CLIENT NURTURING
Marketing has to take a back seat
to customer reassurance
By Jim Cecil
Forget marketing. It's time for contacts: one on one, up close and personal. Your customers were already suffering from a slackening economy, and now the insurance industry goes crazy with disappearing acts and skyrocketing premiums. Many agency heads have told me about the pain these changes are causing and some have shared what they are learning from their customers' enduring crisis.
All customers need to be reassured, helped to grasp the enormity that the premium cost increases will have on their immediate bottom line. Customers need time to talk through the situation, its scope, and the specific and relevant problems they face. Then, and only then, will they want to see a solution--the best possible case you can make. That's what all insureds want--someone to call or to come see them and help them deal with this dangerous, painful and permanent change in the insurance industry.
Here's the situation
Confusion, uncertainty, fear and doubt lead to an emotional slowdown at the worst time. The agency's biggest enemy is inertia. Doing nothing--wait and see--is deadly. I know it's a natural reaction to the massive change that has hit your business but it is nonetheless deadly. The problem and the danger is customer anxiety. The media are scaring the hell out of your customers (perhaps rightly), and clients are either calling or avoiding the issue, hoping they won't get hit by the premium Tsunami.
Here's the problem
Anxiety creates a demand for instant solutions. Customers want, expect, demand and deserve personal contacts. They want your vision, clarity, courage, certainty and a plan they can live with. You are going to get busier than you ever dreamed possible and it's time to get ready.
"The only one who really likes change is a wet baby."
-- Tom Peters
Plan for at least four major changes in your life beginning today.
* Markets disappearing overnight
* Rates skyrocketing, selectively
* Carriers doing a vanishing act
* The press trashing those who falter
"In change lies opportunity."
--Lao Tsu
There is enormous opportunity available to those who can see what is certain to happen and take steps now to leverage the opportunity. If there ever was a time to get your story told and get your unique selling proposition understood, it is surely now.
Statistics show that 68% of client losses stem from a vague feeling of indifference (often misunderstood) on the part of the agency towards their continued relationship.
A plan for survival and growth
Focus on your top 20 "A" clients. Create a step-by-step plan now to address their fears, confusion and realities. Adopt four logical tactics to create a strategy that can be implemented immediately and scaled up or down to manage every critical relationship.
1) Identify by name, the two or three people you need to influence in each account.
2) Individualize by chief pains that you address for them.
3) Interact with a scheduled "briefing" meeting ASAP. Be it breakfast, luncheon or dinner--do it however they want it. Plan to update your customer nurturing.
4) Integrate what you learn into an entirely new series of value-added services and perhaps premiums. Intentionally nurture loyalty by staying in touch and consistently making touches that matter.
"The antidote to defection is demonstrated affection."
--Bob Whitney
Making contacts that count solidifies a client's decision to partner with you in risk management.
Position or re-position yourself as a trusted risk advisor, and strive to truly earn the title.
Appreciation, like sugar, helps the medicine go down. Go beyond words; find ways to demonstrate your gratitude.
Acknowledge your understanding of your clients' issues and the unexpected risks they now face.
Anticipate their wants and needs. Proactively research solutions to key challenges they face post 9/11.
Educate your clients, their employees, suppliers and anyone else who touches risk. Because insurance will play such an important role in everyone's life, you are the logical one to help with the solution.
Nurturing demonstrates genuine affection. It's time to make a major investment in the software and communications technology of customer relationship management. Invest in or update proven market leader software like ACT or Sales Logix to bring up to speed your ability to serve.
If you have not personally survived a "hard market," if you have never felt the pain of having to tell a client who has become a friend that his or her premiums have doubled or worse, it's time to buy an old insurance salt a latte and listen carefully. Remember, it will be worse than even they can describe.
Hard markets create lush opportunities. The weak will retire or close up, the shaky will sell out and the distracted will do nothing. Indifference will create the greatest change in agencies in history. Are you ready for what's ahead? *
The author
Jim Cecil consults insurance professionals on customer nurturing. For even more "touches-that-matter" ideas and a free, electronic copy of his booklet, "A Cure for the Common Cold Call," visit www.nurturemarketing.com or call (800) 474-7951.