How to Outsource an Insurance Call Center Like a Pro
Why do insurance companies outsource their call center to agencies? What are the pros and cons of outsourcing an insurance call center to an agency? And what are the key challenges you are likely to face when you outsource your policyholders’ calls to an agent?
The growth of your insurance agency is largely dependent on the quality of your customer service. Managing policies, reviewing and resolving claims, and taking care of other insurance demands while attending to phone calls can seriously hamper your productivity as an insurance policy provider.
If your insurance firm has enjoyed growth so much that the number of calls, text messages and emails you have got to respond to in a day seems overwhelming and is beginning to pose a distraction and a hindrance to your continued productivity, then it is time to try insurance call center outsourcing.
Getting an insurance call center agency is quite a cost-effective means of handling your customers’ needs and demands. You may be considering hiring more staff and adding to your workforce in order to cater to or strengthen your customer service. But by outsourcing an insurance call center agency, you save yourself the worry and the cost.
Call center agencies have evolved. They are no longer restricted to the conventional answering of calls system anymore. Most call center agencies also respond to text messages, emails, and even social media messages. This can easily be achieved through nearshore outsourcing.
What is nearshore outsourcing?
What is nearshore outsourcing and how does it work? Nearshore outsourcing is when an organization recruits employees from a neighboring country to complete services.
To make the right choice when outsourcing an insurance call center agency, there are certain things you would need to put into consideration. It is important to note that your call center plays an important role in the growth and success of your insurance company as much as other operations do.
Therefore, you do not want to outsource your insurance call center to just any call center agency. You will need to diligently observe prospective call center agencies and ensure they meet your company’s standards.
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Before we go into what features and qualities a call center agency should possess before they are worthy of being outsourced for your insurance call center, let’s discuss some of the benefits of outsourcing your insurance call center.
5 Benefits of Outsourcing Your Insurance Call Center
1. Saves Cost
It saves your firm a lot of money because outsourcing your call center prevents you from having to hire more staff to handle your calls. Your insurance call management is not the only insurance service you can outsource but doing it will definitely save you cost.
2. Extended Service Hours
Outsourcing your call center to an agency often guarantees an extended amount of service hours. Most insurance call center agencies offer a 24 hours a day, 365 days a year service. Thereby allowing your customers to call in at any time.
3. Improved Call Quality
An insurance call center is expected to employ only experts and professionals who understand how the insurance industry works and are skilled in customer service. This is important so that your customers can get their complaints resolved and questions answered.
Improved quality of calls and responses can significantly help your insurance firm achieve customer satisfaction which ultimately translates to loyal customers.
4. Saves Time
When you outsource your call center, it saves you time and gives you the liberty to focus on more profitable operations that will directly improve your company’s productivity. Outsourcing your calls makes it easier for you to process claims at the quickest time possible.
5. Improved Call Center Attention
The challenge of keeping customers on hold because other customer service representatives are busy is eliminated when you outsource to insurance call center agents. You do not have to keep your customers on hold as agents provide better and faster call center attention.
Seeing how important it is to outsource a call center agency, here are a couple of things you should put into consideration before trying out insurance call center outsourcing.
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What to Look Out for When Outsourcing Your Insurance Call Center to an Agency
1. Expertise
There are millions of call center agencies in the world today. As an insurer, you should be on the lookout for insurance call center agencies near you ready for hire and not just any call handling agency. Different call center agencies exist and they perform different functions in different industries. Their job responsibilities differ.
Even among the insurance call center agencies, there are certain dedicated agencies. For instance, there are life insurance call center agencies that are dedicated to serving life insurance companies. Also, there are health insurance call center agencies you can outsource if you run a health insurance company.
For every insurance company, there is a specific call center agency to outsource. The bottom line is, there are no general-purpose call center agencies. Call center agencies carry out industry-specific tasks. Before you outsource your call center, find out what industry the agency has expertise in.
Ensure that the call center agent’s expertise matches your company’s needs.
2. Services Provided by the Agency
There are two kinds of service types every call center agency is expected to provide. They are:
1. Inbound services
2. Outbound services
The nature of the inbound services is such that the call center agency answers customer questions, responds to their complaints, and oftentimes provides technical support. This is another reason why it is important to assess the expertise of a call center agent before outsourcing.
Before you outsource an insurance call center agency, ensure they understand how the insurance industry works, the kind of policies your company offers, and the technicalities associated with filing and resolving claims among others.
The second service type which is called outbound services includes cold calling, compilation of survey data, and other lead generation activities.
Your insurance company’s needs should influence your decision to choose an insurance contact center agency to outsource. Do not randomly settle for a call center agency. Be sure that their services both inbound and outbound perfectly match the needs of your business.
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3. Affordability
The essence of outsourcing an insurance agent call center is to save costs. You should not be breaking the bank when trying to outsource an insurance contact center. The process should be cost-effective and affordable for your company.
After making sure the agency meets the service requirements of your insurance company, check if your company meets the cost requirements of the agency. A yardstick to use in measuring the cost-effectiveness of outsourcing an insurance agency is that the cost is far lesser than hiring additional staff.
4. Staff Recruitment Process
How the insurance call agency recruits its staff is a pointer to the kind of services they provide. Get a detailed breakdown of the recruitment process a call center agency adopts to be sure you are working with experienced professionals.
5. Reporting
One of the responsibilities of a call center agency is reporting. They should provide summary reports on total calls answered, time spent on active calls, time of session login and logout, idle time that is the time spent waiting for calls, and wrap-up time.
Even though you are outsourcing the call center, they are not acting outside of your guidance. Learn how the insurance agency conducts reporting and summary submissions. It must be detailed, apt, and timely.
Above all, outsourcing your call handling to an insurance call center agency will speed up your work process and radically improve your productivity which would definitely scale up your profit.
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We are sure this article will help you if you are looking for a guide on how to open an insurance call center.
