Common wisdom has it that nearly 70% of customers who leave to do business elsewhere do so because the personnel they deal with are indifferent to their needs. This statistic ignores those customers who stay with a business only for the sake of convenience. Such customers may also feel that an agency's service delivery is indifferent, yet they continue to renew anyway.
What's wrong with that?
Though you can't please all the people all the time, it's the CSR's job - as purveyor of the agency image - to try. This means treating every customer with professional concern and enthusiasm. The problem with delivering ho-hum service to repeat 'convenience customers' is that these customers will never promote you or your agency to anyone they know.
And in a soft market, service delivery makes all the difference in the world. So to prevent customers from yawning when an insurance discussion arises, turn those convenience customers-as well as those who might leave because of indifference-into genuine advocates by following a few simple techniques for service satisfaction.
By understanding a few basic customer needs, indifference can be rooted out at the source.
Here's some advice for invigorating service delivery:
- Answer incoming calls by the second ring. When a call has been transferred to your desk, greet the caller warmly within 10 seconds of the transfer.
- Make customers feel welcome. Have you ever gone into a retail establishment knowing you'll need assistance and been ignored by every employee you see? How do you feel about giving that store your hard-earned money? Be fast and be first in greeting agency visitors.
- Learn and use a first or last name that customers prefer to be called. Try to learn about your customers as people, about their families, their friends, their favorite hobbies, and so on. Automate this information so it's easily accessible.
- Be patient when listening to a client's request or problem, then explain the action to be taken in easy-to-understand language.
- Listen carefully. When clients have to repeat information more than once, they get frustrated. To ensure understanding, rephrase or restate what the client has just said, using positive and easily understood language. Make notes of key information.
- Confirm action or important information in writing. Rather than taking notes on a scratch pad and transferring them later to the proper form, work directly on the form or in the format required by the insurance company. (This way you only do the work once, and the client won't feel rushed.)
- Make customers feel confident that their needs will be addressed and that you care about their well-being. Two weeks after a transaction has been ordered, call your clients to see if they are satisfied with the results.
- Educate customers about procedures and coverage to relieve any possible anxiety. They don't always know how long it takes for an adjuster to contact them after a loss-tell them. They may not understand the first (or second or third!) billing statement or invoice they'll receive-show them samples. Many customers don't understand limitations and exclusions included in their insurance contracts - highlight them. Help customers feel they've made a wise buying decision.
- Use familiar language and terminology to put clients at ease. Avoid insurance jargon.
- Slow down when talking with customers. They deserve your total attention, and you deserve the time necessary to complete the transaction in the proper manner.
Helping customers feel welcome, comfortable, and understood will build lasting relationships and ensure that they won't be indifferent the next time the topic of insurance arises. Making advocates of all customers is one obvious way to ensure the agency's survival.
Customer Service Satisfaction
- Do your customers know how and where to ask questions or complain?
- If a customer has a repeat problem, is there a logical person to contact beyond the sales or service rep?
- Can your customers communicate quickly and easily with top management?
- Do your senior executives and technical people interact regularly with customers?
- Do you use systematic periodic surveys of customer satisfaction for past and present customers?
- Do you have a training program on listening and customer-contact skills for customer-contact employees?
- Are your customer-contact employees accountable for customer satisfaction?
- Are customer satisfaction measures part of the incentive- compensation plan for managers?