Why You?

Why would someone choose you to handle their insurance protection? What makes you better than all the other providers out there? Do you really know what your customers think about you and your agency? Do you have any idea what consumers are looking for in an insurance provider?

Why choose you, has come up a lot lately in conversations with independent agents. Surprisingly, they wonder what differentiates them from other independent agents out there. Either they’ve chosen not to worry about all the other ways to buy coverage or they’re just looking to corner the market on consumers looking for an independent agent. In any case, if you and your staff can’t easily articulate what makes you different, with reasons that resonate with consumers, then you will struggle with attracting new clients.

To be successful everyone at your agency needs to become customer driven! That means your customer’s needs and satisfaction are the primary objective of everyone in your office. To achieve this you must learn as much about your customers as you can and use that information to create the experience they are looking to have.

There are several areas an agency must look at in order to provide an awesome customer experience. The first is the quality of the insurance product you offer. Are your carriers providing excellent service especially when it comes to handling claims? Do you have the right carrier relations and do they offer the protection your customers want and need? All the positive experience you provide can be washed away by a carrier that doesn’t provide excellent customer service. Know your carriers, communicate with them when they have shortcomings and if they can’t or won’t correct them, maybe it’s time to replace them.

The next area is your agency’s organization and how you handle customer service. Are you set up to and do you provide service that puts the customer’s needs first? If your policies and procedures are in any way developed to make your job easier ahead of what’s best for your client, that’s a problem.

The third area is your staff. Providing an awesome customer experience is a culture that should come from the top down and requires buy in from every person at your agency. Everyone needs to be positive, happy and willing to do whatever they can to make each customer’s experience a positive one. Allowing one or two staff members who don’t share this vision to operate outside of the culture can destroy the positive actions of the rest. This is an area that needs to be worked on regularly, with training, monitoring and follow-up. I could spend this whole article talking about the positive attributes your staff must exhibit in order to provide an awesome customer experience.

The fourth area is your customer. Do they appreciate the expertise and knowledge you apply to properly protecting them, their family and their business? Are they willing to be upfront with the information necessary to properly manage their risk? Do they understand and want to provide the best protection possible to meet their needs? Do they find your information and suggestions helpful and important? Customers who see insurance protection as a commodity to be purchased at the lowest price will be willing to sacrifice an exceptional customer experience to save money. Unfortunately those same customers many times don’t realize the foolishness of their actions until they have experienced a claim where they didn’t have enough or the proper type of protection. In addition, most low cost providers don’t or can’t advocate for their customers when there is a claim. Don’t chase customers that don’t appreciate what you do.

The last area is whether the experience the customer has meets and exceeds their expectations. To know this you need to know your customers and what they are expecting. Do you regularly survey customers on their experience with your agency? This is especially important when they have had a claim. You can also develop this in your initial conversations with a new customer. When they ask “Why should I choose you?” the answer you provide needs to satisfy their expectations. When you are initially making them a customer, you and your staff should let them know what they can expect in the way of service, advice, recommendations and regular follow-up and review should they become a client. You need to determine how they wish to be communicated with (phone, email, text, etc.) and what services they want and expect as a customer.

In your initial conversations with a new client you need to get as much pertinent information as possible. Having good client information and updating it regularly is critical in providing them with an awesome customer experience. You can’t offer information and recommendations if you don’t know all the necessary information about a customer. How does the client like to be contacted and when is it most convenient? Can you communicate with them by email or text? Have you gathered all necessary information to properly service and advise the customer? This area should be reviewed and all staff should give input to the process. Remember, having good and pertinent information, entered into your agency management system, will make servicing the customer easier which means a positive experience for them.

When you provide your customers with an awesome experience you can expect to:

• Get them to purchase insurance protection from you (increased production).
• Have them understand the value of your service and not see insurance protection as a commodity.
• Keep their insurance protection with you (excellent retention).
• Get them to purchase additional protection from you (cross-selling).
• Motivate them to encourage others to use you (referrals). [