Does anyone Us SafeCo's Gold Customer Service

[Heather]

The one thing I hate about Safeco is that their customer service cannot help my customers if I am not available unless they are taking a payment.

If I take a reduced commission and join the Gold Service Program my customers can utilize the 800# for anything they need including policy changes or adding new business.

I am just wondering if anyone else uses the service and if there are any downsides to it?

 

[insurancemansam]

I have been using it for about 6 months And am going to cancel. Not worth the price. Really has been a big waste of money.

 

[bps]

Can't speak directly about Safeco, but I tried a service center once and will not do it again.

 

[insurance1822]

This is interesting because I recall my carrier reps all praising how good service centers were. They apparently retain better then non service centers etc...

 

[bps]

I've had carrier reps push it, but is the customer more important to you or the service center? My customers found the agency was more responsive.

 

[Heather]

This is Safeco(they call my cell):

HI this ___ with Safeco customer service I have your client on the phone Mrs Smith who said she can't reach you and has a question on her bill , I will connect you now.

This is Me:

Please can't you help her its the 1st of the month and a Friday at 5pm the busiest day for me. I have some one at my desk, 3 people here waiting and 4 calls on hold, I only have 1 person here to help. Can't you please assist Mrs Smith?

This is Safeco:

Sorry we can't help her, maybe you need gold service.

Gets me hyped every time, its only once in a while when I need some help from them, and they would rather get the customer angry then answer a damn billing question because I am not with gold service.

 

[TN_agent]

How much of your time is spent servicing existing clients rather than quoting new business? If you are a one-agent shop, it might be worth it if 30% of your time is spent on endorsements to existing policies when you could be calling on new customers. What % of commission are they wanting to charge you for it?

If you do a trial year, Safeco will give you a report as to how much it was used near the end of your year. You can decide if it was worth it or not.

 

[Heather]

I forget what the fee was but it is charged to all of my commissions from Safeco and its basically a handful of Safeco customers that would ever use it and then again only on those busy days so I decided against gold service. We have lots of non-standard and seniors/disabled people who get paid on the 1st or 3rd of the month they tend to call in a credit card payment or drop off cash.