Training CSRs to ease customers' pain

The program starts with an initial "Knowledge Check" that analyzes customer-service employees to determine their business skills and technical aptitude for personal and commercial insurance lines. The online assessment allows employers to create customized training to best suit the employee's needs.

Good customer service skills are always important, but never maybe more than when you're talking with someone who just suffered a loss.

In many cases, that is when customer-service reps (CSRs) at insurance agencies interact with customers.

"Many times, when these CSRs are dealing with customers, it's because they've had some kind of loss," says Kathleen Lawler, education director at Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of New York (IIABNY), a statewide insurance professional trade group with 1,900 members.

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