My carrier often sends live transfers to my office. Sometimes the people calling are shopping around for coverage and only want a few questions answered. I know the nice human thing to do is to just help the person and answer their questions, but realistically, I'm not a salaried customer service person, so I can't give my services for free.
Throughout the call I let the prospect know that whatever answers they have can be answered in an appointment. They reply with "you can't just check if my doctors are in the network?" or "what's the difference between this silver plan and this other silver plan?" or "what do you think is my best option?"
I understand these people probably think we are customer service reps, and since humans usually miss about half of what is told to them, the live transfer representative telling them "I will now forward you to a licensed agent" probably goes in one ear and out the other.
Today I told someone "without an appointment I just cannot help you". They said, ok, thank you, and hung up. No loss to me, because helping this person means they would just go ahead and sign up directly.
I know the nice thing to do is to just help people, but I'm trying to run a business here.
What's the way to get an appointment when someone is like "but I just need a few questions answered before I sign up!"
When I was with Mother Mutual the motto was "the cost of information is the appointment!". I still try to do things this way. By having an appointment, I would clear up the prospect's confusion, sign them up, and get a commission. By answering them over the phone I get nothing because they'll say "Ok, thank you, you've been very helpful!" and hang up and sign up online.
Should I just give them healthcare.gov customer service number?
Throughout the call I let the prospect know that whatever answers they have can be answered in an appointment. They reply with "you can't just check if my doctors are in the network?" or "what's the difference between this silver plan and this other silver plan?" or "what do you think is my best option?"
I understand these people probably think we are customer service reps, and since humans usually miss about half of what is told to them, the live transfer representative telling them "I will now forward you to a licensed agent" probably goes in one ear and out the other.
Today I told someone "without an appointment I just cannot help you". They said, ok, thank you, and hung up. No loss to me, because helping this person means they would just go ahead and sign up directly.
I know the nice thing to do is to just help people, but I'm trying to run a business here.
What's the way to get an appointment when someone is like "but I just need a few questions answered before I sign up!"
When I was with Mother Mutual the motto was "the cost of information is the appointment!". I still try to do things this way. By having an appointment, I would clear up the prospect's confusion, sign them up, and get a commission. By answering them over the phone I get nothing because they'll say "Ok, thank you, you've been very helpful!" and hang up and sign up online.
Should I just give them healthcare.gov customer service number?
