7 Steps to Firing Clients Ethically

Getting called on a home number would be the end of that.

She can call during business hours or leave a message on the business line.
 
Getting called on a home number would be the end of that.

She can call during business hours or leave a message on the business line.

I wonder if she's like my health insurance guy - doesn't have an office and uses a personal phone #. I hate calling him because I know it's just his regular cell # - If I were in that business, though, it would be WELL worth the $ for an extra line to have a separate phone number. That's all I have currently - $10/month for an extra line on a phone I still have from a couple of years ago to conduct business with. No way do I want clients having my personal number, it's easy to screen business vs. personal calls this way. :)
 
I wonder if she's like my health insurance guy - doesn't have an office and uses a personal phone #. I hate calling him because I know it's just his regular cell # - If I were in that business, though, it would be WELL worth the $ for an extra line to have a separate phone number. That's all I have currently - $10/month for an extra line on a phone I still have from a couple of years ago to conduct business with. No way do I want clients having my personal number, it's easy to screen business vs. personal calls this way. :)

I recall making a referral to another agent once. He was given my business line. Instead he looked up my home phone and called me there. Somehow he thought that was completely acceptable.
 
I wonder if she's like my health insurance guy - doesn't have an office and uses a personal phone #. I hate calling him because I know it's just his regular cell # - If I were in that business, though, it would be WELL worth the $ for an extra line to have a separate phone number. That's all I have currently - $10/month for an extra line on a phone I still have from a couple of years ago to conduct business with. No way do I want clients having my personal number, it's easy to screen business vs. personal calls this way. :)

I have an office, with a phone system. when no one answered she picked up the phone book and looked me up on the landline, which I have since disconnected. I had other people before look up my name in the white pages instead of the yellow page ad and call my house in the middle of the night for roadside assistance when they had progressive, why not call them? I have grown kids , young adults when the phone rings at 2a.m. you think its an emergency with your kid and answer the phone.
 
I took severe verbal abuse from spousal Medicare clients for years. Upon the husband's death, the lady became even more abusive. She would scream & yell at me, call me names & hang up on me. I finally sent a registered letter she had to sign for and detailed the years of abuse and my reason for no longer choosing to be her agent. She called me every day leaving me messages to phone her. I called her back about two weeks later and she apologized for everything she had ever said or done to me. She completely changed her behavior with me and I continued to be her agent until she passed away. I feel I handled it the right way and it actually ended up on a good note.
 
I feel for some of you guys doing medicare supplements and the like. I did a few years in a personal injury/social security case mill. Even the ones that were well meaning and never ill tempered, it could be a chore getting them off the phone to so i could deal with the 150 other cases I was handling at the same time. They just don't give up lol.
 
I've been working the senior market for 16 years now. It is very challenging. I took so much abuse and crap for years because I needed all the clients I could get. After doing it for so many years it just became second nature to let it continue. I've only recently begun to put a stop to it. I will now hang up the phone if my attempts to dial down the conversation aren't successful. When I lose a crazy one, my phone will ring with a referral from an existing client that replaces them. It happens every time. It's very freeing to cut those ties with the people that waste my time and treat me badly. A great renewal income base allows me to be able to "divorce" the crazies! I'm still a sucker for someone that starts crying and I try to go above & beyond for all my clients. We all know the ones we are eventually going to have to have a standoff with and possibly sever the business relationship with. A lot of people that we allow to abuse us will backtrack and apologize once they see we're not going to take it anymore. They know we've been the best agent they could ever find and don't want to lose us.
 
My clients have my office phone and email. That's all they need. I have caller ID and call blocking. I can also block incoming emails for those that can't understand they are a PITA

Never thought I'd use that tactic on a client, until the last few months. I thought that I was rid of this lady, who is not really my client, she married a long time health and life client of mine, and proceeded to blow up my phone line. I sent her husband to the exchange last year, without my help from me, assuming that his life policy would not leave much for her to discuss with me, but I was wrong.

During Medicare AE, she machine gun dialed me on a private number, to the point that neither me nor my clients could get two uninterrupted sentences out. I blocked all private number calls on business line and cell.
 
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