Suggestions for Coping with Work Environment

[DHK]

"It takes time to bring value to the marketplace, but you don't get paid for time. Mistakenly the man says "I get $20 for an hour." Not true. If that was true, you could just stay home and have them send your money. No, it's not true. You get paid for the value you put into the time." - Jim Rohn

 

[DHK]

Of course, the real question is... which marketplace?

In the context of this post, the marketplace is the agency and those who work there, compared to serving the public who have the money to pay for policies who make the agency possible in the first place.

 

[vic120]

Customer Service is the Key to most insurance Business. I would suggest you hone your skills especially your customer service and get enough experience to go out on your own.

I do think most captive are either newer, need more experience, got comfortable with someone else being responsible or have bad habits, or not good at it.

In the case of 17 years either they are not good at it got lazy or don't care. You will find this in many office's.

The answer get experienced get good at all aspects and go out on your own.

 

[goillini52]

I accepted a position under a captive on 06/01/17 due to someone I worked with previously (who is now my coworker again) basically selling me on how great the job is. It's an office of 4 including the agent. Seven months in and I wake up dreading going to work. Looking for new employment isn't an option due to strength of current resume and my pay plus hours is decent enough. I really want to be the best me, but am struggling at coping with the day to day and I would love to hear from some others in the field of P&C on how to get out of this hole I'm in. Here are some examples of what's going on:

- Agent of 17 years is stuck in his ways, hates confrontation, and does not follow up with his expectations. Example is he has said multiple times we shouldn't have our cell phones out. The same employee is the one that is on her phone all day every day but nothing gets done. Spends roughly 50% of the time on outside things such as family stuff, another organization he is involved in, etc. When informing him of specific issues or clients that want to speak with him he blows it off.

- Above employee has been with Agent for 17 years. Absolutely terrible at the job. Incredibly unprofessional, terrible phone etiquette, and couldn't sell a life jacket to a drowning person. Agent has been confronted multiple times about issues, specifically having her boyfriend come into the office every day for three weeks straight for multiple hours each day and hugging/kissing in the office but nothing gets done.

- Friend is good at her job but frequently calls off, leaves multiple times during the day, or leaves early. 1 of 3 usually three times a week.

- We must service on top of selling and I take responsibility that I'm terrible at service work (past insurance positions I was new business only). Our underwriters are absolutely terrible and are corporate stooges. Our 800# for service is equally terrible and it sets us in the office up for failure. I feel like I spend 70% of my day dealing with service and for me it really bogs me down mentally and emotionally hearing customers yell at me and dealing with the incompetence of underwriting and servicing on top of the laziness of my coworker.

Those that have went through similar struggles and what not, how do you cope with it? What to do on a daily basis that helps? My thought is to become so engrossed in outbound calls and what not for new business the others will be forced to do more on the service. I really appreciate any responses, advice etc.

If you're going to stay there, I suggest that you light up a doobie on your way to work and again at lunch. It'll help get rid of the stress and make it easier for your co-workers to cope with you.

 

[LostDollar]

Customer Service is the Key to most insurance Business. I would suggest you hone your skills especially your customer service and get enough experience to go out on your own.

I do think most captive are either newer, need more experience, got comfortable with someone else being responsible or have bad habits, or not good at it.

In the case of 17 years either they are not good at it got lazy or don't care. You will find this in many office's.

The answer get experienced get good at all aspects and go out on your own.

I have never run a business of my own, nor do I claim to be very good at reading people; however...

Based on my experience working in an office,
Posts I have read here,
and Op's posts,

I don't think, at least at present, that op has the emotional strength and stability that would be required to conduct an insurance business on his own.

 

[vic120]

I have never run a business of my own, nor do I claim to be very good at reading people; however...

Based on my experience working in an office,
Posts I have read here,
and Op's posts,

I don't think, at least at present, that op has the emotional strength and stability that would be required to conduct an insurance business on his own.

That's why I stated The answer get experienced get good at all aspects and go out on your own.

 

[Heather]

Most small businesses insurance or not need all hands on deck when there is customer service work especially if its a day where there is a lot of it.

I know workers in so many professions that are yelled at, have threats made to them, that what we go through is actually pretty mild in terms of verbal abuse.

 

[vic120]

Most small businesses insurance or not need all hands on deck when there is customer service work especially if its a day where there is a lot of it.

I know workers in so many professions that are yelled at, have threats made to them, that what we go through is actually pretty mild in terms of verbal abuse.

If that many clients are that upset there must be issues that should not be

 

[Heather]

If that many clients are that upset there must be issues that should not be

My daughter is the GM of a fast food place, people will curse out her employees over dollar menu items. She has had to call police so many times over people flipping out that they stop serving breakfast at 11, all sorts of crazy stuff when they sell out of a happy meal toys and the parents flip.

My friend works for progressive as customer service and her horror stories are terrible, and she gets it all day long from crazies.

You should have scene our grocery store when the credit card processing went down, teenage girl cashiers getting cursed out by grown men because she could only take cash or check.

I think people act this way because they can, and they want to go off on some one that they can get away with this.

 

[vic120]

My daughter is the GM of a fast food place, people will curse out her employees over dollar menu items. She has had to call police so many times over people flipping out that they stop serving breakfast at 11, all sorts of crazy stuff when they sell out of a happy meal toys and the parents flip.

My friend works for progressive as customer service and her horror stories are terrible, and she gets it all day long from crazies.

You should have scene our grocery store when the credit card processing went down, teenage girl cashiers getting cursed out by grown men because she could only take cash or check.

I think people act this way because they can, and they want to go off on some one that they can get away with this.

I have been in Insurance on my own for 6 years and with a brokerage for 4 years prior, I have never had more than the occasional crazy, I have seen some agents at the brokerage I worked at with some issues but that was there won fault.

I don't see how fast food and walmart crazy's have to do with this