News Room

Jacksonville Business Journal - April 2008

JACKSONVILLE, FL (April - 2008) -- Happy employees make for happy customers. Jacksonville Business Journal - by Dolly Penland, Correspondent

There's the wrong way to treat employees and then there's the "Brightway."

"There's never a disconnect between how you treat your employees and how you treat your customers,"
said David Miller, president and CEO of Brightway Insurance. "Companies that realize that tend to
succeed. Companies that don't understand that, struggle. We're constantly looking for ways to empower
our people in their jobs. We have a corporate structure in which people are free to work, and we promote
from within."

Brightway posted nearly $31 million in premiums in 2007. Established in 2003, the insurance company
now has 110 employees in 25 offices around the state, with 26 of those employees based in 14 offices in
Northeast Florida.

"Our boss, David Miller, makes it a point every day to come by and just ask how you're doing and to make
sure your day is going great," said Amber Maddox, a registered customer service representative. "They
make you feel appreciated. It's a great place to work."

The company offers its employees professional development training, benefits and more. "If folks need
emergency loans, we do that for free with no interest," Miller said. "We have weekly massage therapy. We
also invest heavily in technology so our customer representatives can work at any office to do
their job. Our phone system routes calls appropriately to where they are sitting. They might spend half the
day in one office and the other half in another office."

Myron Flagler, executive director of the Jewish Community Alliance, is a Brightway client. "They're always
very positive and energetic and happy to serve to make sure their customers are happy," he said.
"Whatever issues you have, whatever questions you have, they're taken care of. That always comes
through in terms of attitude, so that's very telling."

Brightway takes every opportunity to show the employees how much they mean to the company.
For instance, the company did something special every day during last year's Customer Service
Appreciation Week.

"It was an opportunity to show our appreciation to the employees for the service they provided our customers,"
said Laurie Capps, customer services manager. "Each day of the week we had a new theme, with music,
decorations and games, to thank our employees for the work they do every day. One day was a Mexican theme,
'Our service is hot, hot, hot.' We also did a movie them, 'You're the star of the show.'"