Insurance: California State Automobile Association

The California State Automobile Association established its main office in San Francisco, CA, but it built its own customized Claims Direct Access (CDA) call center in Las Vegas, NV, for handling auto and home insurance claims. The CDA center is a 56,000-square foot facility containing a cafeteria with outdoor patio, a quiet room where agents can take breaks in a relaxing atmosphere and a wellness center with exercise equipment and one full-time director.

Although the call center employed 196 agents in 1999, a total of 156 agents work there today. The Association needed to make staff cutbacks in 2000 for financial reasons. “I would say [it was] for a balance between customer service and the financial strength of the company,” says Glen Scott, the director of claims service delivery for the California State Automobile Association. “We had to balance the two and come up with something acceptable for our members and prudent for the money we were spending.”

Scott says that the California State Automobile Association also created three new teams of agents to handle specific customers. The center hired ten bilingual agents to comprise a Spanish-speaking team in February 2000. Another group of ten already-employed agents received additional training to form a homeowner's insurance team, and ten more agents now specialize in handling claims from Association members in Alaska. The center also employs 18 supervisors, eight claims specialists and five analysts who forecast call volumes and prepare agents' schedules.

Call center supervisors rely on Aspect Communications' (San Jose, CA) CustomView Director to view call statistics. Agents can view these statistics from 25 monitors attached to the ceiling throughout the main work area. Scott explains that monitors can also be used to present a greater variety of data. “If we have heavy rains in the California area, we'll transmit information on weather conditions and where most calls will be coming from,” says Scott. “We'll also use them for fun things, like recognizing good performances and agents' birthdays.”