Technology

Do more with digitally recorded calls

Smart, cost-effective software automatically records all phone calls and stores them as MP3 files

By Dave Willis

Access Insurance Group is not afraid of technology. In fact, the firm embraces it. “We have dual monitors for all of our staff,” says Jim Sklarchuk, president of the Edmonton, Alberta-based brokerage. “I’m actually thinking about getting a few of my people three monitors.” The organization also uses scanning, electronic document management, desktop-based outgoing and incoming faxing, a third-party renewal software application and another vendor-supplied tool to drive commercial proposals and submissions.

To serve its four locations, the broker uses a Citrix server. Its phones are centralized, with calls going through headquarters and transferred to employees in other offices. Some transfers go 4,000 kilometers or 2,500 miles. “We have one employee whose husband got a great job offer in Newfoundland, where they were from originally,” Sklarchuk explains. “We set her up with a computer and with telephone service through the computer, and she looks after the clients she had here in Edmonton from there—probably in her bunny-rabbit slippers.”

The phone system, of course, has voice mail. But that’s not all. “It keeps track of voice mail as an e-mail attachment, so we can take a message we received and attach it directly to a client file in our agency management system,” Sklarchuk says.

Access Insurance Group is in good company. “A lot of agencies are capturing phone voice messages,” says Keith Aderhold, president of Charlotte, North Carolina-based Blue Goose Technology Solutions, Inc., an insurance-focused solution provider that works to make agencies, carriers and MGAs more cost effective and efficient. But it’s just the tip of the call recording iceberg.

“An effective recording protocol calls for capturing all incoming and outgoing calls,” Aderhold emphasizes. “If you go to court and say, ‘Well, I’ve got this phone call that says this,’ but you’re not recording all calls, how does the judge know there’s not another one that says something different?”

Training and documentation

That’s where blueButler iDR can help. The product, developed by Kitchener, Ontario-based blueC802, Inc., and marketed by Blue Goose, is an automated assistant that helps streamline business process, explains John McDonald, blueC802 chief technology officer. Among its key applications are intelligent digital phone call recording and a recently introduced module that allows cellular phone call routing and recording.

The software automatically records all calls coming into and going out from an agency and stores them as MP3 files, which require a relatively small storage footprint. “The system scales down and is cost effective with as few as five or six phones. It also works for customers with multiple sites and hundreds of phones,” McDonald says.

“It’s phone-system agnostic, which means it can connect to any type of phone system and record calls,” he adds. “And because it only requires connection to the telephone wiring in the back office, it costs less and is easier to implement than other solutions.”

The use of MP3-based technology helps make it affordable, Aderhold notes. “What really got Blue Goose interested in this was that this is a solution that will work for a broad range of agencies. Previously, the technology had been very expensive.”

Access Insurance Group finds several benefits in using blueButler, including staff training. “One employee had been working very hard on how she came across to customers on the phone,” explains Jennifer Donohue, personal lines manager. After an encounter with an angry customer, the rep wanted to see what went wrong. “We listened to the conversation and she was able to pick out exactly what had upset the customer.”

Customer interaction is a two-way street, Sklarchuk adds. “I recall a client complaining about us being rude,” he explains. “We listened again to the conversation and the exact opposite was true—the client was extremely rude.” Sklarchuk believes he may have e-mailed the client a copy of the conversation although he can’t recall whether he heard back.

“He said/she said” situations go beyond tone. “You may have a client call in and say, ‘I want to replace my ’95 Pontiac Sunbird with a 2001 Malibu but keep the same coverage,’” Sklarchuk says. “Against our advice, say the client turned down collision and fire and theft, just keeping the liability only.”

Six months later, the client reports the car stolen and wants the insurer to pay up, insisting he asked for theft coverage. “We can go back and listen to the recording and resolve that right away,” Sklarchuk notes, with a potential E&O situation averted.

Aderhold adds, “I can’t tell you how many times we’ve talked to agents who said, ‘Gosh, I wish you called me last year with this product. I’m right in the middle of a lawsuit that this could have prevented.’”

It’s easy to find calls. They’re time- and date-stamped. Client caller-ID information is in the record, along with the CSR’s extension or phone number. “Plus, the CSR can attach the call to the client record in the agency management system,” Aderhold explains. “This integration, which we’ve worked hard to achieve, makes the product work quite well in an agency.”

Attachment can occur on the fly or after the fact. “A CSR might have an idea that a particular call is one she wants to attach,” Aderhold says. “All it takes is clicking an icon in the tray to link it to an activity.” It’s also easy to go back and link it later, he adds.

Blue Goose provides training on the blueButler digital recording technology and integration, although not a lot is required. “You’re looking at two or three hours worth of training,” Aderhold adds. “It’s easy to implement and easy to operate.”

Audio signatures boost business

The use of digital recording goes beyond documenting service transactions and routine calls. “We started in the insurance market with a focus on quality control and reducing E&O exposure,” McDonald explains. “In working with other industries, like energy and cellular and telecom resell, where there were fewer regulations in place, if the business wanted to switch customers from one supplier to another, they were able to record that verbal contract. We thought it could be natural for insurance, too.”

Sklarchuk had the same thought. “Jim is a leading-edge guy in the marketplace, and he saw he could take his business to the next level,” McDonald recalls. His interest resulted, in part, from competitive forces. Sklarchuk explains, “In Canada, we have financial institutions that own insurance companies. Of course, they have more resources to put into technology. They were taking telephone-recorded applications” and actually binding coverage over the phone using audio signatures.

“In order for us to compete, we had to provide similar services,” he continues. The technology was in place. All he needed was a go-ahead. “My challenge, frankly, was to go to our insurance companies and get their authorization to do telephone-recorded applications.” He did just that.

He encountered the same question from each insurer: “Is the superintendent of insurance okay with it?” So he contacted the superintendent, who said it was okay with him if it the carriers were. “It took a year or so to get it running,” Sklarchuk recalls. “All it takes is getting your biggest markets to go along with it, and everyone else follows suit.”

Aderhold says, “We haven’t seen any pushback from carriers in Canada or the states.” That’s probably because it can boost efficiency—in process and sales. “Often, people are shopping or just looking around,” he adds. “This allows agents to say, ‘Would you like to buy this now?’ If they agree, you can enter into that digital audio contract and have an audio signature. The customer knows that you’ve done this and realizes he now has a legal, binding contract with you. That takes him off the market.”

The two-way nature of the transaction makes binding possible. “You can’t bind business via voice mail or e-mail because that’s one-way communication. You don’t have a meeting of the minds,” explains McDonald. “A phone call, because it’s a discussion between two people, represents a verbal contract.”

Recording security is key. The regulator okayed recorded verbal contracts, as long as a secure recording system was used, McDonald notes. “You need to be able to show the audio file was kept secure and that nobody tampered with it.”

Making new workflows work

To get employees engaged, Access Insurance Group offered incentives when adopting audio signatures. Every telephone-recorded application generated a bonus. “It was to help them get over that hump, that fear,” says Donohue. “It was something new,” particularly for industry veterans who for decades were required to get a signed application.

Compliance scripts also represented a hurdle. “Some people looked at the script as being a nuisance,” Donohue recalls. Now, she says, some reps have the script almost memorized.

Sklarchuk says younger workers—those who aren’t as engrained in tradition and who grew up with newer technologies—are somewhat more comfortable with the workflow. That said, even those with initial reluctance are picking it up.

“A third of our new business is done by telephone-recorded applications,” Sklarchuk explains. “And some 40% to 50% of that goes right from the quote to the application in one call, as opposed to several back-and-forth conversations.”

For more information:
Blue Goose Technology Solutions, Inc.
Web site: http://www.bluegoose.us/