Creating Proactive Client Experiences

Is this your perfect client? They always renewed, paid their bills, never had claims, rarely had endorsements — and we never talked to them.

I have been spending quite a bit of time lately talking about how any agency should and can create proactive client experiences.

A few weeks ago I received an email from an agent in Michigan that illustrates the need for being proactive with your current customers. Here is what she said:

“I hope all is well! You showed us a program at the CIC Dynamics of Personal Insurance, and I am TRYING to remember the name of it but drawing a complete blank. I believe it’s what you use to set up email marketing campaigns—if someone subscribes to your newsletter send them this email, then move them to this funnel kind of thing…

“Any idea what the name is?

“The reason I’m asking—we are at a point in our agency where reactive touches happen far more often than proactive touches. If we have conversations with insureds, we’re great at building the relationship and retaining the business, but if they don’t call us for some reason, we’re not doing a good job of reaching out to them.

“It’s one of those ‘they’re my best customer ever because they never call and just renew year after year.’ Unfortunately, they don’t realize our value (and we’re not providing value) as an agency when that happens.

“I was reviewing our cancel logs for the last two months and was surprised at a couple accounts we lost to other companies that we had insured since the early 90’s. And not only did we lose them, but they never called us until after they had rewritten their coverage elsewhere.

“When I looked at their accounts, they always renewed, paid their bills, never had claims, rarely had endorsements… we just never talked to them. How would they have any idea what we do on our end, and the value we provide to them, when we don’t show it?

“This is my big goal for the rest of the year—build the processes and hopefully automate workflows to show our value! Jason Cass’s book, Customer Service is Just Foreplay, was helpful in wrapping my mind around things as well. :)”

I consider this agency to be well run and proactive in their use of technology to enhance the client experience. They do not have a process for proactively reaching out to those “perfect clients.”

What can your agency do to build processes and automate workflows to show your value? Here are a few thoughts:

• Determine how many “perfect clients” you have that have not been touched in the last year.
• Reach out and touch—in some way. A quick email and/or phone call thanking them for their business is a great first step.
• Explore the options available in your agency management system for creating a process of keeping in touch (campaign management).
• Explore other marketing automation systems that you might use. You can find a list on the Agency User Review site. Let me know what other systems you find that I can add to this list.
• Read Jason Cass’s book, Customer Service is Just Foreplay, to give you some ideas on what you can do. To get you started, you can download a sample of the first three chapters.
• Purchase the paperback, hardback or Kindle version on Amazon.

Agents tell me all the time they provide value to their clients. How many “perfect clients” do you have that have not experienced your value?

Let me know what you think by leaving a comment below.