LOVE THEM OR LOSE THEM: CUSTOMER RETENTION IN ACTION! by Lynn Thomas Here's the bottom line for retaining customers: You have just one choice -- Love your customers or lose them. Peri...

MACHINE SHOPS - 'WHY EXPLAIN YOUR BUSINESS?' Dear (Customer Name): (Your Agency Name) knows that in your business, a jig isn't a dance, die isn't the singular for dice, and bar stock doesn't re...

Where's your business headed this year? This article by John Graham offers recommendations on setting your priorities.

If we listen to half the politicians, everything will be coming up profits this year. They tell us to stop worrying about the economy. We're heading towards a new sunrise, they say. The other politicians paint a darker and far less optimistic picture. Where does that leave us? What are we to believe in 2004?

MAKING A SALE VS. HAVING A CUSTOMER excerpted from an article by Stephen Anderson While you as a CSR might not be directly responsible for selling new business, you are often asked to hel...

MAKING CUSTOMER SURVEYS WORK by Al Diamond Customer Satisfaction Surveys have not yet become popular in the insurance agency business. Too many agency owners fear, rather than look forward to, ...

Customer service begins with thinking like customers.
A good place to start is with language. Thought and language mirror each other, and when the right words are used, the organization begins to behave as if they were true. Use the wrong words and the opposite happens.

Most agencies are automated, some even using their second or third generation of automation. Many agencies load their policy data into the system, interface with their carriers and rarely access their paper files. Few agencies, however, are taking advantage of a well-managed client database. Gathering meaningful data that you can regularly manipulate is the key to successful database management.

MARKET RESEARCH 101 -- DEFINING YOUR BUSINESS by Stephen Flowers Plenty of noise blurts about the value of service to an independent agency. Industry pundits keep repeating that su...

Recently, I came across an interesting column in a national marketing publication. The writer indicated that marketing programs don't perform well because of 'business marketers' dogmatic belief that 'selling is the only form of marketing I need to do.''
This is an amazing statement because our experience at Graham Communications is quite different. As we see it, the problem is failing to achieve the benefits of marketing because the emphasis is always on sell, sell, sell.

MARKETING ANALYSIS-BY A DREAMER by Michael Manes I'm a dreamer-I think in concepts and gag on concrete details. I see every problem as an opportunity. I'm bored with today...