Keeping Bloodwork/paramed Appointment

[jfnyl]

I have noticed a much higher close ratio when I am able to pre-set my clients' bloodwork and/or paramedical appointments when taking their application. Starting out a year ago, I didn't know ExamOne would do that, and I got some flake-outs when the examiners called my applicants to set their appointment times. I switched to Portamedic to take advantage of the pre-set appointments but that has been a trainwreck on the back end, and since our ExamOne branch does pre-set appointments now, I'm switching back.

There are still the occasional cases of clients flaking out and me losing business. The best I can do is allow the examiners to do their thing with following up and occasionally checking on them to find out when/if they are going to get it done.

Do you folks have any strategies I should incorporate?

 

[Larry Tew]

I use ExamOne but I find there are times I want the exam done that's not on their pre-set schedule on their site. I like to work out the exam time with the applicant rather than have the examiner call and play phone tag with them.

If my client meeting is during ExamOne office hours, I used to call them from the client meeting to nail down the schedule, but ExamOne has a funny thing that unless you enter the exam order online, you don't get online status updates on their system.

So now I pick an exam time a few days out with the applicant, then enter the exam order on ExamOne's site, then call examOne to fine-tune the appointment time.

 

[Medicine Man]

Do you folks have any strategies I should incorporate?

I would recommend trying to find an independent examiner. Try giving NASCPE a shout ([email protected]). They are an examiner organization and may be able to put you in touch with an examiner in/near the area you typically write in. With independents you will usually get experienced examiners who are faster and give better service than what many of the exam companies can provide.

Larry,
Ever since ExamOne was purchased by Quest Diagnostics, they've tried to get clients to go to their drawing centers for exams. This resulted in losing a lot of mobile examiners because, in essence, they were trying to get around using them and the amount of work they received dropped off. Agents, rightfully so, were incensed when they learned clients were being pushed to go to drawing centers as opposed to having the examiner go to them. My guess would be that this is why you experienced those problems.

Presets are not popular amongst examiners. Most of the examiners doing them are newbies who are forced into doing them because they simply don't know how this business really works. Unlike you, working under a commission structure, examiners are paid flat fees for their services. While it might be worth it for you to run from one end of the area you typically work in, to the other, the same is not true for examiners. When you're getting $25 on average, per exam, no matter how long it takes, you need to be able to work very quickly and efficiently to make a profit. Traveling more than 15-20 minutes from one client to the next very quickly eats up your profits. Presets, as I'm sure you can imagine, throw a wrench into one's ability schedule their work efficiently.

I'm not saying it like you should care, just explaining why you'll meet resistance no matter which vendor you use for presets. Presets might seem like a great idea in theory. In practice, not so much.

 

[pcbinsurance]

I've used the ExamOne online system since they were bought by Quest and never have I been told or discouraged from using it. It was a good system and plenty of times were available nearly all the time. I'm assuming Medicine Man is an indy examiner and that is why his post is skewed that way.
All that said, I have not used the ExamOne online system for about six months so things might have changed since then.

 

[Larry Tew]

Larry,
Ever since ExamOne was purchased by Quest Diagnostics, they've tried to get clients to go to their drawing centers for exams. This resulted in losing a lot of mobile examiners because, in essence, they were trying to get around using them and the amount of work they received dropped off. Agents, rightfully so, were incensed when they learned clients were being pushed to go to drawing centers as opposed to having the examiner go to them. My guess would be that this is why you experienced those problems.

What problem? I didn't say I had problems with ExamOne.

 

[CFP83]

I know this is an older posts but I thought I would chime in and hopefully add some value.

I do roughly 125 life insurance policies per year (all requiring med exams) so exams clogging up the system just isn't an option. About six years ago decided to not allow the exam company's examiners to schedule with my clients......its been a great decision and has led to much quicker underwritting.

Whenever life insurance is the issue at hand I always encourage the client to not let the tail wag the dog. I like to use the angle "mr. client although we have some more discussing and fine tuning of just how we want to design your coverage, let's first see if anyone wants your business.....make sense?" I like to call this "window-shopping" for coverage and it gets us right into getting ink on paper and getting the exam completed. I then ask the client what morning in the next 3-8 business days works out for him to see the examiner for 15-20 minutes....then as I'm still sitting with the client I call my assistant (or buzz her if i'm in the office) and have her "find a company that can get it done" at that exact day and time.

So very many times I had examiners chasing clients around for 2-3 weeks and still didn't have an exam scheduled. on top of that examiners countless times called the client and cancelled or rescheduled for a week or two later!!

I appreciated greatly the important role that examiners play in the process of a client obtaining coverage. Let us not forget though that these examiners are essentially working for we the agents. We have many options of who to choose to do our client exams......if they can examine my client next week at 7am great.....if not I'll find someone who can.

We must retain control of the entire sales cycle beginning to end. Our clients depend on us to hold their hand and guide this process along, whether they say/realize it or not.

 

[bluemarlin08]

I switched to an independent examiner about 8 years ago and it is so much better. I tell the applicant my nurse will cal to schedule a convenient time and she keeps me up to date on status. Knowing the examiner is an extension of my services and it is comforting to know I have a real professional.

 

[Medicine Man]

I'm assuming Medicine Man is an indy examiner and that is why his post is skewed that way.

I actually work as both an independent and a subcontractor and am simply sharing what I know. Presets have been discussed ad nauseum on various examiner forums, for the reasons I mentioned earlier, but also because they violate labor laws as they relate to IRS employee classification. I don't think agents would be dragged into any lawsuits which might emanate from this, at least not in terms of culpability, but perhaps as witnesses. Sorry Larry, I misunderstood what you wrote.
Bluemarlin summed up nicely my point about independents.

 

[tlmarketing]

I know this is an older posts but I thought I would chime in and hopefully ad some value.

I do roughly 125 life insurance policies per year (all requiring med exams) so exams clogging up the system just isn't an option. About six years ago decided to not allow the exam company's examiners to schedule with my clients......its been a great decision and has led to much quicker underwritting.

Whenever life insurance is the issue at hand I always encourage the client to not let the tail wag the dog. I like to use the angle "mr. client although we have some more discussing and fine tuning of just how we want to design your coverage, let's first see if anyone wants your business.....make sense?" I like to call this "window-shopping" for coverage and it gets us right into getting ink on paper and getting the exam completed. I then ask the client what morning in the next 3-8 business days works out for him to see the examiner for 15-20 minutes....then as I'm still sitting with the client I call my assistant (or buzz her if i'm in the office) and have her "find a company that can get it done" at that exact day and time.

So very many times I had examiners chasing clients around for 2-3 weeks and still didn't have an exam scheduled. on top of that examiners countless times called the client and cancelled or rescheduled for a week or two later!!

I appreciated greatly the important role that examiners play in the process of a client obtaining coverage. Let us not forget though that these examiners are essentially working for fwe the agents. We have many options of who to choose to do our client exams......if they can exam my client next week at 7am great.....if not I'll find someone who can.

We must retain control of the entire sales cycle beginning to end. Our clients depend on us to do so, whether they say it or not.

I had the same issues with examiners trying to reschedule exams constantly with my clients after we had discussed with client the dates and times that worked best and then scheduled exam online through exam company portal...we were writing nationwide a couple hundred cases per year....after we caught on to this, we always entered our phone number as the contact number for all exams....that quickly put an end to the b.s. by examiners costing us cases.

 

[Cory]

Enjoyed your post CFP83.