Speaker: Lori Hemphill, GFH Insurance Agency
Welcome! Can you introduce yourself?
Lori Hemphill: Hi, I'm Laurie Hemphill with GFH Insurance in Richmond, Virginia. My husband and I own the agency. We do personal and commercial lines.
Before using Sonant, what were some of the thoughts or doubts you had before deciding to take action?
Lori Hemphill: We have always used a traditional phone system where an operator would answer and then immediately transfer you to the desk, and we were getting um over 200 calls a day. And we were either going to have to hire another admin person to answer the calls or try something like this, so my husband met Francisco of Sonant at a PIA conference, and they had a conversation and we started researching it. And decide to go with it. However, we never thought we would have an AI agent answering for us because we consider consider ourselves a customer. oriented agency.
What triggered you to start considering Sonant for your agency? Any specific problems you were trying to solve?
Lori Hemphill: We had over 200 calls coming into the agency. And we knew we had to try something like this or we needed to hire another employee, a more economical way to go, um, and we were also trying to find something that would quiet the office. The phones would just be ringing off the hook. You'd get interrupted and you had to answer. This way you get a transcript of the calls and you can return the calls on your time.
How much capacity has Sonant unlocked for your agency?
Lori Hemphill: Sonant has made our agency more efficient. It has allowed us to prioritize the urgency of what a client needs, and it saves us time, a great deal of time, because it gathers the information and it sends it to us in the form of a transcript to our email. It also points the calls to the right agent or customer service rep.
What was the moment you realized Sonant was working for you?
Lori Hemphill: When we first started with Sonic, it was a little bumpy because our clients were not used to it. Our agency is almost 25 years old, and it has always calls have always been answered by a human or a traditional answering service for the phones. Going to this, our clients, some of them kicked back, but I can tell you after. Probably a month or two into it, we were then getting compliments, um, on the system. So again, it takes some getting used to for our clients because they weren't used to it. Now they are and everything is going great.
How has Sonant impacted your agency day-to-day?
Lori Hemphill: Sonant has made our office so much more peaceful to work in. We don't have phones ringing off the hook. We can concentrate on what needs to be done, and we can determine in what order to do it. It saves so much time because we're not on the phone with a client talking casually all the time. It's good to catch up, but sometimes it takes up a lot of time. Sonant has been able to save me so much time I can do double the work.
If you could go back a year, what insights or words of wisdom would you share with yourself about navigating this process?
Lori Hemphill: into I am not a tech person, so getting started on this, um, I was fearful how difficult it was going to be. I can tell you Sonant is there to help you with any questions that you have. The onboarding process is very streamlined. As we have used it, we have been able to tweak it to customize it for our agency. It's not just a one size fits all process or program. I would just again, ask any questions that you need, they will answer it, and the system is very intuitive. It's amazing how it figures out. Also, what we need and how to handle things.
How was your experience working with Sonant's team?
Lori Hemphill: My experience in working with Sonant's team has been very positive. They have been quick to resolve issues, personalized experience. I've got their emails. I can go through their support. Again, it's been a pleasure working with this company.
