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... x No Thanks Loading.. Happy Employees Increase Efficiency 4/30/2013 by CompleteMarkets Editor , Grace Bauer This content has not been rated yet. Some employees are actually happy in their jobs these days, and for good reason. The wave is starting to swell as more and more agencies are truly taking care of their employees. From a half-day off per week to allowing them to pick up their kids from school to telecommuting, agencies are thinking about how their employees feel and taking care of their personal needs. Surprise! Employees really are happy. After all, what other agencies or companies these days would even think of such things? Enlightened agencies are identifying their employees' needs and satisfying them. Needless to say, revenue is increasing, morale is up, employees are sticking around, and overall efficiency is increasing. TAKE A HALF-DAY OFF Yes, some agencies are giving employees a half-day off with pay. Agencies pay their employees for a full 40-hour week and give them the half-day off of their choice. Employees can schedule doctor appointments, be at home while a special service is performed, or run errands during that time. Remember those instances when an employee had to run home to open the door for the rug cleaners or take one of their children to the doctor? Think about how much more efficiently the agency could run with a consistently full staff most of the time. It could eliminate disruptions throughout the day and result in a higher quality of work. After all, employees know they have their half-day off to take care of personal needs that might otherwise ...

... _ Premium/mode ____ ____ ____ Next premium due date ____ ____ ____ Issue date (approx.) ____ ____ ____ Type of policy (O.L., U.L., Term, etc.) ____ Carrier ____ ( ) Smoker ( ) Nonsmoker ( ) Male ( ) Female Overall health: ( ) Excellent ( ) Good ( ) Fair ( ) Poor Agent-of-record letter: ( ) Discussed ( ) OK ( ) Not discussed Appointment set for: Date: ____/ ____/ _____ Time: ____ Address: _____ City ____ State ____ ZIP ____ Phone: ( ) Home ____ ( ) Work ____ Employer: ____ Prospect's title: ____ ( ) Discussed employee benefits ( ) Pick up employee-benefits booklet ( ) Pick up last premium notice(s ) ( ) Pick up recent: ( ) dividend ( ) policy loan ( ) cash-value information ( ) Policies to be picked up / receipted Login or Register (for FREE) to gain access to thousands of other great articles. Need more reasons to join? Need insurance for you, your business or your family? Get quality appointments - Save yourself a whole lot of time & money when you use our directory of carriers, wholesalers and service providers. Negotiate lucrative contracts with carriers and wholesalers. Net result. More revenue for your agency! Clients & Prospects will research you, your co-workers and your agency here. The most comprehensive online insurance industry reference library for - Personal Lines Professionals Commercial Lines Professionals Life/Health ...

...e summer to grow and be ready for picking in October or November. I had a b...ht the natural cycle of planting and picking - we learn to understand it and w...

...mmitment. If you don't, you'll be picking cotton in July. Let's talk about eac...

... , and so forth) . A primary care physician (PCP) will act as a "gatekeeper" who will evaluate your health and recommend referrals to specialists, as needed. As a rule, premiums and co-pays are relatively low, saving you money. On the downside, HMOs offer limited, if any, flexibility for services outside the plan. If your current physician isn't in the HMO, you'll have to pay for his or her services, or select another PCP who does participate in the plan. Also, if you use a provider outside the network, you'll have to pay out of pocket. Preferred Provider Organizations. Like HMOs, PPOs operate through a network of health care providers and institutions, and set relatively low co-payments for medical treatment. However, unlike HMOs, they'll pick up the tab for many (although not all) medical services outside the network. What's more, you can see specialists who participate in the network without going through your primary care physician. Of course, you'll pay a relatively high premium for enjoying this added flexibility. Also, if you get treatment outside the PPO, you'll have to pick up a deductible or the difference between the charges of the plan provider and those of the out-of -network specialist. Point of Service Plans. This option combines elements of HMOs and PPOs. A POS plan focuses on a primary care physician participating in the plan who monitors your health care at the "point of service" and recommend referrals either inside or outside the network. In the former case, the PPO will file a claim with your Health ...

... the line can help you avoid office supply salesmen and nuisance calls, but ask yourself if this is worth the price of possibly offending your clients. Yes, you'll get client service calls that you can't really handle and that will need to be transferred to someone else in the agency. But now you've had a personal contact with one of your insureds that you might not have had otherwise — a chance to touch base and let them know how much you appreciate their business. Think about how your clients will feel when they call and ask for the agency principal, or for anyone else in the agency, and are connected with that person with no hassle and no questions asked. &# 160 But if you still want your receptionist to find out who's on the line before you pick it up, do this in the most courteous way possible. "Who's calling?" is just not acceptable any more. "May I ask your name" is better, as is "Yes, Ms. Agency Owner is in. May I announce your name?" Then the receptionist should announce the caller's name and Ms. Agency Owner should use it when she greets the caller. &# 160 4. When transferring a call, always say to whom and why. Here's an off-putting telephone habit we've all encountered: you call a place of business, explain to the receptionist what you want, then all you hear is a loud click and you're left hanging. You're pretty sure that you're being transferred to someone who can help you, but you're positive that the receptionist ...

... making any headway in alleviating your sense of fear? Let's try the logical approach taught me by my Jesuit educators. All fears stem from losing something we have or not getting something we want. If you find yourself fearful of change, you have entered a philosopher's nightmare. Our fear of change is oxymoronic. We're fearing the wrong thing. False evidence has definitely appeared real and fooled all of us. If change is truly inevitable and necessary for survival, our fears should be based not on change, but on failure to change. If we fail to change, we may lose our business, that valued client, or a special relationship. Similarly, we might not achieve the goals that we've set in our personal or professional lives. I urge everyone to begin exercising their change muscle. Pick anything-from a bad habit to a petty annoyance-and decide to change it. Commit to achieving the change, acknowledging that you may fall short at times. That's OK, as long as you pick yourself up and continue. As with any technique, our change muscle needs exercise and practice if it's to become an efficient tool in our lives. Embrace change! It can open the doors to an exciting world. Jack Burke is the president of Sound Marketing, Inc. and author of Creating Customer Connections. He can be reached at (800) 451-8273 or his Web site www.soundmarketing.com . Login or Register (for FREE) to gain access to thousands of other great articles. Need more reasons to join? Need insurance for you, your business or your family? Get quality appointments - Save ...

... as niches. A good example is a material handling equipment distributor. The management team reviewed the company's customer base and identified five industries in which they were doing substantial business. Over the years the company had developed expertise in each of these fields, and both their sales and support staff were highly competent to deal with the industry-specific issues in each one. The distributor changed its marketing to focus on the needs of each niche. Instead of seeing itself as a monolithic material handling equipment distributor, it came to view itself as a company with five business units. SAVE CUSTOMERS TIME Don't just say it; do it. A dry cleaning company tells customers its home pick-up and delivery service saves time. Yet to check on an order, the customer must go online. If the customer wants to pick up an order at a store location after hours, arrangements must be made in advance for a locker' and, of course, to pre-pay the bill. Is this convenience? Does this save time? Isn't it more complicated and time-consuming than stopping by the dry cleaner on the way home from work? This is a case in which saying it doesn't make it so. Also, the demise of more than one highly touted e-commerce home delivery company seems to verify the need to deliver on promises as well as deliver the groceries and dry cleaning. Although competitive pricing is crucial, to many customers time might be equally important, and in some instances, even more so. This is another effect of the Internet. Do people really shop for price when they're surfing? Those who use ...

... her patience was wearing thin. I called the 800 number and spoke with a young lady that I won't name since (I believe) she gave me her real name and was polite, professional, and helpful. I'm afraid this type of behavior might get her fired, in trouble with her boss, or ostracized by her peers. Obviously she's setting standards the industry can't live with. She was certainly the only positive exception to a highly negative experience. This lady explained that "Internet Vacation Packages can be tricky." She told me that, based on our confirmation number, our surcharge would be $277.39. She indicated that the "best buy" directly from her company on the car rental plan we had in this package would be $215.99 (before surcharge) if we picked the car up at the airport. If we picked the car up at a hotel, the cost would be $177.99 before surcharges ($ 204.30 including surcharges — please note that this is about a 15% tax/surcharge) . Although this lady couldn't tell me the allocation of charges in our package, she said the surcharges are based on: 10% Airport contract fee 6% Government Services fee 3.5% Reimbursement fee 7.5% Sales Tax (As a sideline — add the aforementioned airport "best buy" on the rental car to these fees and taxes and you get surprisingly close to the $277.39 surcharge my wife must pay. Could it be that EX Company is misrepresenting their package and pocketing the rental car fee that's supposed to be included?) After more than an ...

...e cursing. Some readers think I’m picking on producers. Some think I’ve hit th...