How to Onboard a New CSR on EZLynx Without Weeks of Shadowing

Key Takeaways

• New CSRs usually know insurance basics but not your agency's way of working in EZLynx, so onboarding should focus on tasks, not screens.
• Teaching 8 to 10 high frequency EZLynx tasks first gets a new CSR handling real client requests sooner than a full system walkthrough.
• Long shadowing costs two people's time: the new hire and the senior colleague they are watching.
• New hires remember steps better when they learn them while doing real work, with help available during the task.
• EZLynx offers self guided training, interactive webinars, workshops and weekly office hours, and agencies get the most from these when they pair them with their own procedures.

Why does shadowing take so long?

Shadowing takes time because the new CSR is watching, not doing, and the senior colleague has to do their own work and teach at the same time.

Shadowing feels safe, but it has three problems:

• Two people are slowed down. Every task takes longer when someone is explaining it, and the senior CSR's own clients wait.
• Watching is not learning. A new hire can watch a certificate being issued ten times and still get stuck the first time they do it alone.
• Rare tasks never come up. A new CSR may shadow for weeks without seeing a mid term change on a commercial policy, then face one alone.

The goal is not to remove shadowing. It is to shorten it and replace the rest with doing.

Which EZLynx tasks should a new CSR learn first?

Start with the tasks your CSRs do every day, then the tasks where mistakes are expensive.

Pull the list from your own agency, not a generic manual. Ask your senior CSRs: "What do you do most often, and what do new people ask you about most?" Most agencies end up with a list like this:

Keep the list to 8 to 10 tasks. Everything else can wait until month two.

What does a 30 day onboarding plan for a new CSR look like?

A good 30 day plan moves the new CSR from watching to doing in the first week, and to working independently by week four.

Week 1: Foundations

• Systems access: EZLynx login, email, phone, carrier portals.
• Your agency's procedures: how you name files, when you log activities, who approves what.
• Shadowing, but only for the 8 to 10 priority tasks, not everything.
• EZLynx self guided training videos for the basics.

Week 2: Real tasks with backup

• The new CSR does the priority tasks on real client requests.
• A senior CSR reviews the work before it goes out, not during it.
• Join an EZLynx interactive webinar or weekly office hours for questions about the system itself.

Week 3: Independent on the basics

• The new CSR handles priority tasks alone.
• Review only the high risk tasks: endorsements, cancellations, payments.
• Start the next 5 tasks from the list.

Week 4: Independent, with spot checks

• The new CSR works their own book of requests.
• Senior staff spot check a sample of work each day.
• Write down any task the new hire found confusing, and update your procedure for it.

How do you stop new hires from interrupting senior staff all day?

Give new hires somewhere to get answers before they ask a person.

Every "How do I…?" question pulls an experienced CSR or account manager off client work. A few things help:

• Written procedures, one per task. Keep each to 5 to 10 steps, in plain English, and store them where the new hire can find them during work, not in a binder.
• A question window. Ask new hires to batch non urgent questions for a set time each day.
• EZLynx's own support. Product questions about how EZLynx works can go to EZLynx's weekly office hours or support team, not your senior staff.
• Help during the task. The best answer arrives on the screen the new hire is already using, at the moment they're stuck.

What do EZLynx training resources cover, and what do they not?

EZLynx training teaches how the system works. It does not teach how your agency works in it.

According to EZLynx, customers have access to self guided training videos and documents, interactive training webinars, on demand Customer Success Workshops, weekly office hours with a product expert, and a YouTube channel with personal and commercial lines walkthroughs. Personalized one on one training is available for purchase.

These are a strong foundation for system basics. What they cannot include is your agency's own procedures: what to check before issuing a certificate, which notes to log, when a manager must review. That part has to come from your agency, which is why written procedures matter.

Where In App AI Training Fits

In app AI training adds help during the task, on the EZLynx screen, so new hires learn by doing real work instead of waiting for a colleague.

AgenQ is AI training and onboarding software for insurance agencies and brokerages. Staff ask how to do a task and AgenQ shows each step on their screen inside EZLynx or AMS360. In Execution Mode, AgenQ can complete approved tasks, with a person approving the important steps.

For a new CSR, this means asking "How do I issue a certificate for this client?" and seeing where to click, one step at a time, following your agency's procedures. In a deployment with a North American insurance software provider, AgenQ cut customer onboarding from about 90 minutes to about 15 and reduced calls to IT and support by about 30%.

See AgenQ for EZLynx: Explore EZLynx · Compare all training options: Compare training options · Read the case study: Read the case study

Frequently Asked Questions