How Many CSR's Should I Need?

[InsureTexasNow]

I have purchased a book of business with about 800 clients. It is 80% P&C and of that 75% auto insurance. I have two CSR's in the office now. We can not manage the workload we have. It seems like with this small agency 3 people should be able to handle it fine. I am trying to streamline some things before I hire another. We do take payments in the office which is incredibly time consuming. We also run about 4 quotes a day for new business. Any suggestions?

Is there a general rule of thumb? 1 CSR for every million in premium or something.

 

[Josh]

If what you have isn't enough then you need more. If you're only running 4 quotes/day for new business and still don't have enough CSR's then it sounds like you have some problem clients. I was looking at a 3 million dollar book of business that was easily managed by 1 full-time CSR and 1 part-time CSR. Only new hires needed were to fuel growth.

It's difficult to try to fix problems with a book of business that large, but you may want to stop taking payments in the office (if that's an option) if it's taking up more than 10% of your time. There are several things to consider, but if you're interested in growth and streamlining you may very well want to do an "outreach" call letting all the clients know about the change in ownership and offer the so called "insurance review". While you're doing that you may want to mention that you will no longer be accepting payments at the office, but advise them all that the carriers will accept payments directly either online or over the phone. Even if you lost 5% of your book (which I strongly doubt) because people stomp up and down hating that they can't make their payments in the office, you might not need the extra CSR. When you're growing your book you can also break them in correctly and keep them from paying their premiums in the office.

Some of that may or may not work in your situation, but that's the direction I would be heading.

 

[InsureTexasNow]

Some problem clients is pretty accurate. We are in a small town and every other agency takes payments. I am a bit worried to cut it out completely. We are going to stop taking cash in April. I am hoping that will help. I am guessing that we will lose too many clients if we do cut it out completely. Overhead is still at a point where we need all the clients we have. I am thinking if my 2 csr's can handle what is already there and walking in. I can go out and build more business. Right now we just handle walk ins and it takes all of us.

 

[Josh]

Taking cash payments? Wow! The reality is that if you tell them you're going to cut it out completely, but don't enforce it, then that should help nudge the fence sitters in the right direction. One of my buddies that has an Allstate agency has a sign on the wall that says "No Cash Payments Accepted", but still does it if the client brings in the money. It's nothing he enforces, but if someone is thinking "I need to pay my insurance, should I go down to the office or just pay it online?" it makes them that much more likely to make a payment without involving your office. Make sense?

 

[1manshow]

Few suggestions that may help, dual monitors at each work station will conservatively add 30% more efficiency per csr, good management system for service, quoting, follow-up, procedures manual so csr's can be replaced with little down time, delegate all service work to csr's. My csr's each handle over 1000 accounts each in addition to processing 4-8 new business quotes each/day and several new applications daily each. And they still have time left over to use the restroom occasionally

 

[Josh]

...and they still have time left over to use the restroom occasionally

Clearly you're not pushing them hard enough!

 

[djs]

800 clients represents what? That could be 1500-2500 items/policies, or it could be 800.

Continue to take payments in the office. You should welcome your clients in, not find it a distraction. I have the same problem, but I'll take 10 minutes and process a payment. It has led to a LOT of new business. This is not your problem.

Hire a temp for a while to get some things organized. You probably have a TON of data entry that is happening right now. Have a temp who isn't distracted by other things, do this. Have a temp scan all the papers in your office into client files, so people aren't looking for client folders.

Stop filing all the nonsense papers that you get sent (yeah, we have all been there, done that). Throw them away, the client got it already, it's available online, why do you need to file it?

Spend a day and look at what happens in your office. You'll find inefficiencies all over the place if you are honest. Some are not worth fixing, but some are big time sinks. Fix those.

If all else fails, ask your best CSR where all the time goes. They will quickly tell you where the time is being wasted.

Dan