Do these questions and phrases sound familiar? 

• “I tried to go get my prescription and it was denied.  I know I elected and paid for my COBRA why are you denying my medication?”
• “I received a termination letter but I sent in payment, why are you terminating me?”
• “I got this letter and I have no idea what it means, why are these so confusing?”
• “I just terminated from my employer today, where is my COBRA paperwork?”
• “I am terminated and want to talk with your supervisor NOW”

If you are familiar with these phrases and questions you are also familiar with how difficult it can be to handle phone calls from COBRA participants.  Let’s face it, being unemployed and paying the high cost of a COBRA premium is not easy and is something no one wants to experience.  Learning how to provide excellent customer service will not only help you as the customer service representative better understand your caller and diffuse what could be a bad situation, but it will also ease the tension from the COBRA participant.  Great customer service skills require talent as well as time and effort.  Creating an environment where you have the tools and training to do the best work can be done.  Employing various training and coaching, will teach employees the company standards and how to stay sharp.

There are a number of great companies who teach phone skills to customer service representatives (CSR) across all industries.  In the role as a CSR for a COBRA administrator, you have a unique opportunity to not only help the individual understand their rights under COBRA, but also help ensure they maintain group health coverage during their life changing event.  At our prior company, we employed the services of one such company and found the techniques to be useful, but we also spent a lot of time configuring their techniques to our specific industry and type of call our staff managed.

Listed below are several ‘customer courting etiquettes’ to get you started:

• Greet each call with a warm, sincere smile on your face.  The caller can hear if you are frowning.
• Be energetic and engaged in the call.  If you are apathetic, this will only make matters worse.  Manage expectations and only promise to do something if it is in your power to do so 
• Listen without interrupting.  Sometimes allowing the caller to ‘blow-off’ steam is the quickest path to having a productive call which leads to an issue resolution. 
• Remember, the caller is upset at the position they find themselves in, not at your personally.
• Respond with appropriate emotion (show enthusiasm or empathy)
• Be polite and kind (genuine politeness is rare these days – a well timed “please” or “thank you” goes a long way). Appreciate a person’s time and respect it as valuable.  Remember, it could be spent with a competitor.
• Make the other person feel smart, important and good (even if they make mistakes or ask silly questions)
• Avoid being a “parent” (authoritative, condescending)
• Never accuse the person of making a mistake
• Never blame the person for the current situation in which they find themselves
• If your answer is not what the caller is wanting to hear, be firm, polite and try not to diffuse an emotional call with an apology if there is simply nothing that can be done to resolve the situation.
• Try to avoid using accusatory words like ‘YOU did not enroll on time’ or ‘YOU did not send in the payment in time’.  Rather shift the conversation to something neutral.  Try saying “the enrollment form was not postmarked within the federal guidelines for enrollment” or “the postmark date on the envelope for the payment was not within the federal guidelines for a timely payment”.

The continued success and growth of a company greatly depends upon the level of service provided.  As a COBRA administrator, you have many customers to manage.  Consider in many relationships a CSR must manage the broker, the employer, the carrier and the COBRA participant who are all stakeholders in the quality of the outcome of the customer service delivered. 

A final note, we operated under the mantra “it it wasn’t written down, it never happened”.  Be sure to document all your calls in clear, concise, and accurate notes.  This will prove to be very useful to you, your company, and all the stakeholders.