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by jainrahul1985 » Wed Aug 17, 2011 5:26 am
After its customers complained about being pressured to buy unneeded insurance, an insurance agency stopped rewarding its agents for high sales volume and instead gave them bonuses for high levels of customer satisfaction. Under this new plan, both customer satisfaction and the insurance agency's sales increased.

Each of the following, if true, helps to explain how the change in incentives for agents could have resulted in increased sales EXCEPT:

(A) Customers were so pleased that the insurance agency had responded to their complaints that they recommended the agency to their friends.
(B) Agents listened more closely to customers of long standing and were able to sell them additional insurance policies that met new needs.
(C) Agents more frequently postponed completing the attendant paperwork even after the terms for an insurance policy were settled to the satisfaction of the client.
(D) Dissatisfied customers of other agencies, attracted by the reports of the change in agency policy, became customers of the agency.
(E) Having come to trust the increased judiciousness of the agents' recommendations, customers approached the agency to discuss and ultimately to buy more supplementary insurance than they previously had bought under pressure.

OA C . I chose B . Experts Please suggest
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by bblast » Wed Aug 17, 2011 6:32 am
Hi,
For except questions you almost always have to go by the process of elimination :

I hope u understand that the stem is asking for an answer choice which does not strengthen the claim that the company's tactics increased sale of number of new policies.

(B) Agents listened more closely to customers of long standing and were able to sell them additional insurance policies that met new needs.
(C) Agents more frequently postponed completing the attendant paperwork even after the terms for an insurance policy were settled to the satisfaction of the client.


Answer choice B also directly supports the arguement by saying ".........were able to sell them additional insurance policies"

Answer choice C on the other hand does not strengthen (nor weaken) the argument- if agents are delaying paperwork- then this in no way is connected to increased or decreased sales of policies.
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by lunarpower » Thu Aug 25, 2011 3:05 am
received a pm.

maybe you didn't notice the word "except" in the question? choice (b) directly mentions increased sales that resulted from the new focus on customer service, so it can be eliminated quickly.
(A) Customers were so pleased that the insurance agency had responded to their complaints that they recommended the agency to their friends.
recommendations are likely to produce new sales, so we can eliminate this answer.
(B) Agents listened more closely to customers of long standing and were able to sell them additional insurance policies that met new needs.
this choice actually states, explicitly, that new sales resulted from these actions. definitely eliminate.
(C) Agents more frequently postponed completing the attendant paperwork even after the terms for an insurance policy were settled to the satisfaction of the client.
nothing here would lead to increased sales. in fact, if postponing the paperwork had any result on sales, that result would be to decrease overall sales numbers (because a sale is not complete until the paperwork has been finished).
(D) Dissatisfied customers of other agencies, attracted by the reports of the change in agency policy, became customers of the agency.
new customers --> new sales. eliminate.
(E) Having come to trust the increased judiciousness of the agents' recommendations, customers approached the agency to discuss and ultimately to buy more supplementary insurance than they previously had bought under pressure.
direct mention of more sales. eliminate.

the way in which each of these answer choices affects the insurance company's sales is much more straightforward than usual, so, if you picked (b), the most likely reason is that you didn't notice, or forgot, the "except" in the question.
Ron has been teaching various standardized tests for 20 years.

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by robosc9 » Thu Aug 25, 2011 3:44 pm
lunarpower wrote:received a pm.

maybe you didn't notice the word "except" in the question? choice (b) directly mentions increased sales that resulted from the new focus on customer service, so it can be eliminated quickly.
(A) Customers were so pleased that the insurance agency had responded to their complaints that they recommended the agency to their friends.
recommendations are likely to produce new sales, so we can eliminate this answer.
(B) Agents listened more closely to customers of long standing and were able to sell them additional insurance policies that met new needs.
this choice actually states, explicitly, that new sales resulted from these actions. definitely eliminate.
(C) Agents more frequently postponed completing the attendant paperwork even after the terms for an insurance policy were settled to the satisfaction of the client.
nothing here would lead to increased sales. in fact, if postponing the paperwork had any result on sales, that result would be to decrease overall sales numbers (because a sale is not complete until the paperwork has been finished).
(D) Dissatisfied customers of other agencies, attracted by the reports of the change in agency policy, became customers of the agency.
new customers --> new sales. eliminate.
(E) Having come to trust the increased judiciousness of the agents' recommendations, customers approached the agency to discuss and ultimately to buy more supplementary insurance than they previously had bought under pressure.
direct mention of more sales. eliminate.

the way in which each of these answer choices affects the insurance company's sales is much more straightforward than usual, so, if you picked (b), the most likely reason is that you didn't notice, or forgot, the "except" in the question.
Ron,

In choice E, I do understand that there is direct mention of more sales, but how can this be related to customer satisfaction?
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by Acorn » Thu Aug 25, 2011 9:39 pm
(E) Having come to trust the increased judiciousness of the agents' recommendations, customers approached the agency to discuss and ultimately to buy more supplementary insurance than they previously had bought under pressure.

## How to eliminate E.

My logic :

How can Increased incentive to the agents lead to an increase in the judiciousness of the agents. Relationship between agent's incentive and agent's judiciousness is not talked of in the argument.

For me E seems conender too.

Ron please correct me.
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by lunarpower » Thu Sep 01, 2011 1:13 am
Acorn wrote:How can Increased incentive to the agents lead to an increase in the judiciousness of the agents. Relationship between agent's incentive and agent's judiciousness is not talked of in the argument.
according to the argument, the incentives were put in place "after its customers complained about being pressured to buy unneeded insurance". therefore, the context makes it clear that the agents were incentivized to reduce or eliminate their habit of pitching unnecessary insurance to customers.
if the agents have stopped recommending things that customers don't need, that is definitely an "increase in judiciousness".
Ron has been teaching various standardized tests for 20 years.

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by navami » Sat Sep 03, 2011 10:38 pm
C by POE
This time no looking back!!!
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