Rancho Mesa's Unbroken Streak: 17 Years of Excellence Recognized in National Best Practices Competition

Author, Megan Lockhart, Media Communications and Client Services Coordinator, Rancho Mesa Insurance Services, Inc.

Rancho Mesa Insurance Services, Inc., a leading Southern California-based commercial insurance brokerage firm, has been awarded the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America's (Big “I”) Best Practices Agency designation for the seventeenth consecutive year.

An elite group of agencies endure a comprehensive analysis of their methods, practices and financials to determine the best agencies in the industry. Of the roughly 35,000 independent insurance agencies in the U.S., only about 150 across the nation were chosen this year for this distinction. In California, Rancho Mesa is among about a dozen agencies to earn the Best Practices status.

In order to participate, an agency must first be nominated by the Big “I.” Then, it must submit detailed financial and operational information which is analyzed, scored, and ranked objectively based on operational excellence, including: outstanding customer services, growth, stability, and financial management.

The data collected from these Best Practices independent insurance agencies is studied and used to establish benchmarks in which other agencies can measure their performance and adjust their businesses based on the best practices guidelines established through the study.

“This is an award that is difficult to achieve, so I’m particularly proud of our continued efforts. Congratulations one and all for your contributions and efforts,” Rancho Mesa President, Dave Garcia said. 

Each year, the Big “I” publishes its "Best Practices Study" using financial and operational data collected from agencies throughout the United States. The 2023 Best Practices Study will be available later this year. It will include a list of all the Best Practices Agencies by state and the results of the study.

To learn more about what it takes to be a "Best Practices Agency," visit www.independentagent.com/best-practices.

About Rancho Mesa Insurance Services, Inc.

Rancho Mesa was founded in 1998 and is regarded as a leading Southern California insurance agency with recognized expertise in construction, landscape and nonprofit/social services. The company provides its clients with risk management services, comprehensive insurance programs, bonding, and industry specific training.

Rancho Mesa Celebrates 25 Years

Author, Lauren Stumpf, Media Communications & Client Services Specialist, Rancho Mesa Insurance Services, Inc.

On Saturday, July 15, 2023 Rancho Mesa celebrated 25 years of providing risk management solutions to organizations across the country.

The commemoration was hosted at The Skybox at DiamondView Tower in downtown San Diego, CA. The venue provided a beautiful setting, overlooking downtown, the water, and Petco Park.

President Dave Garcia attributed the company’s success to carrier partners, clients, leadership team members including his wife Char, and the entire Rancho Mesa team.

“Thank you all for an amazing event, giving me lifetime memories, and for all that you do to make Rancho Mesa special. You are all a part of me forever,” said Rancho Mesa President Dave Garcia.

The event served as a testament to Rancho Mesa's commitment to excellence, innovation, and unwavering dedication. With 25 years of accomplishments under its belt, Rancho Mesa looks forward to continuing its legacy of providing exceptional insurance services and forging lasting partnerships for many years to come.

SafetyOne™ Releases Updated Features for Custom Toolbox Talk Screens

Author, Megan Lockhart, Media Communications and Client Services Coordinator, Rancho Mesa Insurance Services, Inc.

The SafetyOne™ Mobile and Desktop Application is frequently updated to ensure our clients experience the most current risk management technology. Recently, our developers have released several new features for creating and modifying toolbox talks.

When creating a new toolbox talk in the administrator website, only the toolbox talk name and summary sections are now required. Red boxes appear around these required sections, allowing clients to make their toolbox talks more concise, if desired.

Additionally, when viewing toolbox talks on the mobile app and in final reports, only sections that contain content are displayed on the screen. This simplifies the experience for the end-user and eliminates any empty dropdowns.

Rancho Mesa is also excited to announce that QR codes for toolbox talks will be available in the near future. Employees will have the ability to scan the code and sign toolbox talks on their own devices. The signatures will then collectively display on the final toolbox talk report.

Updates such as these are valuable additions to SafetyOne as Rancho Mesa continually aims to help clients manage their risk and keep their employees safe.

Rancho Mesa Hosts Heat Illness Prevention Workshop

Author, Megan Lockhart, Media Communications and Client Services Coordinator, Rancho Mesa Insurance Services, Inc.

On Friday, June 2, Rancho Mesa held its Heat Illness Prevention Workshop at the Mission Valley Library, presented by Zee Reid from Berkshire Hathaway Homestate Companies.

Attendees enjoyed bagels, pastries, and fresh coffee as they learned best practices for keeping themselves and their employees safe from heat illness on the job site.

Reid covered the symptoms of heat illness, tactics employees should follow to prevent heat-related illness, and how to develop written procedures to avoid heat-related OSHA violations.

Like many of Rancho Mesa’s live workshops, this training is a part of the RM365 Advantage Safety Star™ program. Clients who chose to participate, took the quiz at the end of the presentation and earned credit towards their certification in construction safety.

Rancho Mesa values offering these workshops to promote safety and help clients manage risk.

Our next webinar is Cyber Liability Explained: Hacking Trends for 2023 on Friday, July 14.

About Berkshire Hathaway Homestate Company
The Berkshire Hathaway Homestate Companies (BHHC) are a group of six regional insurance carriers that are part of the Berkshire Hathaway Insurance Group. With more than 40 years in business, BHHC has earned an enviable record of success in the insurance industry that is supported by A.M. Best's highest financial strength rating of A++. Its financial strength provides employees, agency partners, and policyholders the security rarely available in today's marketplace. To learn more, visit www.bhhc.com.

SafetyOne™ Adds Multi-Language Translation to Mobile Forms

Author, Lauren Stumpf, Media Communications & Client Services Specialist, Rancho Mesa Insurance Services, Inc.

The SafetyOne™ Desktop & Mobile App released a new feature that translates external mobile form pages on the client website to 136 languages.

This feature exists on the following two pages:

1. When an external user fills out a mobile form accessed via a QR code or browser link.

2. When an external user views their final report.

For those not yet familiar, Rancho Mesa clients have the ability to collect data using mobile forms via the SafetyOne™ app. These customizable forms can be completed through the mobile app, by scanning a QR Code, or clicking a link in an email. Having mobile forms accessible via QR code or a link allows non-app users to easily complete your company’s forms and submit data electronically.

For example, you can quickly and easily collect visitor information by creating a mobile form and placing its QR code at the entrance of your jobsite or facility.

Some Rancho Mesa clients put QR codes on their company vehicles. They ask their drivers to scan the QR code, and complete a quick vehicle inspection before taking the vehicle. This makes collecting mobile form data simple, and anyone can do it because the mobile app is not needed to complete the form, it is complete on the mobile device’s web browser.

Our developers recognized that not everyone is comfortable filling out mobile forms in English, so they added the ability to translate the mobile forms that are accessed through a QR Code or URL.

The person completing the mobile form can choose from any of the 136 languages, and the form will translate any dropdown list, check box, or prefilled option. Once the form is submitted, it is translated back into English for the SafetyOne™ administrator to review on the admin website. 

So, if you think the end user may prefer another language, consider customizing your mobile forms with predetermined options, so they can choose from your list and the system will translate it for you.

Listen to StudioOne™’s podcast episode 310, as Rancho Mesa’s Alyssa Burley and Megan Lockhart discuss the new mobile form updates in detail.

Rancho Mesa Hosts Fleet Safety Workshop for Vehicle Accident Prevention

Author, Megan Lockhart, Media Communications and Client Services Coordinator, Rancho Mesa Insurance Services, Inc.

On Thursday, May 18, 2023, attendees gathered at the Mission Valley Library for the Fleet Safety: Above and Beyond Compliance workshop, presented by Jose Pineda from Travelers Insurance.

Clients enjoyed a complimentary lunch while Pineda highlighted important vehicle safety strategies and ways organizations can control their risk for fleet-related accidents.

The presentation proved to be both educational and entertaining with lighthearted anecdotes and audience participation. In order to emphasize the dangers of driver multitasking on the road, Pineda picked audience members to attempt spelling their ABC’s while simultaneously counting to 26.

“I’m just trying to prove to you… multitasking cannot happen. Can you go from one task to the other very quickly? Absolutely, but can you do them both? So, someone that tells me that they can be behind the wheel and…look at that phone, answer emails or just use that time as office time, it's not possible and you're going to end up hurting yourself or someone else,” Pineda explained. 

This workshop was part of Rancho Mesa’s RM365 Advantage Safety Star™ Program. At the end of the presentation, attendees were administered a quiz to receive credit towards earning their Safety Star certification.

Rancho Mesa is proud to host workshops on important topics such as these to assist clients in keeping their employees safe and manage their overall risk.

About Travelers Insurance
Travelers has earned a reputation as one of the best property casualty insurers in the industry. Their expertise and focus on innovation has made them a leader in personal, business and specialty insurance and the only property casualty company in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. With 165 years in the business, and approximately 30,000 employees and 13,500 independent agents and brokers in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Ireland, Travelers helps provide peace of mind to its customers every day. To learn more, visit www.travelers.com.

New Updates to Rancho Mesa's SafetyOne™ Mobile Forms

Author, Lauren Stumpf, Media Communications & Client Services Specialist, Rancho Mesa Insurance Services, Inc.

The SafetyOne™ Desktop & Mobile App has released three new field types and one revised field type within its mobile forms feature. These four field types provide Rancho Mesa clients with more flexibility when creating their forms and enforce better structured data, making it easier to fill out forms and manage data within the form.

SafetyOne™ mobile forms can be used for collecting information about an employee injury, a daily jobsite report, checking out equipment, timecard tracking – the uses are limitless.

These forms can collect data like, addresses, dates, numbers, time, text, signatures, sketches, photos, and multiple and single selection options. New field types now include:

1. Dimension Field Type
When creating a mobile form and choosing the dimension field type, the form asks the user to provide a dimension as a numerical value and also to choose what units is to be used, such as feet, inches, miles, square feet, meters and more.

2. Mass Field Type
When creating a mobile form and choosing the mass field type, the form asks the user to provide a weight as a numerical value and also to choose what units to be used such as metric ton, kilogram, grams, or pounds.

3. Temperature Field Type
When creating a mobile form and choosing the temperature field type, the form asks the user to provide a temperature as a numerical value and also to choose what temperature units are being used such as Fahrenheit, Celsius, or the Kelvin scale.

4. Currency Field Types
When creating a mobile form and choosing the currency field type, the form asks the user to provide a numerical value and also to choose from five different currency units. Currency fields will give options for the US Dollar, Euros, Swiss Franc, British Pound, and Canadian Dollar.

Previously, if there was not a specific field type, our clients could use the text or number field to the collect temperature, dimensions, mass, or currency. So, for those who have created custom mobile forms, consider changing out the field types from just a text or number field to one of the new field types so your employees can select the appropriate units for their dimensions, mass, temperature, and currency.

Rancho Mesa Hosts Captive Workshop

Author, Megan Lockhart, Media Communications and Client Services Coordinator, Rancho Mesa Insurance Services, Inc.

Information provided by Captive Resources.

On Thursday, April 20, attendees gathered at Rancho Mesa’s Santee office conference room for the Control Your Insurance Costs with a Captive Workshop, presented by Doug Hayden of Captive Resources.

Hayden explained the benefits of entering a captive and how it can help organizations manage their insurance costs while clients enjoyed a complimentary sandwich lunch.

The presentation welcomed interaction as attendees asked questions regarding how captives work and Rancho Mesa account executives commented on ways their clients have fiscally benefitted from captives.

Rancho Mesa values offering accessible and informative workshops such as these monthly. Our next upcoming workshop is Fleet Safety: Above and Beyond Compliance on Thursday, May 18. Register today.

About Captive Resources
Our mission is to help companies control their insurance costs through the member-owned group captive model. Our industry-leading insurance professionals support every aspect of the group captives they advise, from claims advocacy to operational oversight, risk management, financial services, investment services and more.

Opening Day: Rancho Mesa Employees Are Welcomed Into New Home

Author, Lauren Stumpf, Media Communications & Client Services Specialist, Rancho Mesa Insurance Services, Inc.

Monday, April 25, 2023 was an exciting day for the Rancho Mesa family, as the company officially moved into their new office location in Mission Valley, San Diego, CA.

Three years ago the office separated into 2 locations to accommodate growing staff. Now, the new location’s spacious layout has allowed all employees to finally be reunited under one roof.

President Dave Garcia’s vision was brought to life thanks to Char Garcia, Kim Vasquez, Lori Stone, and Alyssa Burley.

Rancho Mesa's Media Communications & Client Services team Alyssa Burley, Lauren Stumpf, and Megan Lockhart had the honor of recording the first episode in the new StudioOne™ on opening day. The three reflected on the office’s opening day and highlighted exciting new features of Rancho Mesa’s new home. Listen to episode 302 below.

Tree Care Specialist Rory Anderson Panelist During NIP Group Webinar

Author, Lauren Stumpf, Media Communications & Client Services Specialist, Rancho Mesa Insurance Services, Inc.

Rancho Mesa's tree care expert Rory Anderson, alongside fellow industry peer Eric Petersen, were panelists during a recent informative webinar designed specifically for tree care professionals.

The webinar on April 6, 2023 was hosted by NIP Group, a carrier specializing in insurance coverage for the tree care and landscape industries. NIP Group has provided specialized coverage and risk control to the industries for more than 30 years. Rancho Mesa is proud to partner with them to provide our tree care and landscape clients with the best service possible.

During the webinar, Rory and Eric discussed coverages that tree care professionals should have, but might be missing.

"The tree care industry has unique risks that many general policies don't cover,” says Anderson. “It was an honor to be asked to speak on specific coverages and risk management practices for tree care professionals. It's exciting and fulfilling to continue to help the tree care industry."

Thank you NIP Group for hosting a beneficial forum for tree care industry professionals.