No two insurance agencies are alike; one might have issues with customer service while the other might want to decrease its quote processing time. One thing is for sure: both of these insurance agencies require help from someone who is proficient in these tasks and that won’t cost them an arm and a leg. As an insurance agency, if you hire someone locally for, say, decreasing quoting processing time, but you suddenly require help in another niche field such as customer service, you’re probably going to have to hire a new employee. This is mainly because your old employee that was hired for a specific job, might not have expertise in the other area you want them to fill in.
Observing these problems, insurance professionals in the insurance industry came up with a convenient solution known as Edge Ambassadors. Edge Ambassadors are remote, full-time, pre-trained employees that are proficient in insurance-specific tasks including front and back-office work. Ambassadors are 50 percent more cost-effective than local hires, and more efficient because of their prior training. Their training across multiple roles and responsibilities allows you to place them wherever you like in your business, and then change their positions depending on how your business evolves.
To Read More About Our Ambassadors’ In-Depth Training, Click Here.
Susman Insurance Agency
One of our Ambassadors was matched with Susman Insurance Agency, a California-based insurance agency that provides different types of insurance such as home and auto, umbrella, earthquake, and commercial lines for customers in California. While their operations span a whole State, their team is compact, consisting of 14 members in total.
The Issue
Susman Insurance Agency was facing a problem with their phone call management. The restructuring of their call management left them with empty gaps that needed to be filled immediately. Afterall, in a cut-throat space like the insurance industry, a missed call can mean the loss of that customer forever. In fact, according to aircall.io, “Roughly 85% of people whose calls are not answered will not call back.” What this means is that once that customer’s call is unanswered, you can kiss them goodbye. Aircall.io also states that “Around 70% of people will stop dealing with a firm whose customer service is not up to scratch and more than 60% will go on to do business with a rival company.”
Susman Insurance Agency was aware of the importance of making sure that no client’s call is ever missed. Hence, they put their trust in our Ambassador.
The Solution
Our Ambassador was able to fill in the gaps that their customer service department was facing. However, just keeping an eye on the phone is not enough these days. In order to be useful to the business, your customer service department needs to have the right training. And as a business, you expect your customer service employees to provide quality care to your customers so that they keep coming back for more. Our Ambassador was able to fulfill Susman’s requirement of needing an employee that could both fill in the time gaps, and provide expert customer service.
Our Ambassador reported a substantial reduction in call-drop issues after their joining Susman. Their prior training in customer service etiquette and other relevant soft skills allowed them to start the job at Susman running; they did not have to divert any major resources or time to train our Ambassador.
Alongside manning the phone, our Ambassador was also tasked with helping out filling certain forms. In Susman, customers are provided with a form to fill out if they’re requesting a quote. However, sometimes, especially with the older population, they’re not comfortable with computers and technology, and hence they struggle with this process. Susman put trust in our Ambassador to call these customers up, and talk them through the process of requesting a quote. A call like this requires patience and the ability to extract vital information in as little time as possible; both these requirements were fulfilled by our Ambassador. If Susman wanted any additional information to be filled out, they would ask our Ambassador to call the client up.
Increased Ambassador Responsibilities
At the start of their journey with Susman, our Ambassador was limited to only what the client required immediately, such as touching up documents, taking care of telephone calls and correcting some quotes. However, our Ambassador’s training and competence soon made them a trustworthy and reliable asset for the insurance agency. Over time Susman’s trust in our Ambassador increased to the point where now they have been given independence with their work.
Our Ambassador is scarcely required to get their work double checked; on the contrary, our Ambassador is now able to directly respond to customer service requests by providing customers with documentation, answering basic billing questions, and assisting them with other queries they might have.
Since our Ambassadors are trained in the most commonly found tasks at insurance agencies, they’re quick to start working effectively. Susman realized our Ambassador’s potential and gave them access to their agent portal in hopes that our Ambassador’s expertise could assist in that department as well. What this resulted in was the ability for our Ambassador to cut time drastically by accessing documents submitted by carriers instead of having to call them up and ask for the documents each time.
All of this goes to show that Susman was able to put their trust in our Ambassador because of their competence and efficacy. While initially our Ambassador was given trivial tasks, over time their role with Susman has evolved into something that is pivotal to the insurance agency’s success.
Day To Day At Susman’s
Our Ambassador’s roles and responsibilities have changed dramatically since they joined Susman Insurance Agency over a year ago. Nowadays, our Ambassador logs in to work at 8 AM. The first hour is spent checking pending tasks so that they can start the day with a clean slate. Soon after, calls start coming in and our Ambassador deals with any concerns customers might have. Other duties that our Ambassador does is enter data into the CRMs, schedule meetings and appointments, prepare renewal files, work on assorted policies and make sure that the client files in QQ are updated.
As you can see, our Ambassador doesn’t just fulfill one role. Because of their extensive training, they’re like chameleons in your insurance agency; it doesn’t matter if you need help with filling out quotes or acord forms, communicating with clients, or keeping your data up to date, our Ambassador does it all.
