AI phone receptionist for insurance agencies
Quick summary
- You are on hold with the company. The other person is with a client. That is when someone rings in a claim.
- The first question is claim, new policy, or an existing policy — those are three different jobs.
- On a claim it takes the plate or the policy number and what happened. It never says they are covered.
- A caller who just bought a car this afternoon will not wait on voicemail. They ring the next office.
- It checks your diary before it offers a meeting, writes the time in, and texts the confirmation.
- After hail, or on a Monday after the weekend bumps, several people ring at once. It answers every line at once.
TL;DR
You are on hold with the company about yesterday's glass. The other person is going through a motor quote at the desk. The phone rings. The person in a car park after a bump will not leave a message. The person who just bought a used car and needs to drive it home will not leave one either. They ring the next office. An assistant answers in the caller's language, asks whether this is a claim, a new policy, or something on a policy they already have, takes the plate or the policy number, writes down what happened, books a meeting only if that time is free, and never says they are covered. It does not invent a premium. It does not decide fault.
Key takeaways
- Put the assistant on the published number with a forward-on-no-answer rule, so a free pair of hands at the desk still takes the call.
- Teach it the first question: claim, new policy, or an existing policy — and do not let it jump to a time before that split.
- On a claim it takes the plate or the policy number and what happened. Give it the sentence: it cannot say they are covered.
- Let it book new-policy meetings and times to leave photos or a statement. Keep cover, fault and premium as a callback.
- After hail or on a Monday, shorten the ring-time before forwarding so overflow is caught before the third ring-out.
- Give it the line verbatim: the agent will look at the policy. It does not invent a premium from a description of the car.
What an AI phone receptionist does in an insurance office
You are on hold with the company about yesterday’s windscreen. Across the desk the other person is going through a motor quote — year, cubic capacity, who drives it. The phone rings. You cannot put the company down. The colleague cannot leave the client mid-quote. There is no third pair of hands.
You put the assistant on the number already on the window and on the card in the glove box. It answers when you cannot. Then it does one of two things. It takes a claim note. Or it books a meeting that is actually free.
The first question is whether this is a claim, a new policy, or something on a policy they already have with you. A bump in a car park is not a first meeting. A first meeting is not a green card. An assistant that opens with “what time would you like?” will put a claim into a quote hour and leave the person in the street without a note.
A caller who rang in English gets the confirmation in English. A caller who rang in Greek gets it in Greek. The assistant works in 70+ languages. The SMS follows the language of the call.
On hold with the company, and the phone still ringing
One of you is already on the other handset, waiting for the claims desk to come back. The other is sitting with someone who brought a registration and a licence. The published number still rings.
It is a burst. Monday after the weekend bumps. The morning after hail. The afternoon a dealer sent three buyers out with your card. A second line with the same two hands still leaves the third caller on a busy tone.
The person standing in a supermarket car park will not wait on voicemail. They have your card and another agent’s card in the same glove box. They hang up and dial the next office. The person who just paid for a used car and needs to drive it home will not leave a message either.
Clients whose policies are already here will often wait. A person who cannot report a bump, and a person who cannot start a new motor policy, will not. If those two wait behind the call you are already on, the new policy is gone, and the person with the bump arrives angry at five — or the next agent has already opened the file.
Whoever takes the claim often takes the renewal. That is why a missed claim is not only a missed note.
Claim, new policy, or an existing policy — then the plate
Claim. Something already happened. A bumper, a windscreen, water from the upstairs flat, a bag taken from a parked car. The assistant asks for a plate or a policy number, then what happened in their words, then when, then a name and a number. It writes that down. It does not open a cover question. If they want to leave photos and a statement, it checks the diary and offers a short time at the desk. If someone is hurt, it stops the intake and puts the caller through to a phone you actually hold.
New policy. They do not have a file with you yet. Motor, household, health, a shop, professional liability. The assistant asks which of those they mean, then books a meeting to take the papers. It does not invent a premium from a description of a car or a flat. It does not pick a company for them. If you have closed new work this month, it says so on the first call, from the line you typed in.
Existing policy. Renewal, a change of car, a young driver, a green card, a certificate for the bank or the notary. The assistant asks for the plate or the policy number first. No plate and no number, it still takes the name and a callback. A renewal meeting and a ten-minute collection of a certificate are not the same time in the diary. Mark them as two kinds of visit, or you will sit down for an hour with someone who only needed a stamp.
People remember the plate. They do not remember the policy number. Ask for the plate first. If they offer the number, take that too. One identifier is enough to put the note on the right file. None is still a note, not a guess.
A sentence the assistant is not allowed to say
“Am I covered?” is the question on this phone. It comes after a bump, after hail, after a pipe, and on a Monday when someone is unsure whether last year’s motor is still in force.
The assistant does not answer it. Not with yes. Not with “you should be fine”. Not with “glass is usually included”. A sentence that sounds like cover, said on the recorded line, is a sentence the office now owns, and the assistant cannot see the schedule, the excess, the endorsements, or what the company will do.
The line you give it is short: the agent will look at the policy. The company decides cover. This call takes the note.
“Can I drive?”, “is the car still insured?”, “will they pay for the bumper?”, and “is the other driver covered if I sign?” are still cover questions. The assistant names the topic so the callback is useful, and refuses the decision.
Do not put a cover table in the notes. It will read the table out.
Hail, Monday, and everyone at once
Hail in the night. By eight, people have started ringing about windscreens. You are already on hold with the company about the first three. The pad is already a list of plates.
Monday is a smaller version of the same hour. People report the weekend bump. People who looked at cars on Sunday ring about a new motor.
The assistant has to treat that burst as several conversations, not as a queue behind your call with the company. A claim in that hour is a note. A new-policy call is a meeting or a callback. If the assistant parks the person who wants a new policy behind the tenth windscreen report, that person rings the next office.
Shorten the ring-time before forwarding on those mornings. After hail the third caller should not hear a busy tone. A Tuesday in August is people asking for green cards, and one person left in the office.
A premium nobody can give from a description of the car
When someone describes a car on the phone — a 2018 diesel, they think sixteen hundred, their son will drive it at weekends — the tempting answer is a number. The assistant does not give one.
Year, fuel, cubic capacity and the age of the youngest driver all change the work. A number quoted before anyone has seen the registration, the licence and the current schedule is a number you then spend the meeting taking back.
It can repeat a published starting figure you typed in and marked as speakable. Unseen comprehensive work, a young driver, a shop, a household with a previous claim — those do not get a number on this call. The assistant takes the request and books the meeting. An excess remembered from last year is not this year’s excess. The assistant does not quote it.
If they press — “just a round figure, I am at the dealer” — the assistant still refuses. Book them as soon as a time is free. Flag it if they need to drive the car today.
Standing in the street
Some of these callers are in a car park, at a junction, on a ring road, with the other driver waiting. They want to know whether to sign the amicable statement, whether to call the police, whether they can move the cars.
The assistant is not at the junction. It cannot see the damage. It cannot decide fault.
What it can take, if they have it: their plate, the other plate, where they are, whether anyone is hurt, and what they said happened. What it can repeat, if you typed the line in: take photos of both cars, the plates and the damage before anything moves. Sign or do not sign is yours, or the company’s, after the photos.
If someone is hurt, or they say the other driver will not stop, that is a transfer. You give the assistant a short list: injured, ambulance, the other driver is leaving. It collects a name and a number while it is connecting. It does not tell them what to say to the police.
A caller who is already home, with photos on their phone, is a claim note and, if they want, a time to come in.
Green cards, certificates, and “is the car still insured?”
Green card. They drive to Bulgaria on Friday, or to North Macedonia. The assistant takes the plate and the dates, and books a collection. It does not decide whether a crossing needs a card, and it does not say they are covered abroad. Mark how many days you need if you issue the card. If the company issues it, do not promise Friday.
Certificate of insurance. The bank, the notary, a buyer, a dealer. The assistant takes who it is for and when they need it. It does not say what the bank will accept, and it does not confirm that cover is in force.
Renewal. “Is the car still insured?” is a cover question. The assistant takes the plate and books a renewal meeting, or flags you to call the same day. It does not read a date off a list and say yes. If they need to drive tomorrow, that is a same-day phone.
Change of car, extra driver. They sold the Fiat, they bought a Toyota, they want the son on the policy. The assistant takes the plate and the change, and books a meeting. It does not say the new car is on cover from this afternoon, or that a twenty-two-year-old can be added.
August needs its own dates. Do not let the assistant book a renewal into a week when the office is dark.
How CITT handles it
- Your number stays on the window and on the card in the glove box. A forwarding rule sends what you do not answer. Calls the desk picks up never leave the office.
- Every line is answered at once. A hail morning is several conversations, not a stack of busy tones.
- It knows the office you described. What you offer, whether you take new policies this month, how a claim note should look, who is in on Monday.
- It asks claim, new policy, or existing first, then the plate or the policy number, and only then looks at the diary.
- It takes a claim as a note, in the caller’s words, and never as a cover sentence.
- It checks the real diary before it offers a time, and writes the meeting into the same calendar the office already uses.
- It confirms by SMS, in the language of the call — 70+ languages — and can remind them what to bring.
- It escalates cover, fault, premium, “can I drive”, and an injury as a tagged note or a transfer.
- You get the transcript, the summary, the plate, and what the caller asked for.
What it will not do
It will not say they are covered. It will not decide fault, or tell anyone to sign the amicable statement. It will not invent a premium or quote an excess from memory. It will not say the company will pay. It will not say they can drive the new car this afternoon, or that the son can be added. It will not pick a company for them. It will not treat a claim, a new-policy meeting and a certificate collection as the same visit.
What these calls sound like
The order is the split, then the plate, then the note or the meeting, then the refusal said out loud. There is no “you are covered”. There is no round figure over a car nobody has seen. There is no “just sign” to a person in a car park.
If the assistant is friendly and still answers the cover question, you own that sentence. Put the person who rang about the bumper at 11:10 on a claim note, not on the next office’s pad.
What you set up first
Put the assistant on the number on the window with a forward-on-no-answer rule, so a free pair of hands at the desk still takes the call. Then the three-way split, the plate question, and the sentence that forbids a cover decision.
Write down what you actually offer and whether you are taking new policies this month. Give it the claim fields you want on every note: plate, policy number if they have it, when, what happened, other plate if they have it, whether anyone is hurt. Mark two kinds of visit: a meeting that needs you, and a short time to leave photos or collect a certificate.
Give it the same-day phone list: someone is hurt, they are still in the street, they need to drive a new car this afternoon, the renewal runs out tomorrow. Do not give it a motor tariff it would read out. Write one line that forbids cover, fault and payout sentences. Add opening hours, who is in on Monday, August dates, where to park.
Rates live on the pricing section of the home page. They are not repeated here.
AI receptionist, in-house staff, or a call centre
| CITT | In-house | Call centre | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Answers while you are on hold with the company | Always | Only between calls | Yes |
| Several callers at once | Every line at once | One | Depends on the plan |
| Asks claim, new policy or existing first | Yes — before it looks at the diary | Yes | Often jumps to what time |
| Says they are covered | Never — takes the note | Not on the first call either | Must not; sometimes does |
| Invents a motor premium from a description | Never | Quotes after the papers | Often reads a range |
| Speaks the caller's language | 70+ languages | One or two | Whoever is on that shift |
| What it will not do | Decide cover, fault, or a payout | Opens the policy, still does not decide for the company | Reads a script |
What one unanswered Monday morning costs a two-person insurance office
Worked from these assumptions — change any of them and the answer changes:
- Two people, a Monday after a normal weekend, roughly 32 inbound calls before early afternoon.
- About a third arrive while one of you is on hold with the company and the other is with a client.
- Of the calls nobody reaches, 5 are people who want a new motor or household policy.
- A new policy that stays is worth about €180 in first-year commission to the office — put your own figure in, this is the number to change first.
- This example assumes 3 of the 5 never leave a message and ring the next office.
- 5 new-policy requests reach nobody on a normal Monday morning.
- 3 of them do not call back.
- 3 × €180 = €540 of first-year commission, that Monday.
- Monday mornings, over a 46-week year — 46 × €540.
About €24,840 a year, from the same Monday window repeating.
What it costs
CITT is pay as you go: no packages, no minimum, no contract. The current rates — the monthly fee per number and the per-minute rate — are on the pricing section of the home page, which is the only place they are published.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to give up the office number?
No. You keep the number on the window, the card in the glove box and the Google listing. You set one forwarding rule — every call, or only the ones still ringing after the seconds you choose. If someone at the desk picks up, the call never leaves the office and is never charged.
Can it tell a caller they are covered?
It must not. It takes the claim in the caller's words, asks for a plate or a policy number, collects a name and a callback number, and puts the note in front of you. Whether anything is covered is a decision for the company after the file is opened. The assistant does not say “you are covered” to sound helpful.
Can it quote a premium if they describe the car?
No. Year, cubic capacity and who drives it are not a quote. A number said before anyone has seen the registration, the licence and the current policy is a number the desk then has to take back. It books a meeting to take those papers. If a price must not be said until you have the papers, do not give the assistant that price.
What if I am already on hold with the company?
That is the usual morning. The assistant answers the overflow. A claim becomes a note with the plate and what happened. A new-policy call becomes a meeting that is actually free, or a callback. After hail, shorten the ring-time so the third caller is not listening to a busy tone.
Someone is in the street after a bump. Can it tell them whether to sign?
No. It takes the plate, the other plate if they have it, where they are, and what they said happened. It can tell them to take photos before the cars move, if that is a line you wrote down. It does not say sign, do not sign, or who is at fault. If someone is hurt, it puts the caller through to a phone you actually hold.
What do we actually see afterwards?
A transcript, a short summary, whether this was a claim, a new policy or an existing policy, the plate or policy number if they gave one, and whatever was booked or left for you. Confirmations go out by SMS in the language of the call.
