2 posts tagged “insurance”

So, our first full weekend in the city was a lot of fun.  On Saturday, we ferried over to Granville Island to do part of our grocery shopping.  Most of you know how much I love the Granville Island Public Market, so you can imagine how exciting it was for me to buy all our fruits and veggies there for the week.  And it cost us less than $20 CDN!  Amazing.

The following day, we attended our first event in the city as residents.  I’d been keeping an eye on the festivities going on for the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival, and the Ohanami – the Japanese term for cherry-blossom viewing - at Nitobe Garden was on Sunday.  We headed out to this Japanese garden (on the UBC campus) in the afternoon to enjoy the sunshine, blooming flowers and sounds of a shakuhachi (bamboo flute) and koto (Japanese harp).  Around 7 p.m., the special paper lanterns in the garden were lit (a “magical, once-yearly event”).  It was beautiful, and we took our time circling the paths by candlelight.

Then came Monday.  (Damn you, Mondays.)

We once again headed out to take care of more paperwork – squaring away car insurance, renter’s insurance and health insurance (which we will need for three months before our public healthcare kicks in).  But I was completely unprepared for just how much this was going to cost us.  We are now paying TWICE as much for car insurance and renter’s insurance as we were in MN.  This, on top of finding out about the high rates for cell phones here, made me homesick for the de-regulation of the States...which in turn just made me homesick overall.

The thing is: I knew Canada was going to be more expensive, particularly since we wanted to live downtown.  But knowing that a box of cereal is going to cost $7 CDN when I am living in MN (and employed!), and paying the $7 (sans income!) are two separate things.  Right now, I am struggling with that adjustment.  And I’m just hoping those all-important first jobs will make us feel more confident about affording our new life here, rather than making us want to run for the border. 

Time to hit the job boards...

Hi there!

 

It was really great meeting you two yesterday to cancel my life insurance policy.  I just have a few pointers I would like to offer you, based on my experience at our mandatory get-together.  Here you go:

 

1)       When you ask a client to pronounce his/her name for you, try employing a new tactic: listening to the answer.  Then, when you use that name repeatedly in discussion, there will be less moniker-slaughtering to distract the client from all the Personal Connecting you are doing so well.

2)      Speaking of that Connecting, keep in mind that not everyone has as fond or as vivid memories of high school as you do.  Thus, beginning a meeting by listing the people you’ve worked with who went to your client’s high school might not be the best route, particularly for folks who graduated from college much more recently.

3)      Ice-breaker questions can be great, sure, but not so much when they are directly quoted from their original source.  For instance, “So...what do you like most and least about your job?” is actually a terrible conversation starter, especially when prefaced with no other work-related questions.

4)      Showing your client pictures of the guy he/she spoke with to begin the cancellation process, while noting all the wonderful, positive, amazing ways said employee is saving humanity as a whole (via life insurance, natch) will not make the client feel better about what a jerk he was on the phone.

5)      Do not assume your client rooms with his/her parents because he/she looks young.  Rather, try looking up information regarding age and living situation.  (This should be in the very file you read ”thoroughly” beforehand anyway.)

6)      If your client turns out to be married, attempting to scare him/her into keeping the policy by proposing scenarios where one or the other spouse dies tragically is not a great move.  (For some clients, money doesn’t seem like the biggest concern when contemplating the death of a loved one.)

7)      Find out if your client has or even wants kids before listing all the horrible ways they would be affected by a parent without life insurance; you’ll save yourself another pointless threat.

8)      Avoid implying that your client is a selfish person, should he/she refuse to change the policy beneficiary to a charity instead of cashing out, since that qualifies as a pretty big insult and is not likely to get you anywhere.

9)      If you really wish the client to believe that you and your company “do not benefit in the least” from selling and keeping life insurance policies, consider allowing him/her to sign the surrender form without a 30-minute effort to convince him/her otherwise.

10)   Finally, experiment with different colognes and perfumes, as perhaps another type would better mask the smell of desperation in the air.

 

Thanks for the check,

      Letitia