Virtual Employees are the Future: Jason Cass, a true champion of industry sheds his wisdom.

The guest speaker for the podcast is Jason D. Cass. He is a well-known entrepreneur, speaker, author and host of the Agency Intelligence podcast. He has been the chairman of the National Young Agents of the IIABA. He is the co-founder of ‘Agency Intelligence Insurance’. Moreover, he is a managing partner of a three location Agency in Southern Illinois. The agencies are present in the places of Edwardsville, Centralia, and Mount Vernon Illinois. His agencies help the clients in the niches of ‘wholesale’ as well as ‘non-profitable businesses’. He took a start in the insurance sales in 2001 at Centralia Insurance Agency. He makes sure that his agency covers real statistical data from real agents in real agencies. He is very passionate about his work and always makes sure to provide the best client experience at the Insurance Alliance. His intelligence agency is a unique and distinctive platform that allows the various insurance professionals to have their voices heard, deal with their problems and provide them with the solutions in the best possible way. His team members provide the best assistance with the diverse knowledge and the appropriate tools that would generate the profits and revenues for the independent insurance agents. He not only provides a good client experience but makes sure that the clients do enjoy their work alongside their working with the Insurance Company. His unique talent and abilities do not end here as he is also a host at the ‘Agents Influence’ at the online platform i.e.  www.agentsinfluence.com which is an online video podcasting blog. His blog is a platform to provide the insurance industry a bigger manifestation and exhibition of the revenues that it offers to the worldwide and the national platform. He is also the founder of the Agency Intelligence Insurance Podcast Network at theinsurancepodcastnetwork.com. His show is network of podcasts that help push the industry forward through education and awareness.  He is passionate about his insurance agency and has a motive of helping out the other emerging insurance agencies to succeed and be able to make their own name as well. His behaviour with the clients and his personal staff is what makes him unique as a person. It would not be wrong to call him an ‘insurance geek’. He is also the author of Amazon best-selling book Customer Service whereas he is also working on his second project The Great Separator. His experience and expertise in the insurance industry for the past eighteen years makes him the noteworthy guest speaker for the podcast.

The Unique Strategy of Jason Cass:

According to Jason Cass, the ‘Virtual Employees’ i.e. VEs are very significant and important for any insurance company. He believes that the VEs holds greater importance and position as they are much more than just mere assistants. They are human beings and have intellect and intelligence of their own which can be made the best use of, only if trained the best way. His use of the term ‘virtual employee’ instead of ‘virtual assistant’ is what makes Jason unique from the other insurance companies on board. According to Jason, in the broader realm of business, the term ‘Virtual Employee’ is misinterpreted. It is a general notion and believed by many that the VE’s are just a form of cheap labour to do the most basic tasks of data entry. In turn, he emphasizes a lot that the VEs are like other normal human beings and must be treated that way. He is a strong demonstrator of ‘Humanism’ in true sense.

Likewise, a second unique business strategy adopted by him is that he feels that there is not any need of hiring any new licenced person when they find a good and better than the previous one. Instead, he thinks that he needs to support the already present Virtual Employee and provide better training that would not help the employee to feel confident and productive but would help the agency in the longer run. According to Jason, it is the responsibility of the agency to train the VE’s as proactive members the agency. Moreover, it will also serve to cut the cost in total. He strongly believes that instead of firing a Virtual Employee when on finds a more suitable option than the previous one, the agency must be able to retrain the employee into a kind that is able to work better with a higher level capacity as compared to what they seemed to be fit for at that particular moment.

Similarly, the best outcomes can only be obtained from the Virtual Employees by the manifestation of the correct strategy, right training and proper execution of the employees. It is as simple as performing one’s job best as the owners, possessors and providers of any service to their workers and staff members. In this podcast, he also discusses the five ways or moves that an agency can take to accentuate their business.

Furthermore, his unique and special training strategy also encompasses in training the staff to work in a real environment and a real situation. He allows his team members to read an email and letter directly from a agent and gives them the opportunity to reply Jason instead of directly answering the email. He makes his employees practice this notion three to four times a day. The constant practice for about seven to eight months eventually provides the team members with ample knowledge, training and experience to directly reply the agent. Jason believes that this type of training would eventually lead to similar answers what the trainer would have expected them to answer. He also talks about the model that he has presented in his book ‘The Great Separator’. He also discusses with his audience about the top five moves that an agency can take to accentuate and scale their businesses and their teams.

In addition to this, Jason also tells his audience about the reasons that many agencies fail with the virtual assistants. They fail because they are unable to train the VEs and are unable to keep them in their agencies for long. He believes that the only reason for the failure is that the agency expects too much from the VEs from the very beginning. It is believed that a thirty-day training is enough and all what is needed. He further adds that instead of telling them the terminologies only, they should explain the process and concept of how a thing is done. In order to further explain this, he gives the example that while teaching the employees the ‘replacement cost estimator’ you not only have to explain them what the concept is of ‘replacement cost’, but also make them aware with the ‘process’ of replacement cost estimator of what it is and how it is done. This notion would in turn make the actual difference in the proper training of the staff. He also believes that in the first two months of the hiring, the agency might face the problem of un-easiness with the licenced staff as they feel threatened that they might lose their job. They must be made aware that they will be replaced with the better option of their choice and making them aware that they would not be fired as long as they striving to give their best. You must take an incentive to be able to make them see what you see as they are unsable to see it. You must make them aware that you are creating more revenues for their success in the agency and may be split with them. In this manner, you probably wouldn’t have the need to hire a new licenced staff for the staff position.

Relying upon the information and discussion of Jason, it can be said that an employer needs to acknowledge his employee in best possible way. Each person who works for us is a sort of asset and one would never consider or treat his/her asset as a worthless thing. It is also perceptible that working in team is always a key to greater success for which each person of the team shall be encouraged. Jason had emphasized specifically on the importance of virtual assistant by conceding them and their role in any company or firm. It tells us how the existing staff could be trained for better future of the company as well as for themselves. Most of the employers usually look for expert or licensed employee which creates a monopoly and no room for fresh or non-licensee is provides which is give raise to injustice. Jason being a successful person in the field makes himself available for everyone who need help in this regard which gives a lesson for everyone that if you are good at something, you should teach it to other so others could also get benefit from those skills. Encouraging and acknowledging an individual always leads to a fruitful outcome and it is worthy of all deeds.