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Agents for LTC Financial Partners LLC (LTCFP) are going green, and the decision is showing up black in the books.
Due to the conservational steps LTCFP agents are taking now, the
long-term insurance company plans to double or even triple the
productivity of its agents within two to four years.
LTCFP agents are reducing gasoline usage through fuel efficiency and the elimination of some auto trips entirely. Agents are beginning to contact clients via the Internet and the phone rather than meeting with them in their homes—with positive results.
Tod Warner of Vermont, a sales leader, partner, and board member of LTCFP, says he’s been saving 50 gallons of gas a week since shifting his business to virtual contacts in February. Warner said he’s contacting twice as many customers and potential customers as he did before.
“This approach allows us to reach people who were not reachable before, because they were beyond driving range,” Warner said. “Now we can easily serve people in any state where we hold a license.”
Curt Horowitz, an LTCFP agent in Washington, has been operating entirely in virtual mode for about two years. Other LTCFP agents are beginning to do the same; about 18 percent of LTCFP’s business is done by phone, according to Irena Davison, manager of TeleSales Support for LTCFP. She expects the phone/Internet proportion to rise to 25 percent by the end of this year and to more than 50 percent by the end of next year.
The projected gasoline savings are eye-opening. If the average LTCFP agent consumes 50 fewer gallons per week, the total savings would be more than 1 million gallons annually for the company’s 480-plus agents—or more than $4 million, using current gas prices.
LTCFP offers several support mechanisms to help its agents conduct business without a car:
- Web screen-sharing and virtual meeting technology.
- An online system for comparing alternative policies from selected carriers.
- Telephone-interview training.
- Personal Web sites that supply facts and electronic documents.
- Videos that introduce the agents to consumers and businesses.
Agents are also seeing another environment-friendly result of their virtual work: a reduction in paperwork. Much of the printed information required for an in-person meeting can now be eliminated. For example, policy comparisons may be viewed on synchronized PCs with no need for printouts. Also, electronic versions of booklets, brochures, and fact sheets can be distributed online or by email, rendering traditional printing and binding unnecessary. Even insurance application forms, still requiring paper, are being reduced.
"I no longer order hundreds of application forms, only to toss them out when they become obsolete,” Warner said. “I now print out individual copies, one at a time, as needed.”
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