If last year was about stabilizing operations, this year is shaping up to be the year of intentional insurance call center efficiency. In conversations with insurance operations leaders across carriers, MGAs, and service organizations, we keep hearing the same themes: rising policyholder expectations, tighter budgets, unpredictable volumes, regulatory complexity, and a constant stream of new technology to evaluate.
The opportunity this year is not to work harder, but to work smarter. That starts with making thoughtful decisions about where your time, talent, and technology are truly adding value, based on what your teams and your policyholders are actually experiencing every day.
Here are five practical efficiency resolutions to consider as you plan for the year ahead.
Turn your IVR into a strategic gatekeeper, not a frustration point
For many organizations, the IVR is still treated as a necessary evil. In reality, it can become one of your strongest insurance call center efficiency levers when designed intentionally.
A well-structured IVR can guide policyholders toward self-service options, route calls more intelligently, and reduce unnecessary transfers. It can also proactively answer common questions about billing, documents, or claim status before an agent ever gets involved.
The goal is not to deflect calls at the expense of experience. The goal is to make it easier for policyholders to get what they need in the channel that best serves them.
Use AI to extend coverage, improve intake, and raise satisfaction
AI has moved beyond experimentation and into practical application for insurance operations. The leaders seeing the greatest impact are not using AI as a replacement for people. They are using it to make their teams more capable.
AI-enabled intake can accelerate data capture during FNOL and service interactions. AI-powered virtual agents can provide after-hours coverage, multilingual support, and faster response for routine questions. The result is better accessibility for policyholders and more consistent experiences across time zones and volumes.
Being available when your policyholders need you is no longer a nice-to-have. It is quickly becoming a differentiator.
Turn your call data into an ongoing feedback engine
Your call center is one of the richest sources of insight in your organization. Yet many teams still operate without a clear view of why customers are calling, what they are struggling with, and where friction is building.
Modern analytics tools can surface recurring themes across calls, identify product confusion, highlight billing pain points, and uncover breakdowns in communication. That intelligence can inform decisions across underwriting, policy servicing, digital experience, and customer communications.
Instead of operating in the dark, your call center can become a real-time listening post for your entire operation and really impact your insurance call center efficiency.
Design for flexibility instead of building for averages
One of the biggest inefficiencies in call center management is planning around “typical” volume. In insurance, volume is rarely typical. Weather events, regulatory changes, system issues, and seasonal shifts all create volatility.
Leaders are increasingly prioritizing operating models that can flex up and down without burning out staff or degrading experience. That includes dynamic staffing strategies, overflow support, technology that scales with demand, and partners who understand how to manage surge responsibly.
Efficiency isn’t only about cost, but many costs can be mitigated by better planning.
Partner with specialists who understand insurance operations
Managing real estate, workforce planning, compliance requirements, technology infrastructure, training, and quality assurance is complex on its own. Doing all of it while also staying ahead of innovation is even harder.
Many organizations are finding that outsourcing specific functions to insurance-focused partners allows internal teams to focus on strategy, oversight, and improvement rather than daily operational firefighting. The right partner brings both operational discipline and access to modern tools without adding management burden.
Choose partners built for insurance
Outsourcing is not new in insurance. What is changing is what leaders should expect from a partner.
Generic call center vendors often optimize for volume and cost alone. Insurance operations require something different. They demand deep understanding of regulatory environments, empathy-driven service, documented processes, and consistent execution across every interaction.
That is where insurance-specialist partners can create meaningful efficiency gains.
Covenir operates as an onshore, insurance-focused services partner built around a policyholder-first approach. Our teams support carriers across call center services, FNOL, policy servicing, and operational workflows with an emphasis on reliability, compliance, and quality. This is not transactional outsourcing. It’s an extension of your operations.
For carriers we support, that approach has delivered measurable results, including up to 20 percent gains in operational efficiency and up to 30 percent reductions in cost. Those outcomes come not only from staffing models, but from process discipline, technology adoption, and a commitment to doing the work right every time.
The right partner should remove complexity from your operation, not add another layer of management. They should absorb the headaches of workforce management, facilities, technology enablement, surge planning, and compliance oversight while giving you better visibility into performance and experience.
Where this leaves you
The common thread across all of these resolutions is intentionality. Efficiency over the coming year will not come from squeezing more out of already stretched teams. It will come from designing smarter systems, leveraging the right technology, and choosing partners that reduce complexity rather than add to it.
At Covenir, we support insurance operations leaders across call center services, FNOL, policy servicing, and back-office workflows with a focus on compliant delivery, modern technology, and dependable scale. If you are rethinking how your operation should function in 2026, you can explore our approach and solutions here: https://www.covenirbpo.com/solutions/