All of the common agency frustrations can be solved by one simple fix. Get your phone calls recorded! You can then hear if your team is handling the calls to your standards; it’s really quite amazing. In addition, recording your agency’s calls allows you to provide teachable moments to your team. So what are you waiting for?
I know what you are waiting for; for this to be easy. It’s true; your team won’t like their calls being recorded. And if you think you’re too busy to listen to the calls, you’re wrong. You can download the calls to your iphone and listen to them in the car or at the gym. You have to make time for what is important. Maybe you are scared to address your team; it will get easier.
In my experience of listening to hundreds of calls, this is the only thing that ever brought people’s bad habits from feelings to facts. It’s a fact that when you ask for referrals you get them but if no one is asking we don’t get as many as we could! One of the biggest mistakes that I consistently see happen in independent agencies is the mishandling of a new inbound lead. The receptionist sends people to voicemail, asks the person to call back or tells them to call tomorrow. This is a new hot lead; we need to hop on it! Recording your calls will allow you to clearly see where your inefficiencies are within the agency.
When you do listen to the calls, it’s going to be a two drink minimum. You need to resist the urge to react. Most likely this has been going on for years. Instead of reacting, share only good calls with the team. This will make sure they see this as a positive experience. Then send the team 3-5 calls per month to review on their own and talk about them. You will start to see improvement immediately. Many sales and service team members may have never had training on how to handle certain situations. It lies on the agency owner to consistently train and coach the team.
Getting your calls recorded is easy. You can contact your phone provider or even get one recorded line and place it on your website to get a sampling of calls recorded. Here is the great news, we have a call review package with secret shopper calls, call scoring sheets and real call reviews. Contact us today to learn more!
