In-House Appointment Scheduling: How Effective is it for Insurance Agencies?

Many insurance agents understand the value of conducting consistent customer insurance reviews.

They lead to higher customer retention, customer referrals for new business, cross-selling opportunities, and overall revenue growth.

These appointments between agent and client are essential to the growth of an agency, but when it comes to scheduling these appointments, it can be tedious, time-consuming, and expensive if not done the right way.

Some insurance agencies rely heavily on staff members to handle in-house scheduling, but in-house services can be far more expensive and less effective than outside vendors.

In-house appointment scheduling can fall short in the following ways:

Calling & Appointment Setting Tools

Most offices do not have automated tools to optimize the time spent scheduling appointments.

Some critical tools that many insurance offices lack and most contact centers have are:

• Click-to-call capabilities - they bypass the need to dial each number manually. When calling hundreds of customers, the seconds add up.

• A customer database that will automatically load the next client after a call, keep track of call-back requests, and schedule confirmation calls. A secretary would have to open each file to find the customers’ contact information and notes with this information.

• An integrated calendar that instantly and automatically records appointments as they are scheduled.

All of these great tools work together to increase the number of calls possible per hour and save money over time.

Professional Callers

Anyone who has worked at a call center can tell you that setting appointments is more challenging than you think.

Even though your office staff is calling your customers who already know who you are, it isn’t easy to catch people at a good time and arrange an appointment that fits their schedule.

At times, some people are rude. Mental fatigue can wear on an individual assigned to make the same call repeatedly.

Without proper training or experience, it can be difficult to effectively schedule appointments or handle different types of objections that often come with attempting to set appointments.

Most outsourced contact centers have professionally trained employees with the proper skills and experience to handle all sorts of call situations. They understand the business and perform well at it.

Wage/Costs

Let’s say in-house insurance secretaries are paid an average of about $15 an hour.

If one staff member spends around 20 hours per week making calls, the appointment setting would cost you $1,200 to $1,500 monthly for a single appointment setter!

On top of that, given the reasons already discussed, the hours spent will likely be less effective.

An in-house caller costs much more than you would pay with an external vendor.

Work Schedule

Your staff probably works at the same time as your customers, so contacting them when they are available can be difficult if you do it yourself.

Compared to typical insurance agencies, call centers are open longer, utilizing prime evening hours from 6:00-8:00 PM to reach people you could not contact during the day.

Additionally, external appointment-setting vendors can set up call-backs and be 100% certain that a caller will be available to return the call at a time that would work best for your customers.

If a customer requests a call-back at a time when your caller isn’t working, you won’t be able to return the call.

Overall Thought & Effort

When considering all factors, one of the most impactful things an outsourced appointment-setting service gives you is the freedom to have one less thing on your mind.

You can focus on successfully conducting the policy review, building your client base, and strengthening agent-client relationships while the vendor takes over the stress of setting up appointments.

If you’d like to learn about our appointment-setting services at Engagex, click here!