The lady I signed up yesterday on Carefirst bought GR over the phone - she told her agent she wanted maternity, agent said it was included. Yeah...except GR doesn't offer maternity in MD. Luckly she's on another plan now however if she had become pregnant it would just become a case of "he said she said" and she'd be ass out.
Then it hits me that almost every time a sales rep calls you the conversation is recorded "for quality assurance." Now I know this would be difficult, but I'd like nothing better than if it was made mandatory by either the DOI or all insurance companies that all phone sales be recorded.
You would have to introduce yourself and state the call is being recorded. If any dispute arises you'd have to produce the recorded conversation or your license would be immediately suspended - kinda like declining to take the breathalizer. Better yet - the insurance company immediately gets the recording after each sale. If a client calls into an insurance company those calls are obviously recorded. When I used to do "tele-app" with Assurant all calls were recorded.
I'm not saying you'd need to record every conversation with the client - only the conversation during the online application process. So say you're talking to a prospect and they say "Ok, let's do it." At that point in time you'd have to say "Ok, I can take care of the application process now and we'll now be recorded for quality assurance."
You would then be required to go over the rate and plan benefits. How many sales would an ethical rep lose? None and in fact some clients would feel an addition layer of safety knowing that what they're being told about the plan is recorded. Unethical agents? The day after recording became mandatory they'd be looking in the classified section.
For what it's worth, I'll be writing a letter recommending this to the NAIC. As online sales increase, and more people get screwed, our entire industry is put in jeopardy. This is gonna be an example where the few bad applies ruin it for everyone else.
5 comments:
Looks like you are finally hitting that "30 leads a day" plan. Are you still using Gary's CRM system? Can you give us an update on it? Thanks.
I'll be using Gary's system probably starting on Monday. Lisa's getting her internet service hooked up today.
I had a woman come in the other day and when we were discussing the underwriting process you could tell she only wanted to reveal certain things. I told her to reveal everything, I remembered your post at the insurance forum where you urged us to have them reveal everything or it would be discovered later and they'd be out of luck. Now I wish I had recorded that.
Recording conversations is an excellent idea. Not only does it add a layer of protection for the client, but it also provides an opportunity for the idea to critique his or her phone skills.
Very good point Lisa - it really protects the agent if a client comes back and says "but I told my agent I had arthritis."
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