Do you train your team on customer service strategies for the insurance industry? If you’re like many agencies, training your service team seems impossible! There is never any time; it’s hard to pull the team off the phones, and let’s face it, finding engaging training content is difficult! 

However, we should think of it this way: service professionals are by far the majority of agency staff. Yet, there is little training for customer service team members. That just seems to be unfair!

We train producers and agency owners, but the service team is missing out on valuable customer service strategies for the insurance industry. We want to change that ASAP. 

APP Update

Why Training Customer Service Insurance Representatives a Challenge?

Did you ever want to invest the time into training your customer service team, but you run into challenges that stop your progress? Working with your team on customer service strategies for the insurance industry can seem daunting, but we have some training solutions for your team!

• Training Needs to Be Interactive: Everyone loves role-playing, right? Not at first, but people come around. We have our FFT principal – the freaking first time you role play it’s overwhelming! By the 10th time, it becomes more comfortable. Suppose role-playing makes you too nervous. How about dissecting a customer service case study? You want to make sure there is interaction and dialogue. 
• Training Needs to be Consistent: Training is like showering. You need to do it routinely to make it work! Many agencies conduct training when it’s beyond required, like a problem! We recommend you take a portion of your team meetings and dedicate it to training your team. 
• There Never Seems To Be Time For Training: It’s not easy to pull your service team off the phones to train them. It’s either too hard to find the time, or the person who would be the trainer struggles to find the time to build the training. Either way, the team suffers because they aren’t given the best tools. The exciting thing is that when you train the team, the problems that most managers are dealing with decrease. 
• We Focus Training On the Wrong Things: Training tends to be strict to coverages, technology, and carriers. All are great, but we miss the soft skills of the service team. We don’t train on how to decline to quote someone, handle an upset customer, or discuss the rate. 

If you find training hard, let our Agency School or training teamwork with your agency!

12 Customer Service Strategies for the Insurance Industry

1. Customer Team Role = Relationship Builder

Many customer service team members see themselves as here to serve the customer. The challenge is the definition of customer service varies for every person. At APP, we believe a customer service professional is a relationship builder. There are customer service team members, and there are customer service professionals.

Customer service professionals aim to do more than a transaction. Customer service professionals build relationships, solve problems and educate clients about issues they didn’t know they even had – they suggest solutions. To truly thrive in the industry, you have to be more than a transaction.

2. Right Vs. Fast

There’s a misbelief in customer service that giving good service is being as efficient with the client’s time as possible. We disagree.

A customer service strategy for the insurance space is to be efficient AND effective, not just efficient. It’s hard to handle client service requests fast. Even with changing a vehicle, there are, easily, 12 questions that need to be asked.

Your goal is to build relationships and to do the best job for the client. No one wants to be fast and wrong – especially when insurance is supposed to be there on the worst days of a client’s life.

3. Focus on What the Policy Is Insuring

Many clients don’t necessarily care about the insurance policy – they’re buying the policy for the thing it insures. For example, my husband isn’t excited about his race car insurance policy. He’s excited about the race car – the thing the insurance policy insures.

He loves that his tools are covered and that the insurance company specializes in people like him – race car enthusiasts. He knows the policy only covers a few things, but he loves that car – not the policy. 

4. The Client Is Entitled to Their Feelings

Insurance is complicated, confusing, and sometimes frustrating. Heck, we, sometimes have the same feelings on insurance and we’re in the insurance business! As a customer service professional, your goal isn’t to be right; it’s to help the client find a solution.

The best customer service agents have a stomach of steel. This means they have thick skin and can take frustrated clients in stride. They look at their role to convert the client’s challenges into solutions. True customer service professionals do not take any frustration personally.

Frustration motivates them to take a challenging situation and convert it into an opportunity to create a raving fan.  

“Remember, the best job goes to the person who can get it done without passing the buck or coming back with excuses.” – Napoleon Hill, Author “Think and Grow Rich”

5. First Impressions Matter

When clients call their insurance agency, it’s generally because of a problem or question. It’s probably not the highlight of their day. Think about it. You buy a new car, calling about insurance isn’t exciting. Most clients call every 2.8 years, meaning almost every interaction is the first impression.

When your team has a lackluster greeting, it sours your client. You need to be professional and cheerful. Clients deserve the best first impression, especially when they aren’t always excited to connect on insurance. This is an opportunity to impress and set the call off on the best foot.

This includes screening the call to ensure the caller gets connected to the best person to help them with their insurance matter (hint : this isn’t always who the caller asks for).

6. If It’s Not In the Management System It Didn’t Happen

It is impossible to give WOW customer service without clear, accurate, real-time documentation in the agency’s management system. There is no way around it. Customers should be able to speak to any agency team member and get excellent customer service.

The reality is that agents do not always remember interactions, and if their documentation is in a notebook, it’s impossible for everyone to help and assist. In our customer service training, we discuss how selfish it is not to document your file in real time and with excellent notes. 

Bonus Resource: Improve your customer service experience.

7. We Can’t Care More About The Client’s Insurance Than They Do

There is a concept in customer service where we have to provide everything for the client, and the responsibility for their insurance is on our shoulders. At APP, we disagree with this customer service strategy in insurance. We believe we need a solid follow-up strategy that we consistently execute across all clients. We simply cannot bend over backward for some clients and not for others.

We must have healthy boundaries. In many instances, we take on more responsibility from the client than we should. The carrier is also contacting them with underwriting memos or for payment. To thrive, we need to provide clear but not continuous customer service follow-ups.

8. No Apologies

If there is one thing I hate to hear on a recorded insurance call, it’s – I’m sorry. I’m sorry your rate increased, you didn’t pass inspection, and there is a late payment fee. We all need to stop with apologies. You apologize only when there has been an error that you created.

As a customer service professional, you do not apologize unless there is something to apologize for. When you apologize, you admit guilt or fault. The reality is most customer service challenges aren’t the agency’s fault. The challenge generally lands on the client’s activity or a carrier decision. You only apologize when there was a personal error. Save your apologies for the right moment.

9. Focus is on the Outcome Not the Task

I see many customer service representatives trying to crush the stack of work as quickly as possible. A great example is a client calling in to make a payment; the customer service representative takes the payment. This is an example of completing a task. If you focus on the outcome of the call, you would confirm their contact information, offer to convert them to EFT, and make a recommendation for another policy or coverage.

That’s the stark difference between an outcome rather than a task. Another area I see customer service professionals fall into the task trap is sending a client an email rather than having a phone call. Sounds crazy, right? A standard strategy customer service team members may practice is to email the client “so it’s all documented”. Emails don’t always tell the full story, and it’s harder to solve the client’s problem generally.

A better customer service strategy for the insurance industry would be to talk and engage with the client and then send an email to recap the conversation.

10. Raise Your Hand

To give WOW customer service, it must be a team sport. Too often, customer service departments don’t truly work like a team. A team is there to win the day together. If one member is backlogged, everyone jumps in. The challenge we see is that a lot of agencies operate as silos.

We believe that clients should have their expectations met, even if that requires teamwork. This means operating as a true team and load balancing where necessary. At APP, we have a saying; raising your hand for help is a sign of courage, not weakness. Raise your hand if you need help delivering on a client’s expectations.

Missing expectations may cause bad online reviews, lost policies, or client dissatisfaction. Don’t let your ego get in the way. Agency leaders need to find a way to encourage asking for help to find solutions. 

11. The Nana Principal

Insurance has a lot of jargon. If you remember when you started in insurance, it was like learning a new language. After a few years, all the words like endorsement, comprehensive, and subrogation are second nature.

However, when we get on the phone with a client and use these words, we end up confusing our client. When you confuse, you lose. Many clients won’t admit when they’re not clear on what you’re talking about because they’re embarrassed.

They’ve purchased insurance for several years, and not knowing the terms makes it a bit of a challenge. One of our insurance customer service strategies is the Nana Principal. That means you speak to your clients like you would your Nana.

You wouldn’t use complicated terms with Nana – don’t use them with your customers!

“If you just communicate, you can get by. But if you communicate skillfully, you can work miracles.” – Jim Rohn, Author and Motivational Speaker

11. Everyone’s Role Is Agency Growth
This could be one of the best customer service strategies for the insurance industry. Every single role can help the agency grow – even non-licensed roles. Every team member can:

a. Ask for referrals
b. Tee-up opportunities
c. Ask for online reviews

We must break down the idea that growth and sales come only from producers – this is a falsehood that needs to end now. Every team member must be growth-minded for agencies to excel and succeed. 

Conclusion

You can train insurance customer service representatives on specific strategies, but the actual place you want to start training is on your service philosophies. Philosophies help to empower your team on how to make decisions.

Once your service team masters the philosophies of Insurance Customer Service Strategies, service training takes route must faster!