Insurance Customer Service Training is underrated in the insurance industry today. I think 10-20 years ago it was highly valued but I think people got tired of it.
Those doing the service got tired of hearing “the customer is always right”. Today we know the customer isn’t always right, but we haven’t quite learned how to handle it.
We need to be educating our clients and that is how we give great customer service. Instead, some agents try to talk down to customers and just tell them what they should buy.
They need to be educating them on what they need so they understand the value of the insurance coverage they have. We have seen it over and over again, training is not common in insurance agencies.
Of course, the new person shadows several agents to get up to speed, but no real formal training. If your agency has formal training you should feel blessed, I would say about 85% only have internal shadowing.
We cannot expect new people who come to an agency to know how to answer the phone and speak to customers properly. We have to demonstrate and train them and that is how wow customer service is built.
We have a foundational course that is all about the 10 processes that insurance agencies should train on.
They are Phone Techniques, Effective Claims Servicing, New Business Strategies,
Handling Renewals, Reduce Remarketing, Stop Policy Cancellations, Handling payments with ease, Proven Documentation Tasks, Bionic Proof of Insurance Tactics, and Effective Endorsement Activities.
Customer service is more than just knowing what insurance is. You must be able to talk and relate to people and most importantly explain insurance.
In more simple terms, how should customer service look for each of these?
- Phone Techniques -Greeting, tone of voice, empathy, listening, not interrupting
- Effective Claims Servicing – time frames, know where to find information
- New Business Strategies – Sales techniques, follow up
- Handling Renewals – Renewal lists, how to review a policy
- Reduce Remarketing – Reviewing policies first, How to deter remarkets
- Stop Policy Cancellations – How to talk to the client about why they want to cancel, how to deter them, and convince them of your and your agency’s value
- Handle payments with ease – Putting clients of EFT and pay in full, deterring walk-in and call-in payments (time wasters)
- Proven Documentation Tasks – How and when to document a client file properly
- Bionic Proof of Insurance Tactics – Guiding customers to use portals to get proof of insurance or using forms instead of the client expecting it immediately
- Effective Endorsement Activities – How to do endorsements and prioritize them
How do you make your agency’s Customer Service Eccentric? Great question!
You can probably start by reviewing your phone automation!
Does your automated system take the customer in circles? Can they get to where they need to quickly without having to jump through hoops? How is the customer greeted? Is your website inviting? Think of all the ways your customer comes in contact with your staff. How can you make that experience golden?
Once the customer has passed that step and they are now in contact with your agency, what are your agency greetings? Kelly’s favorite one is “Hi this is Therese at XYZ agency, how can I make this the best call of your day?” How can anyone be mad after hearing that?
But make a greeting that everyone uses so your agency sounds professional with everyone on the same page, customers will notice.
Once the customer is on the phone, in your office, or on your website what is their experience like? Are we listening attentively, are we building rapport? Do we know their name and USE IT while speaking to them? Do they know our agency name and our names?
All of this makes a huge difference to the customer and can be a game changer in our agency.
These items build VALUE, if your customers trust you and your agents they will stick with your agency through anything as long as you are educating them and making them aware of what is happening and how things are changing. One call a year can make all the difference.
Use our Call Grading Form to determine how you or your staff are doing on calls.
Sometimes customers are needy and demanding, but you know what, that means they need us even more and if we train them properly one day they can become top-tier excellent clients because we guide them and educate them.
Think about those customers that had only an auto, you sold them a home and then an umbrella, it is almost like they grew up in your agency, and now look at them, I hope they have a life policy too 🙂. Insurance Customer Service Training should also include cross-selling 🙂
When we listen to a client how do we listen? Are we rolling our eyes, actively listening and making mental notes, taking notes in the management system, or scrolling on our social media?
I hope the answer was taking notes or actively listening! In today’s world, we are all multi-tasking while we use our cell phones. Cell phones have a place at work and it is your desk drawer! Don’t allow them to be your distraction while a customer needs us.
Make sure we listen and then summarize back to the client so they are aware we understand and can find a solution.
Why is it important to understand products? Guess what, we have a new course Q1 2024 all about coverages and it has coverage explanation documents, it is a game changer!!!!
Why is knowing how to explain coverage important? If we don’t know the coverage, how are we going to educate the client? Be sure to use your co-workers and leaders and ask a lot of questions.
At my first agency, the CEO owned a moving truck. He insisted that no matter who drove it, their personal auto policy would cover the insurance if it was damaged.
He was one of those I know everything about insurance types, you know the kind! Well, when I moved to another agency I found out that is not true.
Because of the size of the vehicles, it would not have been covered. He lent that truck to all of us and his customers.
Thank goodness nothing ever happened. Most of his agents were then telling customers similar things about renting U-Hauls.
So we have to be careful. I doubted this for years, but finally gave in and also told clients this. When I found out he was wrong I was mortified.
When in doubt, look it up. In today’s day in age, information is everywhere. We can “google” things, and we can use AI, but the information is truly at our fingertips.
Make sure you are listening carefully to the seasoned Insurance veterans, but ask questions and look things up too.
Verbal communication in Insurance Customer Service Training, YIKES!
This can be a scary term for some people. I was not a big phone person when I started my career in the insurance industry!
I was better at speaking on the phone in Spanish than in English because I had so much practice with that.
But practice makes perfect. I just kept answering the phone and listening and learning and getting better.
Don’t be discouraged if you are new to this, everyone needs to start somewhere. I applaud you for trying and persevering! Keep going, listen to what others say, and when you hear a good conversation, steal those ideas to make your phone call game better.
Written communication skills and email etiquette in Insurance Customer Service Training are even harder concepts.
These 2 are putting something in writing so not only do you need to be professional, but you also need to use good language, and grammar skills AND you have to be careful that what you say is accurate.
Recorded conversations can be held against you, but written words can really be held against you. If you aren’t good at email etiquette and writing, ask for help, use email templates that someone else has created, and have someone proofread your work, BEFORE sending it to a client.
I find writing in English easy because I went to college in Guatemala. I had a writing class in Spanish, man it was hard! I still mix up “la” and “el” all the time.
I find it important not to explain too much and be wordy. You need a greeting too. Don’t jump right to business. Hello, how are you, or hello, hope you are well, are two great sentences to use.
Once again don’t forget AI, you are so lucky that today you can ask AI to write emails for you and it will do pretty well. Try it!
Ever thought to yourself, oh no the phone is ringing again, what if they…….??????!!!!!! Yes, all of us have at one point or another, whether it was our first day or a long day.
Insurance Customer Service Training MUST include how to answer customer questions. First, listen to what the customer needs and summarize it back to them.
Then if you know the answer, educate the customer and tell them. If you do not know the answer, let the customer know you are not sure and you need to consult the carrier or another agent in your office or even an underwriter.
Give the customer a “by when” date and time and put it on your calendar to call them back at that time, or have someone else call them back, but keep your promise, if you will not be giving them the answer call them at the agreed time and tell them that.
ALWAYS keep your word.
Resolving issues and managing complaints is a hard topic in customer service. No one wants to deal with upset customers. The first thing you need to learn is empathy “I understand”, NOT “I am sorry”, you have nothing to be sorry for, you didn’t do anything wrong, and when you use the word sorry you let the customer know you are accepting fault.
Save your sorry’s for your own mistakes. Use the CENT acronym:
- Confirm: I understand completely
- Engage: You’re on the same team
- Neglect: What would happen if we neglected this opportunity?
- Teach: The best teachers ask questions
Let’s go through some examples of these.
I am not interested:
| Confirm | I understand completely. |
| Engage | I’m sure you weren’t thinking about moving your policy today. |
| Neglect | However, I’d hate to see you spend more money and time on your insurance than you have to. |
| Teach | Looking at your account, I think I can save you a few hundred dollars and some valuable time by only getting 5 pieces of information. Why don’t you let me take a look? |
I can’t afford it:
| Confirm | I understand completely. |
| Engage | I know that additional insurance policies may not have been in your budget. |
| Neglect | However, I’d hate to see you be disappointed in the event of a claim. |
| Teach | The funny thing about insurance is that often, a very small investment can provide a lot of value. Why don’t I do a no-obligation quote for you, and you can evaluate the policy once you see the cost? Wouldn’t you agree? |
My spouse handles that:
| Confirm | I understand completely. |
| Engage | I like to consult with my spouse about these types of items, too. |
| Neglect | I know your family’s time is valuable. Why don’t we get the information we need now? |
| Teach | This way, I can share actual figures with your spouse. When is a good time for all of us to connect? |
Let me think about it:
| Confirm | I understand completely. |
| Engage | I like to think about these kinds of decisions, too. |
| Neglect | However, if something were to happen, and you didn’t have the right coverage, I think we would both share some regret. |
| Teach | What I can do is grab a few pieces of information and gather up a quote for you. This way, when considering it, you have all of the details in front of you. How does that sound? |
You can find more of these types of scripts in our agency school, check it out!
One of our most popular Insurance Customer Service Trainings is Agency Efficiency or Time Management Training.
We all have the same number of hours in the day, how are you using yours? I think if we were to reflect on how much time we spend on social media and texting it would be an eye-opener.
Try testing a theory. Have your staff put their phones away for the day and see how much work they get done without them.
Of course some will say my kids can’t reach me, well they should have your office number too. If it is that bad they will call you on the agency number.
These days schools are threatening to do this too. We have become a distracted world. But we need to use our management system, not notepads, have clean desks, tasks should be in the system too.
If we are working in an efficient environment it will make us more efficient. How does your staff work?
Use role-playing as a meeting tool. Have your staff roleplay different scenarios and how they would answer clients to help more inexperienced staff learn and grow with handling upset customers.
Don’t forget to listen to phone calls too. Have staff listen to their own calls alone and reflect on them. They should realize different aspects of the call and then listen to them together and have them tell you what they need to do better.
Do it as a team and they will feel less threatened. And use it to train and get better!
We have a course in the agency school titled the 10 processes, go check it out. You can get it in the school or as a stand-alone course.
We hope this blog helps you look at customer service differently. Make some changes in your agency today to WOW your customers and keep them for life!
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