Insurance agents who regularly meet with their customers know that it’s crucial to find an appointment setting process that works consistently and effectively.
Some hire additional staff members to make the calls, others use their existing staff, and many outsource to a 3rd party.
For those who have contemplated outsourcing, here’s a list of 5 signs indicating that your agency could benefit from outsourced appointment setting.
Sign #1: You’re short-staffed.
Being short-staffed can quickly put anyone into panic mode.
You might think that being short-staffed is a sign that you can’t handle appointments - which might be the case, but isn't necessarily.
Depending on how you’re handling things in the office, using an outside vendor for appointment setting can actually supplement your agency’s capacity to stay on top of things.
Instead of putting the pressure on yourself to hire someone to set appointments, try outsourcing instead!
Not only will you save precious energy and time, it’s also less expensive to outsource appointment setting than having someone do it in-house.
Sign #2: Your licensed team members use their time to make appointment setting calls.
When you have licensed staff members in your agency, the last thing you want to do is under-utilize them.
If your licensed staff members are making appointment setting calls, they’re left with less time to handle higher-level tasks that they’re licensed to do.
If you have a large enough book of business, having your licensed staff members help conduct the appointments can be a much more productive and rewarding experience for them.
Not to mention, there are real, monetary benefits to having your staff conduct annual insurance reviews - learn more in this post: The Monetary Benefits of Training Your Agency Staff Members to Conduct Customer Insurance Reviews.
Sign #3: Your in-house staff members aren’t setting enough appointments.
There are a few reasons agents notice that Engagex sets more appointments than their in-house staff members.
We have the ability to call after regular business hours.
Your staff is most likely only making calls during the workday when people are at their jobs or otherwise busy.
We don’t have preconceived notions about any of your customers.
For example, your staff has had experiences with your customers - not just the happy ones.
There might be clients that your team (or even yourself) hesitates to call.
Since our callers aren’t aware of this, we’re usually more successful at getting them in for an appointment.
We’ve been setting appointments for over 15 years. That’s a lot of experience to learn from.
Check out the 11 Critical Lessons We’ve Learned from 15+ Years of Experience Scheduling Insurance Appointments if you’re curious.
As one of our customers, Kermit Walker, said:
“The format and method they have has been proven. It works, you get the appointments - they even get appointments that I can’t set myself.”
“I’ve had better responses from my clients from their [engagex] calls than I’ve had in the past when I’ve used my own office staff.”
- Dennis Anderson
“Even with me making phone calls and leaving messages along with my team members, it’s just not as effective as you guys doing it.”
- Derek Vannelli
Sign #4: Your agency’s appointment setting efforts keep getting put on the back burner.
As you know, day-to-day operations include handling urgent tasks and matters as they arise.
When these urgent tasks arise, usually, the first thing to be put on hold is your appointment setting calls.
Without consistent efforts to set these appointments, you’ll see that fewer appointments are scheduled, and the motivation and drive to keep holding review appointments can fizzle down to nothing.
By outsourcing these tedious calls, you can know that no matter how busy things get from day to day, outreach is happening, and appointments are being set.
Sign #5: You want to increase productivity AND capacity in your agency.
According to Insurance Journal, agency personnel is the biggest single expense in an insurance agency - costing anywhere from 52% to 73% of revenue.
“This means if a firm can get more work done with fewer employees, then the savings drop to the bottom line. For example, if a firm can increase revenues by 10 percent without increasing staff then that 10 percent is mostly profit.” (Insurance Journal)
By taking appointment setting off your team’s plates, you open their availability to produce more and service your customers.
*data based on industry averages
You also save money by spending much less outsourcing the appointment scheduling instead of hiring an additional staff member. This could even give you the flexibility to raise compensation for your licensed staff members.
If you could cut costs, raise your team’s pay, and STILL have a full calendar of appointments coming in, wouldn’t that be amazing?
Outsourcing your appointment setting is an inexpensive, effective way to have a consistent flow of appointments.
It helps increase your office capacity, gets your current customers in front of you, and frees up your staff to do more rewarding work (for them AND your agency.)