The Customer Loyalty Issue
Act cFluent Newsletter, June, 2009 - Subscribe today Subscriber benefits include early evaluation of new products and discounts.
Information for independent insurance agents about issues at the confluence of technology, consumerism, marketing and agency practices. Subscriber benefits include free trial evaluation
of new products and programs.
Newsletter Archive
In this Newsletter:
Three tactics to increase customer loyalty... and improve agency results.
The hype-o-sphere is popping with calls to insurance agencies: Get a blog! Get a Facebook page! Get a Twitter account and start Tweeting! Why? Why indeed. On the one hand, we have contributed to the hype-o-kinetic energy by recommending the same. On the other hand, before you get started, an answer to that 'why' question really should be forthcoming. And while we're at it, we might as well address What, Who, and How (much time).
Comments here are confined to blogging, but they can be equally applied to other social media tools like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.
Social media (SM) tools provide a vehicle for creating a community, and forming and enhancing relationships across that community. To the extent you can accomplish those ends with SM, the reason you would keep an agency blog is to ultimately improve customer loyalty by creating another point of connection between you and them. The business results of heightened loyalty include better retention, larger and more profitable accounts, and more referrals. So if your agency is pursuing client loyalty and better results, then proceed to 'what'.
Strategically, your agency blog might promote you as a thought or subject matter expert, as a contributor to the fabric of your (physical) community, or your blog may just humanize and personalize your agency to customers and prospects. You need to pick one or a few themes before you get started, and then keep content to those themes. Here are a few rules of thumb:
- Whether or not you choose to blog (or Tweet, or whatever), your employees may be doing so. Your insurance agency needs a Social Media policy for employees. Two excellent ones that can serve as examples for you are IBM's and Yahoo's (PDF).
- If it fits on your agency website, then put it there, not on your agency blog.
- And conversely, if it doesn't fit on your agency website , then put it on your blog.
- Start small, because somebody has to keep up your blog, which leads us to 'who', and 'how' (much time)
For more on 2, 3, and 4, visit the Insurance Agent Web Power blog
Blogging takes time. If you post too infrequently, people forget about you, and your blog becomes a wasting asset. The person (or people) you choose to keep your blog up only have so much time available, or time will have to be stolen from another activity.
One to four hours a week is a good rule of thumb for your blog editing. Make sure the time is available before jumping in.
A simple fact of the current economy: consumers (and businesses) are more price sensitive than ever. What that means to your agency comes in two flavors. You need to stay close to your customers so you have an opportunity to save those who might be thinking of switching. On the flip side, you need to be visible to your competitors' customers who aren't being paid any attention.
This is a good time to re-think what an annual review is, how you conduct one, and what an updated program can do for your agency. You may want to check out the Best Practice resources available to you for just such a program.
Often times, engendering customer loyalty is just a matter of letting them know you care. Agency Resource Group has an interesting and distinctive program for doing just that. It's called TouchCardz. It consists of a $10 dollar gift card and a multi-page card. It will stand out in the mail, the gift card will get used, your appreciation will be noticed, and maybe best of all, the whole package is less than $4.00 per card - gift card and all. Watch a short video at the Agency Resource Group website get a look at the card and learn some compelling reasons for add an appreciation component to your customer development mix.
Comments:>> Comments
About This Newsletter - Newsletter Archive
Change Your Subscriptions
Subscribe today
ConfluencySolutions.com/newsletter/subscribe
Unsubscribe
-----------------------------------------------
Act cFluent
Information for independent agents about issues at the confluence of technology, consumerism, marketing and agency practices.
Tell us what you like, dislike, agree or disagree with.
>> tstrong@cfluent.com
About Confluency Solutions
-----------------------------------------------
Confluency Solutions specializes in solutions that generate growth through high customer satisfaction. Easy to implement technology combined with traditional independent agency strengths
vault your agency into the ranks of the top performers. Confluency Solutions provides complete business solutions, not just technology. We free you up to compete at an advantage, with
any size competitor, in a way that just isn't possible without the right tools and without knowing how best to use them. Confluency Solutions makes the web work.
>> Learn more about us: http://ConfluencySolutions.com