickly. So, uh, that's how I take care of every day.