How to Handle Complaints, Objections, Rebuttals - American ...

Overcoming Objections, 

Rebuttals & Complaints 

AIL Public Relations Summit 

January 2009 

Rachelle Valdez 

and 

Jacqueline de Vooght

Handling Objections 

with Rebuttals 

• Are you just going to pressure our members 

to purchase more insurance 

• No, we do not pressure the members, we deliver 

their no cost benefits, then we read them our 

customized read off letter, before we explain the 

other voluntary supplemental benefits for which 

they may qualify.


with Rebuttals



• What do we get out of this 

• You have the opportunity to offer a union label 

product and provide this value added program 

for your entire membership without any cost. 

Also, if you have fund raising events or a special 

cause sensitive to your group, we may be able 

to help with that.



• What’s the catch 

• There is no catch. We are able to provide all of the 

no cost benefits because we know that 15‐30% of 

your members will return the card and 1 out of 4 

will have a need and purchase additional 

supplemental insurance programs.



• Are you just going to try to sell our members 

more insurance 

• We are an insurance company and the way we are 

able to offset the cost of the NO COST benefits is 

with our supplemental programs. All of our 

programs are voluntary and the member is under 

no obligation to purchase (refer to our customized 

read off letter).



• I checked you out on the internet and your 

company has a lot of bad publicity, why is that 

• The internet can be a great tool, but it has it’s down side too. As we 

all know, inaccurate and unfair information can be published on the 

internet. Look at the internet bullying that is happening with kids 

out there. We are a very large company and we have many current 

and past employees. We know that there are some negative things 

stated about AIL on the internet, but when we read what is there, 

we have found that it is put there by former unhappy employees 

that want to blame the company for their lack of success. Once the 

bad stuff is out there on the web, it is hard to combat it. However, 

we proudly stand on our company record, and the 14 million policy 

holders we service & our AM Best Rating.



• Why do your agents come to the member’s homes, 

why can’t they just mail out the benefits 

• Our company is unique in the fact that we still meet 

with the members in person so that we can provide 

the best possible service to your members. We also 

obtain the beneficiary designation in writing by the 

member, on the actual policy. We are striving to be 

the premiere in‐home insurance company for 

working families.



• We don’t want any pushy agents pressuring our 

members! 

• American Income Life has a very thorough and refined 

training program for our agents. Our company is based 

100% on integrity. Since we do not insist or require 

organizations to continue their ad&d coverage for any 

length of time, it is not in either party’s interest for us to 

harass members or employees, as it is very simple to cancel 

the program if you are unsatisfied with our service. We have 

our customized read off letter and a company Zero 

Tolerance policy along with our group commitment letter.



• How long does it take to pay a claim 

• Once we receive a copy of the Death Certificate and 

a statement from the group, we begin processing 

the claim and a check is usually issued within 2 to 4 

weeks, barring additional information requested 

from our Claims Department. We will deliver the 

check to you (if you choose) so that you may 

present the check to the beneficiary.



• What happens if a member returns the card 

and does not want an agent to visit them 

• They just need to let our representative know they 

have changed their mind, and are not interested in 

having an in‐home visit.



• We don’t give out our mailing list. 

• Actually we don’t require your list, but we can in 

fact assist you with keeping your member’s 

addresses current and correct. Our internal mailing 

house can provide you with access to the NCOA 

services and automatically update your member’s 

new address if they have moved.



• Why do we have to do two mailings 

• At our expense, we like to send a 1 st and 2 nd notice to 

your members. The 2 nd notice is only sent to members 

who did not respond the first time. This gives all 

members the opportunity to designate a beneficiary. 

Often, once we start visiting members, word spreads and 

we get calls asking for an extra card. 

• In addition we will leave you extra letters for new 

members that you may have over the next 18 months.



• With this economy, our members cannot 

afford this, it is not a good time. 

• Actually this is the time when members are most 

vulnerable. If they lose their job, or get laid off and 

something happens, they will even be more 

financially strapped. We offer very affordable 

benefits, i.e. Freedom of Choice program starting at 

$5.00 per week.



• We’ve done this before and are not 

interested, we had too many complaints. 

• That’s why I am here, as your representative I am 

committed to the highest level of service for your 

group. (Then refer to the group commitment letter, 

customized read‐off letter and the Zero Tolerance 

policy) We would ask for a 2 nd chance to prove 

ourselves.


with Rebuttals

Handling Complaints

Handling Complaints 

• Conduct an investigation, i.e. contact group and 

member involved. 

• Commit to the group that issue will be addressed and 

corrected to their satisfaction and the member’s 

satisfaction. 

• Contact the member in your “Public Relations 

capacity”, find out their side of the story and 

empathize, apologize and either offer a remedy or ask 

them what would resolve the issue to their satisfaction.


• Let the member know that the group has made you 

aware of their concern and we are calling to assist in 

rectifying the situation. 

• We train our agents to be professional and 

informative and occasionally we do have a 

misunderstanding or an emergency come up and 

the agent was delayed etc., etc. 

• Depending on the situation, state that this is not the 

way we train our agents, and that an internal 

discipline protocol will take place to prevent this 

from happening in the future.


• Explain that you are a consumer yourself and that 

customer service is what makes the difference in 

our profession and that what has occurred is not 

acceptable to the company and thank them for 

bringing it to our attention. 

• State that if we do not know it is broken, then we 

cannot fix it, so this is valuable information for us to 

have.


• Report back to the group, inform them about 

your conversation with their member and 

how appreciative they were to hear from 

you, and to know that the group had passed 

on their concern.


• Best to be proactive and prevent complaints in the 

first place. 

Set group up for success (Circle of Success): 

Staff orientation 

Monthly servicing 

Comment cards 

Read off Letter 

Effective, regular communication 

Drop off Chocolate/candy 

Participate in group events

Circle of Success

CREDIT UNION 

OBJECTIONS & REBUTTALS 

• “We already work with CUNA Mutual” 

• We do not compete with CUNA. We work simply to 

enhance member benefits as an “add‐on” 

supplemental benefit package. We also do not 

require that members fill out the reply card to 

receive the AD &D coverage, it is blanket coverage. 

AIL has no age limit on our no cost AD & D 

coverage whereas CUNA coverage has an age limit 

of 65 and is not blanket coverage.

CREDIT UNION 


• How Does Our Organization Benefit In Addition 

• All mailing correspondence is paid for by our office. We 

also will discuss your promotional needs or 

announcements that we will customize for you in a 2 

part mailing that we will pay for (postage as well). We 

also know that we will see a good percentage of your 

group in person. We will be able to collect valuable 

information for you via a survey that suits your needs 

with our manpower in the field, again at no cost to you.

CREDIT UNION 


• How do we know your agents will do the 

job 

• We have report forms that we require each member or 

employee to complete with any opinion or comments 

about the AIL agent in home visit. This enables each 

group to monitor the success of the program. The 

public relations representative will deliver these forms 

to your organization semi‐weekly for your review.

Question / Answer Period 

Your comments or questions or 

suggestions are welcome

How to Handle Complaints, Objections, Rebuttals - American ...

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