How Do You Pay Your Support Staff?

RJT Consulting

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I have an older lady who is my main Personal Lines CSR. She is currently paid $11.55/hour plus she receives 15% of any commissions earned on personal lines. So, if a Home policy generates $100 then she earns $15. We have been doing this for both first year and renewals. This is starting to get quite tedious to keep track of between what is her policies vs the rest of the agency. I am contemplating bumping her salary up so that we no longer have to keep track of her accounts but also putting in a bonus system where if she can bring in XXXX dollars of new business then this equates to a $.50 increase in salary upon the annual review. If she doubles XXXX then she earns a $1.00/hour raise etc.

She has a lot of potential but does not ever want to be on straight commissions. She likes her hourly job. I want to make sure that the pay system encourages her to generate new business. How do you pay your licensed CSR's?
 
Looks like a good system. Most agencies around here pay an hourly salary then a flat amount (around $20) per policy and nothing on renewals. Maybe a monthly bonus for reaching a certain amount of monthly new business premium. Don't pay renewals for a CSR if they are closing business your marketing dollars are bringing in. Producers who bring in their own clients should be paid renewals.
 
WOW, you will spend all your time trying to figure out what you owe her every couple of weeks.

Thats way too complicated for me to track, I am busy with too much other stuff.
 
I'm not a P/C guy so I have to ask since you guys are using the term bringing new business. What is the difference between a CSR and a sales rep, i'm missing it?
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how much can a csr vs what an agent can do?
 
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I have an older lady who is my main Personal Lines CSR. She is currently paid $11.55/hour plus she receives 15% of any commissions earned on personal lines. So, if a Home policy generates $100 then she earns $15. We have been doing this for both first year and renewals. This is starting to get quite tedious to keep track of between what is her policies vs the rest of the agency. I am contemplating bumping her salary up so that we no longer have to keep track of her accounts but also putting in a bonus system where if she can bring in XXXX dollars of new business then this equates to a $.50 increase in salary upon the annual review. If she doubles XXXX then she earns a $1.00/hour raise etc.

She has a lot of potential but does not ever want to be on straight commissions. She likes her hourly job. I want to make sure that the pay system encourages her to generate new business. How do you pay your licensed CSR's?

Our agency management system makes this a breeze. If you have to do it manually that would be a pain. Listen to 1manshow.
 
Just curious - how do you handle charge-backs for her? You could be losing a lot of $$ and not even know it. It's probably better for you to just bump up her pay and give quarterly bonuses instead.
 
I am support staff and am on *salary* of 150% what you pay. I normally work 11 hrs with no lunch--eat at my desk most of the time, so hrly wages realy don't matter in the grand scheme of things. I have a subproducer code that my boss can keep track of, on new business and am paid 5% of the commission my agent makes (not a huge amount more but I do make a great *hrly* salary!).

The biggest problem with most agents are that they are greedy and don't want to pay a good salary. I am so blessed to have a great boss that knows if the office sales stay up and the office runs smoothly I am worth every penny! Most of the support staff at other offices in my region could care less about their agencies and it shows in their customer service. It totally amazes me at some of the stories I hear from customers of other offices but that is par for the course when you realize they work a slave's wages.

Pay what you can afford and know you get out of it what you put into your employee!
 
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