One of the best sources of reducing new E&O errors, driving revenue and boosting retention is account rounding. We all know people’s lives change and most clients do not understand what they really need for insurance. That’s why we exist. To get your CSRs to account round we need understand their day:
- They come in every day not knowing what may pop up
- They have to be air traffic controllers of communication-email, activities, calls, mail etc
- When they sell account rounds it causes them more work
- With 20 things in cue it’s hard to slow down and ask the questions
- Their personality types generally shy away from asking for the business, they would rather solve problems
- Too often the CSRs are hit with rate bullets from clients which leads them to believe that no one else has money for insurance
So what we know in advance we can help solve. The first thing we need to do is give the team a new job title. Customer Service Rep means they are servicing an account, where an Account Manager means they are there to manage your insurance! CSR sounds like a service role, Account Manager means they are driving their relationship. Here are 10 things you can do to encourage your team to account round:
- Upgrade their job titles
- Make account reviews mandatory
- Set an account rounding goal
- Provide immediate recognition when someone gets a new account round
- Provide immediate incentives for the account rounding (not a commission split)
- Provide a list of 5 monoline accounts and ask the team to contact them each week
- Create a board to track results. The more times people walk by it, the more they will remember
- Create healthy competition in the team. A little competition can drive results
- Train them on how to ask for the other lines
- Create talking points and have the team practice them
There is no doubt that account rounding is critical. You have to outline a plan and strategy and make it into bite sized bites for the team!