It’s apparent that many companies aren’t spending training time on agents. Teaching ways for their agents to gracefully bow out of a call to a wrong contact. Or when the contact they reach says they aren’t right for the product due to lack of interest. Implementing contact center solutions for insurance is a great way to cover this need.
Real example of poor customer service
Agent using nice Smile and Tone: “Hi is this _____? This is ___ from ____ Insurance providers. We provide Health Insurance benefits for small businesses and individuals.”
Person called responds in friendly tone: “Hi (Agent’s name)…I’m only a one person business and I’m already covered by my spouse’s insurance policy. So I’m not a good prospect for your company.”
Agent sounding irritated: “well OK… (click)”
This call was reminiscent of the bad telemarketing calls made from “boiler room” type operations years ago. This contact centers trained agents to have a “hit and run” philosophy. Hence, affecting customer experience.
It was evident that the agent understood how to create a nice first impression.Given the way that she opened the conversation and identified herself. Perhaps she received training and coaching on this. Or maybe it is her natural style of communication when greeting someone.
Once the agent experienced rejection, her tone changed completely. The agent was done and saw no need to end the call positively. Her focus was clearly on the here and now immediate results. Regardless of the impression she left with that prospect.
As we know, today our prospects and customers won’t tell only ten people about the bad experience they had. They will broadcast it on Social Media to hundreds, even thousands of people.
Agent training for improved customer satisfaction
Another example of poor “non-customer” experience is when an agent calls and the person they are trying to contact isn’t available. It usually goes something like this:
Agent: “Hi..Is Mr. (name) available. This is (Agent name) from (company)?”
Person answering phone: “No he isn’t. Can I take a message?”
Agent using flat tone: “I’ll call back” (hang up click)
It adds little time to the calls to use polite phrases. Such as “Thank you but I’ll just call him/her back later. Is there a good time to reach him/her?”
We hope you’ll start covering this during training and coaching these skills too. If your training program doesn’t include discussion and role-play. Benefits related to creating a great “Prospect Experience” with those who don’t buy. We should be creating a positive experience, showing appreciation to and interest in every person we are in contact with.
A wonderful mentor always said and rightly so …”Today’s no may be tomorrow’s yes”!
