How often have you asked yourself this question: “What makes my insurance company different and better than the alternatives?” How often the answer comes back, at least in part, with something like this: “We provide superior individual solutions and we have choice among the insurance providers we strive for.” But are we really offering a great solution or is it just great enough to be better than today’s consumer discontent?
In my past, I helped businesses that, like all companies, needed to grapple with budget, capacity, and time constraints. In any project, it seems we can never deliver quality. And we have great and skilled individuals who function in this job. The operational joke in our project group goes something like this: ‘We draw. But so do our competitors. In buying to win, we just need to draw a lot less. It was an inside joke but based on reality. It also betrays a common mistake we make when deciding what we want to be and what we want to deliver – we leave what the client wants and believes from the formula. We just need to draw a lot less compared to the alternative – one of the latest customer discontent.
How you want your company to be perceived, and how that is actually perceived by others, is your brand name space. Since a brand name includes multiple points such as name, logo design, interactions, items, solutions, and individuals, it can be difficult to truly measure that space. But a good starting point is to measure solution satisfaction, something that can be achieved with a simple study.
The insurance company website hosted by Confluency Solutions consists of studies that are emailed to customers whenever a solution offer or request is sent through the insurance company website.
[H3] The survey, which is called the Insurance Solution Record Card, only asks 5 simple questions: [/H3]
- Have we discussed or offered to discuss your insurance coverage with you?
- Are your requests met quickly and professionally?
- Do you think the program or plan offering we provide is affordable and great value for the level of protection and coverage?
- How would you rate your overall experience with our insurance company?
- Are you suitable to refer our friends or relatives for their insurance needs?
Each question has 2 or 3 feasible answers, with responses varying from very happy to very dissatisfied. Confluency recently evaluated more than 2,700 responses sent to about 160 various insurance companies and compiled a ranking based on real answers versus the best possible answers. Here’s how the ball game circulation breaks down:
You need to inquire whether there are external factors affecting satisfaction, such as volatility in the market accompanied by large interest rate hikes and unprofitable financing activity. But that doesn’t seem right, because the representatives of team A are in the same regulatory and market atmosphere as team F.
There is a mix of large and small companies in teams A and B, but no company with more than 30 workers. The Decoration and F teams have a comparable mix of company sizes; but each consists of several companies with more than 30 workers. So if it’s not the dimension or the place that makes the difference in customer satisfaction, what is it?
Not surprisingly, team A has a tendency to have more regular and positive interactions with their customers. Such interactions usually consist of some type of publication or e-newsletter and a consistent offer to conduct an annual review. Some of the A’s also have big Twitter and google links with regular posts of various other content as opposed to hardcore insurance content. The same cannot be said for the representatives on the F team. Again, this was completely unexpected, the information gathered over the years draws a strong correlation between regular interactions and client satisfaction – and it must be remembered – high retention, account development and reference price. It’s just that today’s network of interactions is a little different than in previous years.
There are no absolutes in teams A and F. Instead, there are what I call similarities. The similarities in the current team A have been kept in mind. There is one similarity in the F team that I think is quite large, but I admit a bit of conjecture in this. Some F teams consist of companies that have an industry line focus and tend to have outside manufacturers.
70% – 75% of website offers and solutions demands related to individual insurance and small company insurance. Medium and large industry accounts are usually handled differently, with more in-person and telephone interactions. When the revenue stream for individual insurers is lower, it appears that company management has a positive interaction process in place for that customer. In feeling, there are 2 paths to a solution – and satisfaction – delivered by each manufacturer (great or bad) and one delivered by the ‘agent’.
In this survey, only 36% of insurance representatives scored A or B grades. These are companies that have taken the initiative to provide a wider choice of solutions and customer interactions. These companies have great stories to tell and can measure the value of their proposals, for example, ‘Our client satisfaction is 96%’ vs. ‘We provide a great solution.’ The first value proposal has more teeth when the information that quantifies the customer’s value proposal is motivated to act (call, click, visit), do not disturb the correlation between customer satisfaction and company success.
Companies on teams C, Decoration, and F need to find out why customers are dissatisfied. Is it one worker? Or maybe it’s a problem caused by some of your carrier’s financing or pricing activity? The first step is to determine dissatisfaction, step 2 is to determine the cause, step 3 is to improve the situation – and bridge the space. And if you don’t know which team your company is on, it’s easy to find out. Just ask your customers.