How do you get customers to think of you in a new way? How do you breathe some personality into the office? How can you go beyond the verbal “thank you”—as important as that is—to something more meaningful? This is not that complicated. A few days ago I went to the dentist where I learned a lesson in customer service you can probably use in your agency.
Call me nuts, but in my vision of how things could be, not only would you think insurance is fun, but your customers would as well!
Crazy you say? “People think insurance is just a distant, faceless, impersonal industry concerned only with numbers and profits and not with people?” you say.
Sure, that’s true for the industry maybe—but you’re the face on the industry. Just like people ordinarily hate Congress but like their congressman, it’s okay if they hate insurance. As long as they like you, their local independent insurance agent – their trusted advisor.
How do you get them to think of you in a new way? How do you breathe some personality into the office? How can you go beyond the verbal “thank you”—as important as that is—to something more meaningful?
Get the staff together and brainstorm ways to show your customers you care. And have some fun doing it.
This is not that complicated. A few days ago I went to the dentist. I go early in the morning—like 8 a.m.—because I get nervous waiting all day for an afternoon appointment. Yep, I like to get it over with early.
I was there for my quarterly “deep cleaning.” (If you ever hear your dentist talk about that in regards to your grill, run away, my child—run fast.)
“I’m still half asleep,” I said to my favorite hygienist, Raina, as she fumbled around getting the scaling tools ready. “Haven’t had my morning coffee. Besides, I didn’t want to kill you with my coffee breath.”
“Thanks for that,” Raina said. “We make some good coffee here. I’ll get you a cup on the way out.”
As the dentist prepared a giant numbing needle the size that could take out an elephant, Raina paused and looked at my eyes of fear. “Better yet,” she said, “You’ll be too numb to drink coffee. What you need is a grande iced coffee from Starbucks. With a straw so you can drink out of it.”
I brightened up a little even as the needle was lowered into my choppers. I went to my happy place, which is sailing with my dad in Atlantic Highlands on the Jersey shoreline. But the sounds of the scraping were tough to ignore.
The battle lasted an hour. I emerged from the chair, the right side of my face useless except for channeling drool. I was really looking forward to my next stop, Starbucks, although I wasn’t sure how I would be able to ask for what I needed.
On the way out, I handed over my co-pay—plus enough, ahem, for the dentist’s monthly mortgage on his house. (Reminds me of the photos of dentists’ license plates someone e-mailed me. Three cars, all BMWs. One said, “DRILL EM,” the second, “FILL EM,” and the third, “BILL EM.”)
As I was putting the next appointment of trauma into my CrackBerry, Raina came by the front desk. She handed me a Starbucks gift card. I smiled a crooked smile and wanted to hug her.
In the car I opened up the card. It said, “To Peter van Aartrijk from Artizan Dental.” It was for five bucks. Sweet!
The iced coffee and straw worked perfectly.
The $5 card was an easy, affordable, fun thing to give away. How can you do that in your agency? Movie tickets, Blockbuster gift certificates, drink and food gifts—they’re easy and fun. Brainstorm what you can give away. You might want to give certificates from restaurants and other local businesses you insure. Five bucks shouldn’t run into the anti-rebate rules in your state (but check to make sure). Empower your folks to hand them out on the spot, or mail them to clients as a thank you.
If dentistry can be fun, insurance sure can be fun.
Peter van Aartrijk (peter@Aartrijk.com) is CEO of The van Aartrijk Group, a marketing-communications firm serving the independent agent channel.