Today MSN featured the results of their worst customer service poll, which ranked companies whose service was most rated “poor” by customers.
Among the [dis]honorees:
Sprint Nextel
Comcast
Bank of America
AT&T
Time Warner Cable
Aside from poor service, MSN pointed out another poke in the eye: That these organizations realize how tough it is to make the jump to another provider of a similar service.
Just think about it: cell phone companies charge early termination fees, there are only a handful of cable/internet providers in a given area, and switching financial institutions is, in a word, cumbersome:
There are exciting things afoot here at InsureMe which have been keeping us plenty busy today. So, to transition into the weekend, please enjoy this InsureMe classic:
More and more, consumers who complete our quote application choose e-mail, not the phone, as their preferred method of correspondence.
This trend presents a unique challenge for our agents. Let me explain.
They say first impressions are essential. Over the phone or in person, an agent has many opportunities to inculcate a good first impression. You can wear your best suit. You can add a sweet-as-honey tone to your sales spiel. You can woo them with your winning smile. Moreover, you can change strategy when you realize something’s not working.
It’s much harder to make a great first impression over e-mail. For example, the closest thing to a winning smile in e-mail is this: : )
Hey, I know that your last customer was a jerk. I know that you get asked the same stupid questions over and over. I know that people don’t appreciate you, they’re boors, they’re selfish, they’re in a hurry.
But, here’s the thing: I’m not those people. I’ve never been here before. I didn’t do anything wrong! Don’t blame me for them.
Seth’s observation brings to mind my current–and prolonged experience with Flaunt magazine. The backstory here is that I received a subscription to Flaunt for Christmas. I didn’t get my first issue until February. And I haven’t received an issue since.
My communications with the Flaunt service staff has left me beside myself, wondering who on earth still finds it acceptable to treat paying customers with such indifference. But nonetheless, I’m a fan of picking the lesson out of every unsavory situation, so let us begin!
People watching has always been a favorite pastime of mine. People are never boring. They’ll always surprise you.
I often feel a little shame when I do it, though. Sitting at the coffee shop window watching passersby, one feels like bit of a voyeur.
Of course, there is a line that separates human curiosity from voyeurism. (Unlike Jimmy Stewart, I don’t use a telescope.)
Anyway, it was inspiring to read a post on Marketing Profs by Lewis Green about watching people in order to become a more effective marketer and salesperson. Lewis wrote about his experience observing people at the airport. (Perhaps the best people-watching venues in the world are airports.)
It bears repeating that the best salespeople are keen observers of human behavior. They’re aware. They pick up physical cues. They look for clues in a person’s posture, dress, and tone. They know when a smile is real or fake. They know when their pitch is working and when it’s not.
Less effective salespeople are more detached. Less interested in others, they’re more concerned about themselves and closing the sale. They have a spiel and façade that don’t change. That spiel may be compelling and the façade impressive, but they’re static. Less effective salespeople don’t read each situation and adjust accordingly. A lot of the time this approach works. Except when it crashes and burns.
The point is that the world–the airport, the grocery store line, the coffee shop–is the saleperson and marketer’s laboratory. If you’re not observing, you’re not improving.
You’re about to embark on part two of The Anatomy of Successful Web Sites: Building Trust to Earn Business, as published in the March issue of the TAAR Report.To read part one, just clickhere.
What are your site’s critical moments?
In addition to examining privacy and security policies, Hot Text authors Jonathan and Lisa Price recommend looking at “critical moments” on your site.
Critical moments are those at which your visitors get stuck. And when visitors get stuck on your site, they bail and move on to the next site. Maybe to your competitor’s.
Common critical moments include:
Trying to figure out your web site menu
Filling out a quote, registration, or contact form
Wondering whether it’s safe to provide personal information
Finding information or an answer to their question
Trying to contact a human
According to Hot Text, “If users fail in these tasks, your site fails.” By assessing the critical moments of your site, you can better anticipate a visitor’s needs as they navigate through it.
There was a great article in last week’s New Yorker about the commuting habits of American workers. The article says the average American spends 51 minutes in transit each way.
(The prize for the longest journey to the office goes to an engineer at Cisco Systems, who travels 372 miles each day to get to and from his job.)
Barring a radical new commitment to public mass transit and a reversal of urban flight, we can expect average commuting times to increase. Further, we can assume that more and more people will use their driving time as an extension of the work day–a scary thought given the data on cell phones and driver distraction.
How long do you spend commuting each way? If your commute is lengthy, what rationale do you use to justify the lost time in transit? What do you do in your car (besides pick your nose)?
The New York Times has a cool calculator that lets you compare costs between buying and renting. I imagine this could also come in handy if you’re thinking of renting or buying space for your agency.
At any rate, check it out here. (Registration is free.)
Part two in a two-part series. Read the first entry here.
Last week I wrote about some of InsureMe’s forays into social media marketing–notably our blogs and videos. I promised to return with an exploration of the pros and cons of social media marketing and some resources for small businesses who want to get into SMM.
You’re about to embark on a recap of The Anatomy of Successful Web Sites: Building Trust to Earn Business, as published in the March issue of the TAAR Report. This is part of a series of posts recapping my “TAarticles.”
The aesthetics is only one part of building trust with visitors.
Successful web sites, like Miss America, bring the total package.
In case TIME Magazine’s person of the year (”You”!) didn’t tip you off, we’re at the crux of a customer revolution. And the World Wide Web is almost solely responsible for it. From communication to commodities, the internet helps today’s consumer get what they need with a few clicks of a button.
The ease and accessibility of the internet has led to growing use in the financial services industry–recent Forrester Research figures showed a rise in online insurance shopping, with 72% of auto insurance shoppers using the web to find a policy. While that figure may not seem particularly noteworthy, what is surprising is that 64% of those shoppers said that a site’s ease of use was “extremely” or “very important” in their selection of an auto policy.
Successful agencies are paying close attention to that 64%, designing sites that exceed visitor expectations. Because when that happens, trust is earned. And while the web may have changed the way we find and buy goods and services, one significant sales tenet has remained constant:
Recently, 
