Giving Customers What they Want
What do your customers want? The answer can seem a mystery. It can be frustratingly difficult to decipher this key to insurance customer retention.
But – it’s not as hard as you think. The secret to retention is this: build trust, establish ease of business, and maintain competitive rates for the markets you serve.
Establishing ease of business and determining rates are relatively easy for agencies to control. But trust is a whole different animal. Trust is built through a relationship, which requires communication and connection.
Building and Maintaining Trust
The best (and only) way you can gain your customer’s trust is through frequent (but not too frequent) interaction. These interactions are called “impressions.”
Impressions can be anything from a renewal reminder email to a personal phone call following up on an issue. The nature of the impression matters less than its quality and value added to the customer’s experience.
Gain more customer retention tactics here
Making an Impression: the How and What
First, the “how.” How are you going to connect with your customers?
There are a variety of ways to reach out to customers: email, text, through a customer portal, and face-to-face to name a few. Before deciding the content of your impressions, figure out your customers’ preferred contact methods.
Chances are there will be a variety. Once you decide your impression content, you can match each impression with a different contact method. Pay attention to response rate and continue mixing and matching till you find a good fit.
Next, the “what.” What will be the content of each impression?
Impression can be something as direct as “Happy Birthday!” note or as broad as an eNewsletter. Below are some frequently used customer outreach tactics:
- Celebratory messaging recognizing holidays, birthdays, and anniversaries
- Announcements or reminders of useful technology or services (i.e. mobile access and customer portals)
- Invitations to community events, such as games of sports teams you sponsor or service days you organize
See how harnessing the power of community can engage and retain customers
- E-newsletters curating blog posts and relevant agency happenings
- Renewal reminders, checking in 60-90 days before a customer’s policy is set to renew and assessing need for any changes or updates
Getting Help
Some aspects of building and maintaining customer trust may come naturally – reaching out and providing good service are part of the job. But, planning and creating engaging content may be more of a struggle. That’s where the SIS marketing arm, Agency Marketing Partners, comes in handy. We partner with NuGrowth Digital to provide industry-specific marketing tips and tools to agencies looking to improve their marketing.
You can also check out our other marketing resources at https://sispartnerplatform.com/category/marketing/.
Want to know more about the service and support SIS provides? You can contact us with questions and set up a time to talk about how SIS and Partner XE can help your agency grow at sispartnerplatform.com/contact-us. We look forward to hearing from you!
Sarah Deak has been contributing to the SIS team since 2013, covering topics like agency perpetuation, workflow improvements, data security, and marketing. She has a background in small business, working with organizations to improve their online presence and client engagement. Sarah also writes for the SIS newsletters and website, and counts herself lucky to hear from our many passionate, hard-working clients for our client stories. Her favorite part about working for SIS are the dedicated, service-minded people.