Renewal and photo chase for insurance agencies
Quick summary
- You are on hold with the company. The renewal list and the missing hail photos still have to be chased.
- The list is a named plate, a meeting reminder, or a new-policy follow-up. Not a second opinion on cover.
- Every call starts with the plate or the name on the file. If they do not recognise them, the call stops.
- It does not say the car can be driven. Missing photos are a yes or no. What those photos mean is a callback.
- If they ask whether anything is covered, the assistant writes the question down and says the agent will look at the policy.
- SMS does the first reminder. The voice call is for the folder that has still not arrived two days after hail.
TL;DR
You are on hold with the company. Eight renewal letters are still unanswered and Wednesday's hail photos never arrived. Nobody is going to spend the afternoon ringing. An assistant works the list you give it: plate or name on the file, one purpose. It asks whether the photos have been sent. It does not say what those photos mean, whether anything is covered, or what a renewal will cost. If they ask, it writes the question down and says the agent will look at the policy. It can book a drop if that time is free. It will not ring a spouse's mobile about someone else's claim.
Key takeaways
- Build each list from your own files: plate or name, the number on the file, and one purpose.
- Do not put a personal mobile on a claim chase unless that number is the number on the file.
- Write the purpose as a reminder or a chase, not as a question about cover.
- If the client asks whether anything is covered, the assistant ends the call and flags the agent to call back.
- Check the diary before you speak a time. Do not read Thursday off last week's pad.
- Keep premiums and last year's excess off the script. The agent will look at the policy.
The lists on the desk while you wait for the company
The company has not come back. Eight renewal letters are still unanswered. Wednesday’s hail photos never arrived. You are not going to spend the afternoon ringing.
That is the outbound problem in this office. Not a campaign. Not a hunt for new work. A list of people you already know, a plate you have already written down, and nobody free to ring because the hold will not wait.
The secretary, if you have one, has sent the emails. The voice call is the second attempt. It does not happen. The claim file sits without pictures, or someone pulls you off the company line at four because a phone full of photos arrived at the door.
Nobody has worked two other lists either. A renewal sitting on Thursday that nobody confirmed, so the hour is empty and the letter never leaves the client’s car. A buyer who asked about a new motor this month, left a number, and never booked — they have two other offices on a card in the glove box, and they will use one of them.
You put the assistant on a list you made. It rings. It talks like a receptionist: the office name, the plate or the name on the file, then the one thing you asked it to do. Then it stops.
Three purposes, and nothing else
Three jobs belong on a list.
A named folder, after hail or after a bump. Photos of the windscreen. Both plates. The statement. The assistant names the folder you wrote down, asks whether it has been sent, and offers to note a problem. It does not discuss what those pictures mean. It does not rebuild the claim on the call.
A renewal or a time to leave photos. Time, place, what to bring for that type, how to say if they cannot come. No sentence that cover continues. No “it should be fine”. No estimate of the premium.
A new-policy follow-up. They asked about a motor, a household, a shop, and never booked. The assistant offers a time only if the diary has one. If you have closed new work for the month, it says so on the first line. It does not invent a premium. It does not promise you can take them on.
Everything else is your call. Whether anything is covered. Whether they can drive. Who is at fault. What a renewal will cost. Whether a crossing needs a green card. Those sentences need you, a file, and a decision. They do not belong on a list.
A time to leave photos is ten minutes at the desk. A quote sitting is you, the papers, and an hour. If the assistant cannot tell them apart, you spend Thursday on people who only needed to drop a phone.
The wrong file, the wrong person
The first failure is not a missed reminder. It is the wrong file spoken to the wrong person.
A claim briefed to a spouse. A renewal briefed to a colleague who picked up the office mobile. Last year’s household figures read to a driver who rang about this year’s motor. Opening with the plate or the name on the file, and stopping when those are not recognised, is how you keep the files apart.
The number on the list is the number on the file. A spouse’s mobile does not go on a claim chase unless that mobile is the number you were told to use. A colleague does not go on a renewal unless you have an instruction. A former driver, a number copied off a forwarded letter, a mobile that now belongs to someone who sold the car — not on the list.
If the person who answers does not recognise the plate, the assistant stops. It does not explain the claim so they can “pass it on”. It does not ask them to find the policyholder. It ends the call and flags you.
If the caller is a client who is both — a hail claim and a renewal in the same breath — the assistant records both and does not merge them into one sitting. Those are two conversations for you, even if they answered one ring.
The question that is not a chase
Clients ask. They ask on the outbound because that is when they finally have the office on the phone.
“Does the cracked light count?” “Can I drive it tomorrow?” “Is glass on this policy?” “What will the renewal be, roughly?” Those are cover questions, or a premium. An assistant that answers has given a decision with no agent and no reviewer. An assistant that writes the question down, in the client’s words, and says the agent will look at the policy, has ended the chase.
The call ends there. The assistant does not go through the photos. It does not give a range. It does not say last year’s excess. It does not say it should be fine.
If they will not send the photos without a yes on cover, flag a person. Do not invent one to close the reminder.
The same stop applies to a new-policy follow-up. “Just a round figure, I am still at the dealer” is not a reason to stay on the line. Intake is finished on the phone. The premium is yours.
The rule the assistant must obey
One purpose per call. Plate or name first. Stop if those do not match. Check the diary before speaking a time. Take questions, do not answer them. Never use a number that is not the number on the file.
Claim, renewal and new policy may appear as labels on the list, so the right person owns the callback. They are not themes for the assistant to finish. A photo chase does not discuss fault. A renewal reminder does not confirm that the car can be driven. A new-policy follow-up does not invent a premium or pick a company.
Injury, still in the street, a locked claim with the company, a letter they cannot read — flag those, do not walk anyone through them. If they offer a policy number, take it. If they do not, do not interrogate them on a reminder call.
A time from last week’s pad
Closed hours move. Drops move. An outbound that confirms Thursday at 09:00 from last Friday’s pad, after the diary has closed the morning because you are on hold with the company, is worse than no call. The client arrives with a phone full of photos on a morning you have closed.
The assistant has to check the diary before it speaks a time. It never offers a quote sitting in an hour you have closed. Times to leave photos can still be offered if someone will be at the desk. If the diary cannot be reached, it does not guess. It takes a callback.
On a closed hour you still take the phone. You do not take a quote sitting. Enter the sitting days. The assistant cannot invent them.
Calls that cannot stay on this list
Three things, said on an outbound, end the purpose and go to a phone.
Someone is hurt, or the other driver is leaving. Take the plate, who is speaking, where they are if they offer it, and put it on a number you hold. Do not finish the photo chase first.
They need to drive the car this afternoon, or the renewal runs out tomorrow. A note in the evening list is a note you read after the hour that mattered.
They are still in the street. Do not tell them to sign. Take the plate, the other plate if they have it, and flag a phone.
Everything else can wait for the transcript.
What you configure first
- The list shape. Plate or name on the file, the number on the file, purpose, agent who owns the callback. No second number “just in case” unless that second number is also on the file and you have said so.
- Who stays off the list. Personal mobiles on someone else’s claim, spouses on a file they are not named on, former drivers, and any number that came off a forwarded letter rather than off your own file.
- The three purposes, written so they cannot drift into a cover sentence. Named folder. Yes or no. Note a problem. Stop.
- The diary check on any call that will speak a time. Closed hours marked, so a quote sitting cannot land on a hold.
- The stop-and-flag when the client asks whether anything is covered, whether they can drive, who is at fault, or what the renewal will cost.
- The callback sentence, verbatim, even on a new-policy follow-up: the agent will look at the policy.
Turn on SMS before the voice list. The first reminder is a text. The voice call is the second attempt: the photos that have still not arrived two days after hail, or the new policy that a text did not turn into a time. Do not send both at the same minute with different times. The diary is the source.
See pricing for how calls are charged.
What these calls sound like
The exchange in the panel above is the shape to expect. The assistant names the office, the plate, and the fact that this is a document reminder only. It refuses the light question and the drive-tomorrow question. It records both for an agent. It does not go through the claim.
A renewal reminder is shorter. Identity, plate, time, place, what to bring, a path if they cannot come. If they cannot come, that is a diary problem for a person, not a talk about whether the car can be driven until Friday.
A green-card chase names the plate and the dates. It does not decide whether the crossing needs a card. If they raise Bulgaria for Friday and you need three days, the agent will call back.
A new-policy follow-up offers only times the diary currently has. It does not invent a premium. If you are not taking new work this month, that sentence comes first.
If nobody answers, the assistant leaves the message you entered — office, plate, purpose, a number back — or it sends the SMS and stops. It does not leave a second message that starts to describe the claim.
The assistant answers in the caller’s language, from what you entered. In a Greek office that is often Greek, English, German, Albanian and Russian in the same week. A photo chase to a foreign driver is still a chase, not a cover walkthrough in a second language.
Lists that stay on your phone
A client who has gone quiet on a disputed claim. A file where a relative might pick up. A number that may now belong to someone who sold the car. If a file is too sensitive to ring, it does not belong on the list. You decide that before the assistant dials.
Estimates, “glass is usually fine”, dates spoken as if cover had been decided, walkthroughs of the amicable statement — those sentences belong to an agent, in a call you meant to make.
Hail week, renewal week, August
A hail week, a renewal week and an August Friday are not the same list.
Hail is photos and the company. The chase is a named plate and a folder. If someone is still in the street, or hurt, that goes to a phone.
Renewal is existing files, often after hours, often in more than one language. The chase is a sitting, not a sentence that the car can be driven. The failure is a yes on cover to hurry the appointment.
An August Friday is one person in the office and a published number that still rings. Set the closure dates and the sentence for new work. Do not confirm a quote sitting in a week when the office is dark.
Teach the assistant the three shapes. If you give it one generic “follow-up” label, it will treat an injury like a photo drop.
After the first list
Run a short list first. Ten photo chases two days after hail. Ten renewal reminders. Five new-policy follow-ups. Read every transcript before you add volume.
You are not listening for warmth. You are listening for the extra sentence — the one that was not on the purpose line. The moment it almost named cover, almost invented a premium, almost treated a claim and a meeting as the same booking, almost rang a spouse, almost confirmed Thursday off last week’s pad. Those are visible in the first week if you read the record.
Hail week is when you will want to loosen the list. That is when you must not. Send on the photos you have, or flag a person. Do not let the assistant finish the cover question out loud so the file can move.
AI receptionist, in-house staff, or a call centre
| CITT | In-house | Call centre | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Photo chase after hail | Yes, from your list | When someone has time | If you write a script |
| Renewal and drop reminders | Yes | Yes | Sometimes |
| Starts with the plate or the name | Yes | Yes | If you insist |
| Names cover to hurry the photos | Never — the agent will look at the policy | The agent does, after the file | A risk if the script drifts |
| Answers whether they can drive | No — flags an agent | The agent does | Must not; sometimes does |
| Offers a drop the diary does not have | No — checks the diary, or takes a callback | If they check | Often from last week's pad |
| Rings a spouse about someone else's claim | No — only the number on the file | Only if you said so | A risk if the list was not read |
What unchased hail photos cost one week
Worked from these assumptions — change any of them and the answer changes:
- Two people, 18 open claim files after a hail night, each waiting on photos or a statement.
- This example treats 8 of those 18 as still missing two days later.
- A file that sits incomplete, or is pulled when the photos arrive at four, wastes about €70 of reserved time — put your own figure in, not ours.
- A two-day outbound chase recovers half of those missing folders. Challenge this first; offices vary.
- 8 files still open on paper, two days out.
- Half recovered — 4 files that move on the photos they needed.
- 4 × €70 = €280 of reserved time protected, in one week.
- Several such weeks a year — this example counts four.
About €1,120 a year of desk time, from calls that only ask whether the photos have been sent.
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
Can it tell them which photos are missing?
It can name the folder you put on the list — photos of the windscreen, both plates, the statement. It should not rebuild the claim on the call, and it should not decide that a particular picture proves anything. If they ask whether the bumper is covered, that is a callback. The agent will look at the policy.
What if they ask whether they can drive, on the chase call?
The assistant does not answer. It says the agent will look at the policy, takes the question in the client's words, and ends the chase. A chase that becomes a cover conversation has no reviewer, no file note of a decision, and no agent attached. The transcript still helps — the agent returns a real question rather than “they rang”.
Can it offer a new time to leave photos?
Yes, if you allow that purpose and if it checks the diary before it offers a time. It still does not tell them what the photos mean beyond the list you entered. A reminder that starts deciding cover has stopped being a reminder.
Does it still ask for the plate when we ring?
Yes. The call opens with the office name, the plate or the name on the file, and it stops if the person on the line does not recognise them. That is how you avoid briefing a spouse about a claim, or a colleague about a renewal.
Can it chase a renewal from an existing client?
As a meeting reminder, yes: we have a time this week, can you come, here is what to bring. Not as a sentence that cover continues, and not as a premium. “We still have Thursday at 10:00 for the renewal sitting” is reception. “The car is fine until Friday” is a cover decision.
Who decides who is on the list?
The office. The assistant does not invent people to ring. You export or tick the files that need a reminder or a chase, with one purpose each. A list that mixes “where are the photos” with “see if they want a new household” is two jobs, and only the first one belongs here.
