Why Are We Letting Our Insurance Agents Burn Out, and How Does It Affect Our Customers?

I have been in the customer experience industry for too long to understand that burnout is more predominant in the insurance industry compared to others.

Why is this so?

Here’s what the typical day for an insurance industry agent looks like:

• In the first call, they are empathizing with a distraught homeowner after a fire.
• In the second call, they are untangling confusion from a car accident claim.
• In the third call, they are explaining to an angry customer why the insurance coverage is only 70% of the claimed amount and not more.
• In the fourth call, they explain the breakdown of the insurance policy premium and how inflation gets added to the mix.

This repeats multiple times a day.

All of these are done while adhering to the complex policies of the insurance organization and complying with various standards and procedures.

My heart goes out to them.

You cannot handle these kinds of calls multiple times in a day without losing your sanity.

No wonder people are exhausted, which results in high levels of agent attrition.

Here are some statistics from industry research.

• Half of insurance service agents report burnout. Source: insurance-edge.net
• Ernst and Young reported that 10 to 12 % of agents churn annually as they jump ship for easier work or better pay.

Burnt-out agents make mistakes, take sick days, and deliver worse customer service.

Is this an acceptable scenario?

When agents fold, your CX will collapse.

It would lower productivity and spike turnover. This means slower claim processing, increased call escalations, and customers left hanging for resolutions.

This would be a death knell for you in the competitive insurance industry.

How Does the Insurance Industry Treat You?

Let me give you a couple of examples of my experience and how it has changed my perception of the brands.

A few years ago, my car met with an accident and it had to be towed to the nearest authorized service center. I had adequate insurance coverage.

The authorized (I stress this, as the insurance company licenses it) gave an estimate, and the insurance appraiser approved only a third of the estimate. In essence, I got paid 27K against the claim of 70K.

I was advised by my agent that we would appeal to the ombudsman and get the claim approval increased. I believed him and accepted the payment. Then, we appealed to the ombudsman, and they approved another 6K.

Where did this lead me?

I decided against renewing my insurance with that company and took my business to someone else.

Here is another example.

My son was hospitalized as he had severe tonsilitis when he was a child. We had cashless insurance, and the hospital only charged the admission fee.

In a couple of days, he recovered, and we were about to discharge. The hospital said that they have sent the bills for the insurance approval, and once that is done, they can start the discharge formalities.

They mentioned that it might take up to 4 hours for the approval to come through. However, within 10 minutes, I received a text from the insurance company that the entire claim had been approved, and they had communicated that to the hospital.

Besides, someone from the insurance company called me to check on my son’s health, and they wished him a speedy recovery.

Where did this lead me?

I have been their loyal customer now for more than 15 years, and I have spoken about this experience to hundreds of people I know.

A good experience can turn you into a brand ambassador, whereas a bad experience leads to more damage and for a longer duration of time.

The Gap Between Expectations and Reality and the Toll It Takes on Your Business

Today’s customers expect uber-level ease while dealing with your business, but too often in the insurance industry, all you get are frustration and delay. It doesn’t matter how complex the insurance business is; the customers want you to make their lives easier.

The reality in the industry is too different from our expectations. Most agents are expected to comply with all the policies and rigid scripts. There is very little scope for them to show empathy and provide the best possible experiences.

The fact that you are handling one life-changing issue after another tends to burn you out and make you feel exhausted. You will have to handle these with rigid policies and scripts.

The easiest option for agents is to discontinue their current role, and agent attrition in the insurance industry is in the double digits.

Imagine a customer service function where every third agent quits in a year.

Where does this lead to?

Recruitment, onboarding, and training cycles never stop, and institutional knowledge walks out the door.

According to Peoplematters, the cost is enormous. It goes up to INR 17.4 Lac per burnt-out executive per year.

Besides, it invariably results in a sinking Net Promoter Score (NPS).

Technology Is the Lifeline to Address Burnout Issues

A decade ago, if someone had asked me how to stop agent attrition in the insurance industry,

I’d have probably said:

More coffee and paid time off.

Given the technological advancements today, I’d say, empower agents with AI tools.

With AI, here are the main levers you can pull.

Intelligent Routing

AI can route each customer to the agent best suited by skill or past interactions.

For instance, you know that Vikram is great with claims about flood damage, while Anjali is a whiz on auto policies.

Then you would direct those inquiries to these specialist agents who are expected to delight the customers.

Besides, this would boost your agent’s confidence and success and make them feel empowered.

Chatbots and Virtual Assistants

When you slice and dice your queries, you realize that more than 80% of your queries are transactional.

Queries like policy status, premium due dates, and account statements. You can palm these off to chatbots and virtual assistants easily.

This would free up your agents to handle more nuanced and complex queries that require you to show empathy.

Real-Time Agent Assist

Imagine an AI agent sitting along with the human agent handling a claim request.

The AI assistant populates the agent’s screen with policy details, compliance rules, and a shortlist of solutions as you speak with your customer. It also provides you assistance on the next-best answers in real time.

It can also summarize your calls at the end of your conversation. This makes your life easier and your customers happier and reduces 30 to 40% of after-call work.

Speech and Sentiment Analysis

Speech analytics can monitor 100% of calls in real-time for stress signals, compliance lapses, and training gaps.

This would allow supervisors to barge in and help their agents before the call boils into an escalation.

All of these levers help agents avoid grunt work, keeping them relatively free to handle complex and nuanced queries.

AI and automation aren’t here to replace agents. They’re here to protect them from burnout, from boredom, and from the emotional drain of doing too much with too little support.

I’ve seen what happens when you equip agents with the right technology tools. Their morale goes up, customers stay longer, and the entire operations run smoother.

Insurance is no more about policies and payouts. It is all about people, which includes both your agents and customers.

Take care of the people who are delivering those experiences, and your customers will be happier.