Ideas for Driving Quality Production During OE

[Tkruger]

I've been kicking around a few ideas about incentives to offer agents writing for my call center this OE. Weekly and monthly bonuses for meeting sales targets and a drive for the top 3 producers with 200 app minimum.


Now being realistic (I know tough with this crowd) what incentives would you be looking for? What would be the driving factor that would make you want to team up and make this next OE Explode?

 

[bluediamond]

Well with the limited information I really do not have an answer.

You have to take a lot of things into consideration: Are these people only going to work during OEP or year around? How much is each carrier paying you or your agency in commission's. How much it is costing you to open the center, equip and staff it and rent? Whether or not the the business stay's on the books. You might add retention to your mix of bonuses. And are they all licensed or just telemarketer's? It would be easier to figure if you kept these people on after oep.

It might be easier since the company's you represent are as earned and when the commission's start rolling in. Just too many variable's T.

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Well with the limited information I really do not have an answer.

You have to take a lot of things into consideration: Are these people only going to work during OEP or year around? How much is each carrier paying you or your agency in commission's. How much it is costing you to open the center, equip and staff it and rent? Whether or not the the business stay's on the books. You might add retention to your mix of bonuses. And are they all licensed or just telemarketer's? It would be easier to figure if you kept these people on after oep.

It might be easier since the company's you represent are as earned and when the commission's start rolling in. Just too many variable's T.

I do believe there are a few on here that run call center's if you look around.

 

[Tkruger]

Thanks Blue.

I know the variables that you are referring to and can to a certain degree calculate those. Retention is a requirement unfortunately I left out. Anyone can fling poo...ergo the quality production.

Anyone else out there oping a call center wanna chime in?

 

[houcoogster]

What you're doing whether you want to or not is training your competition for next year. Just like yourself you realized you were getting screwed so will they.

One way to eliminate or reduce the trash factor is keep the bonus low and pay a higher hourly. Then just can the non-producers...you won't attract the superstars but you won't attract the dirtbags either.

 

[kgmom219]

The ones that recruit me pay something like $17/hour. Then a per app bonus that is paid after approval and/or first premium paid.

Are you going to let them work part time? That would be a huge recruiting tool for a newby.

 

[Tkruger]

What you're doing whether you want to or not is training your competition for next year. Just like yourself you realized you were getting screwed so will they.

One way to eliminate or reduce the trash factor is keep the bonus low and pay a higher hourly. Then just can the non-producers...you won't attract the superstars but you won't attract the dirtbags either.

Which is why it's an even trickier task at hand. I don't believe in screwing people...all I'm interested in is fair. Karma is an ugly monster I'd rather not have playing in my sandbox.

 

[Yagents]

If you pay for "production", you'll get short term biz that drops off the books.
I would pay a bonus after the policy stays on the books for 3 or 6 months.
Also pay a bonus for selling ancillaries.

 

[Ann H]

You have to pick your business model and adapt accordingly.

If you want agents or telemarketers to help you build a volume business, you have to accept a higher lapse ratio, customer dissatisfaction, and high turnover of both clients and employees. On the upside, volume production gets you a higher commission tier, bonuses, and advertising dollars from the carriers, much less more volume of first year commission. It's a numbers game, and it is not dependent upon renewal commission. You have to factor in higher expenses including payroll, legal, marketing, computer & phone systems, etc. Often the high level volume producer can boast of high production, but they come home at the end of the day with the same amount (or less) than the quality service producer.

If you want a quality service related model, you will have a high persistency of clients staying on the books, valuable referrals and greater customer trust & satisfaction. The upside is that renewal commission snowballs and bonuses often have a persistency factor in the calculation. You pay much less for marketing, because inside referrals are like gold. You have less legal, E&O, payroll and overhead.

Some people live and work for the thrill of volume production. They would go stir crazy servicing their book. Others work best by giving quality service from beginning throughout the lifecycle of the case and couldn't sleep at night if they did anything different.

My suggestion is that you soul-search to decide what model you want. Then hire agents who have the same personality and work style. If it's a call-center volume production model, you might compensate for volume (and products that produce the higher compensation). If it's a customer service model, compensate for production + persistency + quality issues. However, don't try to motivate a "quality service" type of employee with a stick and carrot of volume production especially with questionable higher commission ancillary products, and vice versa don't try to motivate a "volume producer" employee with persistency bonuses that depend on what happens in the next 9 months.

 

[Tkruger]

Sorry I hadn't gotten back to you sooner. Seems the email notification system is on the fritz...I didn't even know anyone else had responded.

Everyone that has responded has some very great points and suggestions. I'll make sure to take everyones points into consideration.