1. Tell me what was the most difficult period in your career so far and how did you deal with it?
Work related- I was having this challenge whereby a certain family was having those individuals who were not willing that a postmortem be conducted to their family member, I was suppossed to intervene to deal with this situation. I tried to explain to their elders the importance of the postmortem, I manage to knock some sense into their minds and the postmortem was conducted.
2. Tell us how well do you understand the insurance industry?
I am still learning the basics a great deal, but understand the need to exist and how it provides answers in need. I chose this industry based on skills that I found being underused in the past and very appealing to exercise.
3. Tell me do you consider yourself highly organized?
Well, this would be my first job but if a customer irritated me I wouldn't show it. I would still treat them like everyone else and make sure they leave satisfied with their experience.
4. Tell me what about your last job prepared you to step into this position?
Before I trained to enter the insurance industry, I was a customer service representative at a large call center. Our clients included both insurance clients and also some tech industry support for cellular phone contracts and warranty services. Both of those client groups involve a lot of negotiation with customers from a call center's perspective, and they both taught me how to adjust a customer's expectations politely, while explaining why it is important that we do so.
5. Tell us how were you notified that you received the job?
My interview was more or less on the floor, I guess. They asked me to make a phone call and to see if I could sell. I did, I ended up calling a business. I ended up talking to the business owner. I ended up getting a quote for him. Through that my boss was like, “Okay we understand that you can do that. Try doing a residential.” I got a quote through them and therefore I did my job in front of them. I showed them that I was capable of doing it.
6. Tell us can I have your insurance license number?
Ask this one early in the process and you could save some time. It's a deal-breaker.
Insurance agents are licensed by the state. Getting the license number speeds up your background check with the state insurance commissioner; it sends a clear message to the agent that you intend to do a background check.
You can laugh it off as being precautionary and being a waste of a phone call if that gets the agent to show you a license, but you should make it clear that you won't hire an agent who can't prove that he or she is currently licensed. Some states give agents a card to show, others a certificate for the wall. It doesn't matter; ask for proof, look at the document, check the names and dates.
7. Do you know who will have the primary responsibility for handling my account?
If an agency is big enough, the salesman may only close the deal, leaving subordinates or clerical staff to do the actual paperwork and much of the research. If that's the case, find out who will have responsibility for your account.
8. What is the contestable period' in insurance policy?
‘Contestable period' is usually 1 or 2 years, during which the insurance company holds all the right to investigate the policy and decide whether to pay or not to pay to the insured.
9. Tell me what is Co-insurance?
Co-insurance term is usually referred to health insurance companies. In this type of policy, you share the coverage with, the insurance company in percentage of the policy value, after paying deductible or co-payment. It is the split of insurance coverage between you and insurance company; usually the split would be 80/20 % where you are liable to pay 20% and the remaining amount by the insurance company. For example, for health policy you have claimed for $200, according to policy clause you have to pay deductible, let say $100, now after paying deductible the remaining amount is $100, now you have a co-insurance which is split into 80/20%. So you will pay $20 out of $100 from your pocket while the $80 will be paid by co-insurance(meaning the insurance company).
10. Is it safe to pay the premium through Insurance Agent?
It is safe to pay the premium through your agent as far as you are making the payment through cheques on the name of Insurance Company and receiving all the receipts for the payments.
11. What is the difference between the participating and non-participating policy?
Participating policy is a policy, where the profit or benefits of the insurance company is shared with the insured in theform of a dividend or reversionary bonuses. While, the non-participating policy, does not share their profit with insured.
12. Tell me have you had to contact a doctor before on a questionable claim?
Yes, many times. Sometimes they were helpful and sometimes they were not. It all depends on the place or doctor.
13. Tell us when you have difficulty persuading someone to your point of view, what do you do?
I ask them questions to figure out their thought process so I can understand why they don't agree. Then I can explain the differences with my point of view and how it may be better in a positive way.
14. Explain me what are your three greatest strengths?
I am a descipline person, I've got a tendency of pushing myself to hard to meet deadlines set by the company and I work to my utmost best to achieve the task given by the manegement.
Some sort of counselling, customers are most of the time unhappy with the delay, try to be quite and have patience and learned what customer realy want.
Luckily, this is an area where I do have a lot of experience. If I've already explained what happened and why I need to make the adjustment, the next step is to give clients the space they need to ask questions. By fielding their concerns and addressing them, hopefully we can bring the clients to the point where they understand. Failing that, it is necessary to keep my own cool as I point out what led to this determination.
17. Please explain what other advice would you give to a job seeker looking to gain employment?
It's a really good job. They have a lot of they have a lot of good career opportunities. It's a good way to get your feet wet if you're wanting to go into a marketing job. If you're looking for something, that you're like, “Okay, I want to learn how to put my name out there and talk to different people.” These are people that you're probably not going to see. Yet you still have this connection with them by just talking with them. I would say it's a good job for that. If you don't have a lot of patience and you don't like being over the phone or if you're afraid you're going to get your feelings hurt because people are going to say stuff over the phone, then it's not a job for you. It's a job for someone who can take no, rejection. You may only get one quote a day out of 100 that you call. It's something that you have to take the rejection. It's rewarding because of what you make, but also being able to help people who really do appreciate that you are calling them to see if you can help them out.
This is a big issue with life insurance products, for which the agent is going to get a big cut of what you spend up front to buy coverage. A big chunk of your first premium payment is going to the advisor, no matter what, so be sure the agent has shown you several options and given you the information necessary to pick the best one for you. That won't necessarily be the policy that provides the agent with the biggest payday.
This is one of those areas in which an independent agent may have an edge. If your agent believes the insurance was wrong in denying a claim, she should step in and lobby on your behalf. When an agent represents one company, she may not want to put up too big a fight or could wind up out of business. An independent agent, meanwhile, has the threat of moving business to another company.
Under any circumstances, beyond knowing how an agent will help in processing claims, you want to know if they will go to bat for you when a claim goes against you.
‘Revocable beneficiary' designation gives right to the policy holder to change the beneficiary name without the consent of the named beneficiary. While in ‘Irrevocable beneficiary' the policy holder has to take consent of the beneficiary before the name is changed.
21. Tell us is it possible to get the full payment on cancelling the new policy in free look period?
‘Free Look Period' is a time-period where the insured can cancel their newly bought policy in a specific period of time from the date of issuing the policy without any penalties or surrender charges.
Yes, it is possible to get the full payment in free look period; you can cancel your new policy in 15 days by returning the policy to the life Insurance company after you receive all the documents related to the policy.
Beneficiary is the one whom you have nominated for the insured amount in case of your death.
There are plenty of reasons to get these questions answered before you have to put the agent to the test.
Say you decide to buy a car on Saturday afternoon, but don't know whether your current policy offers sufficient protection for the new car. If you drive off the lot and get in an accident, you could be in for a heap of financial troubles; if your agent isn't available until Monday and has no off-hours number to check in on, you may not have any way of knowing whether you are sufficiently covered on the new car.
Likewise, you have a car accident on the weekend and need to know if you can rent a car and bill it to the insurer, or there's a fire in your home and you want to know how quickly you can get people working to weatherproof the parts of your home that survived.
24. Tell me what continuing education classes have you taken? What credentials, if any, do you have?
Insurance, like the other financial services specialties, is evolving; you want someone who is current on the law and on the best procedures to follow to maximize your insurance dollar. With pricing being less of an issue in insurance than other specialties, expertise is at a premium (so to speak), so make sure you are getting an expert and not just a salesman.
The more insurers an agent represents, the more options she can present you with. At the same time, an agent may have a few favorites she prefers to work with. Captive agents, of course, work with only the one firm, but those companies are likely to provide cradle-to-grave coverage options on virtually every type of protection.
Ideally, an agent with a long history in the business has longstanding relationships with the insurer(s) she works with. If not, that raises a concern that she has not been the kind of agent an insurer wants to keep. That said, there are also legitimate reasons why an insurer might drop an agent, not the least of which is state regulations that make a company decide to no longer participate in the market.
