Let me ask you a big question. When is the last time you ordered something from Amazon? Be honest. Was it 24 hours ago? 3 days? 2 weeks? Most likely it was sometime this month. When you ordered from Amazon did you price shop? Look around to see if the local store had it cheaper? Or did you go on your mobile app or summons Alexa to just order what you needed? This leads me to my point – convenience trumps price.
We are all so busy right? Our personal lives are busy, work is busy. It’s nice when things are just convenient. But really, how convenient is your agency? Are you thinking about how to meet the demands of a busier than ever consumer? If you were a client what would you want?
Let me take this out of insurance for a moment. I recently wanted to set up a few new checking accounts to better manager our money. I decided I would start with Bank of America, where we have our banking. Much to my delight it appeared that I could set up the new accounts online! Yes, I can eat my sushi and bank. I love it. No more running out the door at 3:30 to try to catch the bank being open. Completely the worst time of day for me. I got through the process only to learn I was denied. Denied from opening checking accounts? Really? Isn’t this what you do? Then they couldn’t tell me why unless I went to the bank. What?
So I decided to go local. Obviously the little guy wants my business right? On a Saturday (because again being open from 9-4 is just not convenient for someone who works 7:30-6:30.) I go to the teller line and ask to open accounts and she lets me know she’s not trained to help me and she had to find someone. OK great, she makes a phone call to the branch manager (who I can see) and the branch manager acts like I’m interrupting her. The teller comes back and asks me a litany of questions to ensure I absolutely have everything I need to open the accounts. Think of the team member who asks if you have a pit bull, pool trampoline and old roof before even asking my name. That’s who I got. Since this isn’t my first rodeo I had everything I needed. The brand manager begrudgingly came over to help but required the teller learn how to open commercial accounts.
Now I’m all for training but not exactly when I’m pressed for time. It took 73 minutes to open 2 accounts, and then online banking still was going to take a week. I then received a phone call the following day to let me know the account wasn’t opened up correctly and I had to come back in. Seriously?
I then went back to Bank of America twice to finalize accounts because they were too busy to help me and suggested I book an appointment. All I kept thinking is “Am I nuts? Don’t banks live off of checking accounts?”
Both big and local I was frustrated. Why is opening a checking account so hard? I started thinking about the parallels to the independent agency channel. How convenient are we to work with? I came up with a quick list of things to check in your agency:
- Do your hours fit your demographic (growing business owners struggle with the 9-4 work day)
- Is your online presence easy?
- Are you closed at lunch? If so, open right now – it’s 2017!
- Do you welcome people first or underwrite them first?
- Are you using E-Signature?
- Do you require a dec page to quote?
- Are you adequately staffed during busy times to best meet your consumers time demands?
- How much can people start, research and complete online?
- How often do you make mistakes that then cost your customers time?
- Do you have a mobile app to make sure your customers can engage with you how they choose?
- When someone answers the phone are they helpful or discouraging?
- How many people go to voicemail vs. speak to a person/
Your customer experience is all the difference in winning new business, keeping clients and generating referrals.
