A benefit or a gift can quickly become something the receiver expects to get. Customer satisfaction, for instance, was originally a goal for businesses who cared about their future-something extra for the customers. Today's customers no longer are impressed with mere satisfaction; they deem the extras a basic right of the capitalistic system! Good service and professionalism, once considered added values, have become entitlements.
Entitlements have gripped the hearts of consumers. Even complete satisfaction isn't enough anymore. As the mavens have been expounding, you now have to WOW your clients by totally exceeding their expectations.
One of the most basic forms of entitlement ever developed is the 'right' to speed. As an article in the Wall Street Journal put it, 'Time is money. Time waits for no man. The unforgiving minute.'
Major hotel chains are already beginning to recognize the need for speed. Hyatt and others, for instance, are adding convenience restaurants to service the eat-and-run mentality of today's business travelers. Just look at the coffee carts in the lobbies; even morning room service has become too slow for most travelers. Remember when fax machines seemed a miraculous time-saver? Now we tap a foot impatiently while waiting for a page to print out.
It seems unfair, but the entitlement to speed has gradually spread to technologies that have not experienced any great revolution in speed. Take telephones; speed-dialing aside, it still takes roughly the same time to make a connection, and the spacing between the rings remains unchanged. Nevertheless, if the phone has not been picked up by the second or third ring, I no longer tolerate the wait. Often I'll hang up and redial, thinking I must have dialed the wrong number. After all, no one would let a telephone go beyond the third ring!
What does all this mean to you, the agency owner?
Most agents acknowledge that banks are beginning to compete for their customers. They admit that the banks' deep financial resources will enable them to muscle into a significant share of the insurance market. But, argue the agents, we'll be able to hold our own with personalized service and niche marketing. I maintain that these steps won't help if the agents fail to come up to speed.
Since the beginning of time, it seems, it has taken a bank at least two or three weeks to process a home mortgage application, grant the approval, and prepare the paperwork. Well, times have changed. Bank commercials now extol the fact that approvals can be granted within two working days, and in the near future, we'll doubtless see same-day approvals. Processing the mortgage takes a little more time, but Bank of Boston has already cut the average from 25 days to 10. How long do you think it will take the banks to satisfy the need for speed when it comes to insurance?
E. Margaret Fulton, a Canadian education consultant who spoke at the 1995 International IMMS Convention, says that we must take time to imagine what an insurance agency can be, and then plan the methods that will accomplish the changes. Automation provides the tools. The question is: Have we taken time to imagine what this can accomplish and then plan for the implementation?
Imagine this: The agent of tomorrow is driving to the first appointment of the day (11 a.m.). The cellular car phone rings; it's the agency's in-house telemarketing sales center, saying, 'I notice your afternoon schedule is open. We just got a hot lead and you're already in the general area. The appointment is set for 2 p.m. I'm faxing you a facts sheet now. Good luck!'
The producer opens a voice-activated computer appointment notebook and notes the appointment in the daily log. Stopping at a red light, our producer of the future glances at the inbound fax on his new appointment and calls the prospect to confirm the time.
Arriving at the 11 o'clock appointment, the producer enters the prospect's office with a laptop computer (with CD-ROM reader, of course) and cellular phone. This particular meeting was called to conduct a risk survey, which will accompany an application.
Using the laptop, the producer accesses a standardized risk survey for this particular client's industry and fills it out with the client. Then the producer copies the application form from the IMMS Silver Membership (CD-ROM) company programs section and pastes it into the word-processing program on the laptop. Once that's done, the producer uses the cellular phone and the laptop to fax the application and risk survey to the selected company (for submission), the prospect (for hard copy and signature), and his/her own agency (for the files).
While driving to that new appointment, the producer uses the cellular phone to catch up on messages from a personal pager and the office voice mail. Arriving a few minutes early for the 2 p.m. appointment, the producer remains in the car for a few minutes and uses the cellular phone with the laptop to check E-mail. After catching up on call-backs, our producer approaches the new prospect with confidence that the laptop and the CD-ROM library have everything necessary for a professional presentation, whatever the risk might be!
This is not a pipe dream. Agents in the field are currently operating in this manner. Unfortunately, many agencies have all these automation tools at their disposal but have not yet mastered their marketing capabilities.
Achieving speed, however, takes more than high-tech automation. Here are just a few items to review that could be turning off your prospects before you ever start:
- Does your switchboard receptionist answer the phones immediately? How often does that phone ring more than two or three times when you call in?
- Once answered, how long is the average call placed on hold? Remember, time goes much more slowly when you're waiting. Just 20 seconds on hold can easily seem like two minutes to the caller. [Suggestions: Holding is a necessary evil in many agencies, especially with recent down-sizing trends. To help eliminate problems, the operator should check back with the caller every 15-20 seconds if the call is slow to be processed. Also, take advantage of this time by providing your client/prospect with needed information through a message-on-hold service for your phone system.]
- This one may get me into a bit of hot water: Get rid of the automated answering systems. This is one area where automation actually impedes business. These menu-driven systems often force the caller to endure up to two minutes for the compu-voice to list their options. What's more, once a selection is chosen you are often branched into another menu-ad infinitum. A well-trained, personable telephone receptionist can handle the call in a tenth of the time. Also, if most customers call long distance, they may resent paying for the additional line time.
- Develop a policy on call-backs and adhere to it. Producers should return all calls during every break between appointments. If not possible, have a support person call to advise the client/prospect when the producer will be calling them. Internal support people (CSRs and claims processors) should return every phone message within 30 minutes.
If in doubt about a call-back policy, think back to the last time you left a message with a customer service operation for some product you had purchased. As each hour goes by without a call-back, you become more and more angry until you finally reach a decision to never purchase from that company again. Ring a bell?
- Process all information daily. The need to cater to what this article calls 'entitlement' does not allow you to postpone sending any certificate, correspondence, or any other information to your clients. They're waiting for it-and they aren't waiting patiently. By the way, this information is not restricted to paper-sending of data or information electronically must be prompt, too.
- As shown in the example of the producer example, automate your producer of tomorrow, train your producers in the science (and the art!) of using automation for greater marketing effectiveness.
- Pressure your companies to speed up processing. The old excuse, 'We're waiting for the company' won't cut it any longer. Your clients will move on to speedier competitors and you'll lose!
Remember that every journey begins with the first step. You aren't necessarily going to get your 'speed quotient' up overnight. Even management advisor Tom Peters blows it. His latest book extols readers, 'Return phone calls fast,' but when Fortune reporter Andrew Serwer called Peters, he was directed to leave a voice-mail message with an assistant-and then waited several days for the call-back. Perfection may be elusive; but the first step toward it is only a second away.