Overview: The ACT Customer Experience (CX) Work Group is working to extend its existing Customer Experience Journey Recommendations document. It is now focusing on creating an interactive online tool to allow agents to figure out where they are in the overall customer experience process and what actions they should take to obtain a better experience. In creating this interactive tool, the work group is recruiting agents to develop a matrix and guidelines for agents in the different phases. During this breakout, the specific phases that were discussed were Discover, Evaluate, Buy, Experience and Advocate. Our intent was to get insights from attendees on what is working and what opportunities we have not yet assessed.
 

Discover—the consumer is in the early stages of the journey

What is working?

• Website and rebranding the agency and how the agency identifies itself
  
  
• Facebook ads/blog articles that take people to the specific page on the website that talks about their concern or gives them information they are seeking
  
  
• Uniform listings everywhere online
  
  
• Using Google, Facebook and website analytics
  
  
• Monitoring bounce rates on websites or ads
  
  
• Content acceleration—gets people to go to the content
  
  
• Facebook for the agency—stick to 80/20 rule, put video on your own Facebook
  
  
• People need to be themselves, use social media to connect with friends and let them know what you do
  
  
• Compete on the local level, not the national level
  
  
• Photos and blogs of the staff—people do business with people they like and trust
  
  
• Build out your business LinkedIn profile
  
  
• Use digital to expand your footprint and use the entire state or go multi-state
  
  

Evaluate—consumers are asking if you specialize in what they need

What is working?

• Video should be incorporated everywhere: social media, blogs and website
  
  
• YouTube gives you instant credibility, embrace video, it increases engagement
  
  
• Be consistent, share blogs, be strategic, create curiosity
  
  
• Blog posts should address what people are asking, check your email for the questions that you respond to for content
  
  
• Blogs must have quality, not just quantity
  
  

Buy—the consumer is looking to see if you have automation

What is working?

• Online rating tools
  
  
• Online chat—can they get answers quickly
  
  
• E-signature—increases agency close ratio 35%
  
  
• Payment issues—do you have methods to take the payment when you take the application
  
  

Experience—the consumer has purchased the policy, now what

What is working?

• Ability to take payments from the agent's level rather than going to multiple carrier sites
  
  
• Ability to take payments on an application
  
  
• Create a bond so they don't want to leave, constantly provide value
  
  
• Keep them in your mobile funnel, get them to be able to get all the answers from you on their app or your website, use direct links to your blogs, online certificate, bill pay
  
  

Advocate—customer wants to go out and tell the world about their awesome experience

What is working?

• Net Promoter Score
  
  
• Testimonials, including video testimonials
  
  
• Rocket Referrals
  
  
• Post the testimonials to your website and your social media account
  
  

NEXT STEPS for the ACT CX Work Group

• The chairs of the CX Work Group, Claudia McClain and Judy DeLaRosa, will meet with Ron Berg to review the breakout takeaways.
  
  
• The full work group will then be pulled together to review this information as we move into the project phase of creating the online resource.
  
  
• We expect some form of the tool to be available for beta testing by late 2017.

FROM THE EDITOR: Thanks to Nancy Nicklow for acting as scribe. Interested in joining this work group? Simply send an email to act@iiaba.net.