Any agent knows that customers are critical to the longevity of your insurance agency, which is why creating long-lasting customer loyalty plays such a crucial role in our industry. A happy customer returns to buy more products from you, and this is easier, cheaper and more reliable than buying leads and hunting down prospects.
So, how do you make (and keep) a customer happy? Customer loyalty and client happiness are affected by a lot of factors including, but not limited to, customer service, relationship curation, agent/client trust, and actually listening to what your clients need.
We've put together a short list of ways that you and your staff can help maximize customer loyalty so that renewals become the standard for your agency:
Employee training maximizes the potential for profitable growth of your business. Positive training sessions will improve employee attitudes in the company. Boring training sessions will waste time and money and lead to negative attitudes. Motivate your employees to participate in training by explaining why it is beneficial for their careers and for the business.
Top notch customer service means always going above and beyond to meet the needs of the customer. The best customer service results in repeat business, because people remember to be treated well. You an d your staff need to always be aware of incoming complaints and concerns of customers. The feedback you receive from your dissatisfied customers gives you an opportunity to resolve their issue and improve your service.
Once you receive a client complaint, it's important to meet with your staff to figure out how to improve operations in your agency so the same mistake doesn't happen again. Be sure to examine what happened and how. This is the only way to fix the things that aren't working well and to give your customers a more satisfying experience. Inform customers whenever changes are implemented and that their feedback was taken into account.
Keeping in touch with your customers throughout the year is an excellent way to surprise them and keep a smile on their face when it comes to you. Sending personalized emails, thank you notes, and birthday cards shows them you care about them and their business. Be sure someone on your staff is keeping a database with this information and designate someone in charge of consistently staying on top of personal greetings.
You might be able to predict whether or not a customer will renew their insurance policy with you from the way they interact with you over the course of their existing policy, or there could be one pivotal moment throughout your business relationship that is the deciding factor. Every client and situation is different, which is why it's important to have a range of plans to keep customers happy.