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Using a Hosted PBX to Keep Your Insurance Office Competitively Priced

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Most insurance offices focus on two over-arching goals: increasing sales and boosting their bottom line. In such a competitive market, however, pricing is critical to keeping an insurance office afloat. So where can you cut costs? Those running on traditional office phone systems lose daily opportunities to beat out the competition. How? They’re leaking overhead costs through outdated technology that overcharges and underdelivers.

Cutting prices doesn’t have to mean cutting revenue. Here’s how switching providers can get your prices down – without breaking the bank.

  1. Hosted PBX Phone Systems Lower Monthly Bills

Lowering in-house costs is one of the most direct ways to sustainably reduce a pricing model. Companies operating on landline phones waste hundreds of dollars a month on service they don’t need while missing out on advanced features that improve their business functionality.

First off, landline-based offices pay for phone service and the physical infrastructure that powers it. It’s expensive to install and perhaps even more so to maintain; most fixes require a third-party technician – repairing 30-year-old equipment is no small feat.

Also, advanced features are difficult to implement and configure on traditional business phone systems; as a result, they are often pricey and offered à la carte. Offices on landlines usually pay dearly for phone service that, by today’s standards, is merely passable.

VoIP PBX providers, on the other hand, own and manage most equipment; companies then subscribe to the service at a low monthly rate, leaving fixes, updates and maintenance up to the vendor.

Since business VoIP technology is internet-based, it’s continually updating, providing companies with cutting-edge features without all the extra costs. VoIP service also tends to come in packaged subscriptions, including many advanced features in even basic and standard offerings. Switching to modern service with a modest price tag enables offices to nudge client prices down.

Better Tools Increase Employee Availability

You’re only as good as your tools – and an outdated communication system holds offices back from making sales, keeping competitive pricing well out of reach.

Think about it: when was the last time you left a business voicemail and actually received a call back? It doesn’t happen often; in fact, 80 percent of people don’t leave voicemails at all because they don’t think anyone will listen to them. Insurance offices relying on traditional voicemail to address out-of-office employees miss out on potential offers, requests and sales.

This is a classic symptom of the landline-powered office; with inherently immobile infrastructure that’s difficult to configure, incoming calls fall through the cracks when an employee steps away from their desk.

Cloud PBXs, by contrast, are internet-based, and flexible and mobile by nature. Aside from offering voicemail transcription technology that makes messages more accessible, virtual PBX systems send fewer callers to voicemail altogether by increasing agent uptime.

How does VoIP increase agent availability? VoIP-enabled apps allow employees to send and receive calls and texts from their work number using their smartphone, laptop or desktop. With VoIP, employees can field customer interactions anywhere they have a mobile device (which, in 2018, is just about anywhere).

With a VoIP PBX, employees can answer customer calls anywhere.

Further, when an employee is unavailable during a meeting or time off, they can configure calls to forward to someone else – and just as easily remove the setting when they’re ready to take calls again.

In an insurance office, higher availability translates to more sales. Keeping employees available while on-the-go or working remotely opens the door to reduced client pricing.

Business VoIP Improves Office Flexibility

With VoIP, adding or removing lines is virtually instantaneous, easily accommodating on-boarding, off-boarding, expansion, office moves and other changes. This flexibility gives offices the freedom to shape their workforce into precisely what they need, optimizing productivity by avoiding overworked employees or an overstaffed office.

In addition, VoIP apps make it possible for managers to hire remote workers. This option widens applicant pools, helping offices find better talent in a shorter time frame. Some offices also use remote work as an opportunity to hire workers in different time zones, further improving their office’s availability.

Streamlined hiring and optimized productivity boost insurance office profitability to empower more competitive pricing – without seeing a drop in margins.

Offer Better Prices with a Modern Office Phone System

From increasing productivity to saving in-house costs, switching to a hosted VoIP PBX is one of the most straightforward ways to cut your insurance office’s pricing without taking a revenue hit. Download our infographic on the 10 benefits of 4Voice to learn how you could start beating competitor pricing with our business VoIP service.

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Amruth Laxman
About the Author

Amruth Laxman

25+ years of telecom experience, specializing in high availability software and systems, I’ve seen the transformative impact they have on businesses. As the founding partner of 4Voice, I deliver customized, reliable phone solutions and can’t wait to share my insights with you in this blog.

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