Looking for ways to keep long-term insurance clients? Impeccable customer service is key! The folks over at PC360 have a few tips for you:

1) Focus on your insurance agency’s culture. If you don’t, your team members won’t.

2) Manage your brand. Take ownership of situations. Be patient and compassionate with your insurance customers and prospects.

3) Encourage and reward your team members. If your staff feels appreciated they’ll be at peak performance and take optimal care of your customers.

4) Implement technology that makes your customers’ lives easier. Just make sure you maintain your personal touch.

To read the full article, click here.

Interesting insight from the folks at Accenture.

To build long-term relationships with insurance customers and/or prospects, you need to understand them. Communication is not “one size fits all”. All relationships vary. To ensure you’re communicating effectively, take time to learn more about your audiences.

Many professionals, insurance agent or not, don’t like to ask for referrals. One of the best ways to find new insurance business, however, is from referrals and they don’t just have to come from the insurance customers who walk through your front door. You can earn referral business through your insurance leads as well!

First, let’s talk about the basics of getting referrals.

1) Keep customers happy. The key to any successful business relationship is mutual satisfaction. Both parties must be happy with the byproduct of the transaction or sale.

2) Avoid insurance lingo. Do you remember what life was like before you were an insurance agent? Did you understand what your personal insurance policies covered? Once you went to insurance school and truly understood what all the insurance lingo meant, did you gather all your policies and review them to see what was included, excluded, etc.? Don’t assume your prospects understand the insurance jargon that comes with the territory. Understand what they don’t understand and take time to educate them. And avoid as much of the lingo as possible.

3) Tell your story. No matter how much we want to separate our business and personal lives, we can’t do it. All business is personal. Why did you become an insurance agent? What is your purpose? Why do you enjoy helping people? Inspire your customers. People connect with inspiring people.

4) Ask “who do you know?” When you’re speaking with customers and begin to segue into asking for referrals, a positive approach is to say something along the lines of, “I’m thankful to have you as a customer and I’m looking for more customers like you. I truly enjoy helping people make informed decisions about securing their financial futures. Who do you know that I can help?” (Of course you don’t have to take that word-for-word. Make it your own. Add your personality and be genuine.)

The great thing is, all of these tips are relevant whether you’re speaking with someone face-to-face or over the phone.

If you purchase Internet leads, review the Internet leads that have converted to customers and use the “who do you know” approach. If you’re following tips 1-3, tip 4 should help you see a definite increase in referrals. Even if you connect with a lead who has already closed with a different agent, use the “who do you know” approach. If you’re genuine in your delivery, the prospect may be more than happy to help you with referrals.

Asking for referrals is one of the best free marketing tools an insurance agent can use. Everyone’s approach is different. What’s yours? Please share here!

I saw this post by Andy Sernovitz over at the SmartBlog and had to share it with you here. Andy explains the importance of proactively communicating with three different groups of people:

• Your customers. Make it a point to make friends with your customers. Remember birthdays, anniversaries and other important life milestones. Winning the love and respect of your customers means free advertising, forever.
• Your employees. The most successful companies are those driven by passionate, empowered employees. When employees are given opportunities to take ownership over projects and have a voice in the decision making process, magic happens. They have a sense of mission that aligns with the overall company vision. When that happens, no goal is unattainable.
• Your competitors. What is your relationship like with your competitors? Sernovitz explains that “no business can solve every problem for every customer.” In the insurance space specifically, you probably have many peers who are also your competitors. Do you ever refer prospects to your competitors when you can’t help them? Perhaps the prospect needs a specialized coverage you don’t offer. Do you send him or her to a competing agent? Good deeds breed good deeds. Chances are they would do the same for you.

On this Friday I encourage you to make it a priority to focus on these three groups of people. When an insurance professional focuses on maintaining good relationships with customers, employees and competitors, not only will you increase positive word-of-mouth, you will close more sales and potentially increase future sales.