Unwrapping Customer Satisfaction

Finding new customers and selling policies can easily monopolize your professional schedule. But to build a strong book, you also need to nurture existing customer relationships. In addition to income from policy renewals, current clients can bring many gifts to your business by referring friends and family, providing positive testimonials, and purchasing additional coverage from you.

The holiday season is an opportune time to focus on all our important relationships, including those with customers. So in between your end-of-year business tasks and holiday festivities, be sure to carve out the time to ensure all your clients feel valued, heard, and supported.

Prompt, Personal Responses

Response time is key, but so is tailoring your responses to each customer’s preferences. How do they like best to communicate with you? Phone call? Email? Text? What are the demands on their time and attention? Do they have a young and growing family? Are they a struggling member of the sandwich generation caring for kids and aging parents? Or are they busy up-and-coming professionals? Using a robust customer relationship management tool that allows you to capture information about client interactions and other relevant details can help make you more efficient — and responsive to clients’ needs.

Create a Personal Connection

Celebrate your customers’ milestones by sending personalized messages for birthdays, anniversaries, and other significant events. In fact, the holidays are a perfect time to start, if you haven’t already. Send season’s greetings on behalf of everyone at your agency. Then continue to show interest in their lives throughout the year by remembering important dates and acknowledging their special moments. It doesn’t have to take long to connect in a meaningful way. For example, “Wishing you a fantastic birthday (or anniversary) celebration, and here’s to many more years of health and happiness!” This demonstrates your commitment to building a personal connection with your customers and helps strengthen loyalty.

Community Content

Share information about the local community that may be of interest to them, like holiday celebrations, events and charity drives. Consider sponsoring a local youth sports team, educational club, or activity to help establish your agency as an active contributor to the community. However, be cautious about political topics and activities, which can be divisive.

Educate and Inform

Establish your agency as a valuable informational resource by connecting customers with seminars, newsletters, and articles tailored to their interests and needs. During the holidays, for example, you could provide useful, relevant content, such as tips for safe travel or protecting your home from theft.

Host Customer Appreciation Events

Invite customers to informal gatherings at your agency and provide small tokens of appreciation, even if it’s just cookies and hot coffee. Encourage them to bring along friends or neighbors, enlarging your social network and potential customer base.

Customer Feedback

Ask for feedback from your customers through personal conversations or online surveys. Keep surveys relatively short and easy to complete — three to five questions with a clickable rating system and a space for optional written answers. Make sure you acknowledge and follow through on their suggestions when practicable to show customers you want to respond to their concerns.

Regular Policy Reviews

Perform an audit of each customers policies well in advance of renewal dates to make sure their coverage aligns with their current needs. You may be able to find them some costs savings, and it’s an opportunity to cross-sell other lines or enhance existing policies. The start of the year, after the business and busyness of the holiday season subsides, can be a great time for an annual review.

Commitment and Care

Your year-round commitment to exceptional service is a gift every customer appreciates. It’s a critical component of what can be a long and lasting partnership that will benefit you and your clients alike. We thank you for the dedication and professionalism you demonstrate each and every day. And we wish you, your families, and your agency team the joy of the holiday season and a healthy and prosperous New Year.