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What to Consider When Starting a Call Center

Written by Jessica Adkins

Blog | Compliance | Education | Q&A

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February 5, 2018

Q. I would like to start a call center. What do I need to get started?

A. Before you can start a call center you must have multiple layers of infrastructure in place.  You need physical space dedicated to telesales, dedicated agents for this part of your business, policies and procedures, recording hardware and software, storage capacity, a business model, proven lead generation techniques, much more and most importantly, an upline with a track-record of successful telesales and the ability to execute site-visits and help coach you through the meetings you will have with each carrier that allows phone-based sales. The infrastructure will also include compliance. There are several rules and regulations when it comes to Medicare and Call Centers. For instance, Call Centers are required to follow scripts. Eighty percent of incoming calls must be answered within 30 seconds. Average hold time cannot exceed two minutes. For the complete instructions, you can visit CMS.gov.

Software is another important piece of your call center infrastructure. Most CRMs are Cloud base or browser-based. A good CRM should allow you to import and export information quickly and easily.  You want to make sure it is fairly easy for everyone to use.  A good CRM should be able to adapt to your company’s future needs.  It should also let you analyze customer activates with a reporting and tracking feature. If you set up your marketing opportunities, a good CRM will allow for your leads to be automatically deposited into your prospecting “bucket.”

Set up a monitoring or quality department is another piece of your infrastructure. You should constantly be monitoring live or recorded calls. It can help you see what needs to be improved with training on an individual level as well as on a department level. It is also required by CMS. Creating and developing KPIs (also known as key performance indicators) and call-scoring can help you retrain your staff to ensure sales calls are effective. Check local and state requirements. Contact your state’s Office of Taxation and Finance. You will also need to contact your state’s Department of Insurance. You need to file all paperwork need and pay any fees that may apply and your local zoning department.
Now that you have your internal structure in place, you’ll need to diagnose what markets you’ll enter as successful call-center. Call centers are not limited to their domiciled state.  State and region breakdowns, pinpointed mail/call/PPC campaigns, are a few of the marketing and research requirements to invest your time and money into.  You have to be prepared to invest resources into generating leads, and this means committing to a sizeable monthly budget for creating interest in your company which will all be lined out in your business plan.
Luckily for you, Agent Pipeline has the experience, carrier relationships, agency building tool-kits and desire to help you achieve this goal.  When done correctly, call centers can be an industry leading way to procure enrollments and are a fantastic way to create ever-increasing revenue streams. For more questions concerning starting a call center or if you need assistance with growing your current business, please give us a call at 800-962-4693!

-Answered by Adam King, Regional Vice President

Adam King is a Regional Vice President in Medicare Sales at Agent Pipeline. Adam has been with Agent Pipeline for over 7 years. Adam is a Medicare expert in the markets of Texas, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama. If you would like to speak with Adam directly you can email him at adam.king@agentpipeline.com or call him at (304) 755-6469.

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