When I woke up at 6a this morning, a blog post topic popped into my head. It was a euphoric moment, since the only thing that’s ever in my head when I wake up is an annoying song (yesterday it was Kelly Clarkson’s “Since You’ve Been Gone;” the day before that it was Whitney Houston’s “So Emotional”).
It’s 2:45 MST and I have totally forgotten the topic.
So, keeping in theme with awesomely bad songs, here’s one of my favorite InsureMe videos of all time, Aurora Borealis’ “Stardust Wishes.”
Of course, Aurora Borealis is made up of InsureMe’s James Omdahl and Jeb Foster. And those scenes couldn’t have been funnier to shoot.
And, speaking of Jeb, he’s recently been promoted to lead copywriter. It’s a well-deserved accolade and you should all wish him a hearty congratulations. He’ll be heading up the blogging efforts here so stay tuned from more bloggy greatness from Jeb!
Oh, this was another fun video. For this installment, we went to my apartment to film the agent training segment: The Dos and Donts of Selling Insurance.
We’ve given a bunch of insurance sales and marketing tips on the Agent Blog over the years, which have started some good conversations. Here are some of my favorites:
Seth Godin recently observed a handwritten note scotch-taped to a cash register at a souvenir shop. Here’s what it read:
You’re the boss.
All sales are …
Returnable
Refundable
Exchangable (sic)
Even by mail
30 days from purchase
“[Rather] than taking the posture of ‘I hate you and I don’t trust you,’ why not start with this one?” Godin asks.
It’s a rhetorical question: There’s no good reason to antagonize your customer, and there are a million good reasons to treat them with high esteem. But let’s just focus on two of them:
1. The world has enough suspicion and curmudgeonery [my word].
2. Godin: “Just down the street, the proprietor yelled at us for taking a photo. At a t-shirt store. Sheesh. Wanna guess where we bought our overpriced souvenirs?” [Emphasis mine]
There you have it. Treat your clients like the boss, and they’ll become your best customer–and maybe they’ll blog about you!
Sometimes we cast too wide of a net. Divide and conquer by carving out a niche for yourself, whether it’s servicing boomers, college kids, women–or selling only certain types of policies. Try pouring your time and energy into a niche group and see where you end up. You might be happily surprised with the results.
This Friday marks my last day as lead copywriter for InsureMe. Next week I’ll be leaving Colorado and relocating to Washington, DC.
Of course it’s bittersweet to leave InsureMe, but I feel good in that I’ve made some lifelong friends and gained some trusted mentors. I’ll probably be doing some freelance work with InsureMe (including some blog posts), but being out of the office will be a change. So I thought I’d go out on a high note and repost some of my most-read blog posts.
Then I realized I’ve written nearly 500 of them since January 2006, and it would take me until Friday to figure out which ones to repost.
So, I’m just going to post whatever I feel like, mostly in the form of favorite InsureMe anecdotes, videos and photos. That’s more fun for everyone anyway, right?
See one of my favorite videos (and learn why) after the jump.
We celebrated InsureMe’s 15th birthday today, by throwing a little surprise party for founder and CEO, Tim McTavish. Obviously InsureMe has had quite the year (already!), but Tim got the company through some most humbling times back in the day.
It’s safe to say that Tim has been a great role model for everyone here, both in business and life. Which makes this video of the company shaving Tim’s head for charity seem very anniversary-appropriate!
You don’t have to be in the Michael Moore camp to see the truth in this argument put forth by liberal writer Ezra Klein. You just have to have an understanding of what motivates corporations in a capitalist system–profit.
And the bottom line is that it’s more profitable for health insurers to insure only healthy people, and to fight tooth and nail to avoid insuring unhealthy people, who, after all, will end up costing them more money. If you disagree with this premise, you might as well stop reading.
This is not a criticism, rather it’s a statement of fact. Whether your inner economist is Karl Marx or Adam Smith, that’s just how it is.
That’s why it’s silly to be shocked or outraged by the recent actions of California insurers, who are in the hot seat for rescinding tons of individual policies. They’re just doing what they can only be expected to do. To get mad at them is as pointless as getting mad at cows for overgrazing a field. Vilification is not the answer.
Am I the only one who’s a little insulted by Allstate citing global warming as the reason for their rate hike proposal?
I mean, insurers have been pulling out of hurricane-prone counties and states since Hurricane Andrew. We know why: it’s risky to insure property on the coast. And even though I find it sort of ridiculous (hey, what are premiums for? And, also, what about those billion dollar profits?), it’s every private insurer’s right to write coverage where and how they see fit.
But raising premiums under the guise of global warming feels somehow patronizing.
I personally like Derek’s take. If Allstate is that concerned about global warming, if they’re so affected by it that they can’t afford to sell policies, why don’t they donate some of their profits to help clean up the earth?
What if Allstate, out of benevolence, and contemporary thinking, starts to invest some of their profit into Florida’s Hurricane Grant project and helps all of the low income properties that are not financially capable of bringing their homes and buildings up to current hurricane mitigation standards? Then, when all of the extra globally warmed hurricanes hit the peninsula, maybe the tallied losses wouldn’t be so catastrophic.
Obviously Allstate is not the only insurer proposing rate hikes and pulling business out of certain areas of the country. But doing so under the guise of global warming in an economy where people already feel like they’re being kicked while they’re down in out feels, in a word, shady.
“Why do I hate door-to-door salesmen?” my friend asked me yesterday.
Hate is a strong word, and maybe she used it more for emphasis than accuracy, but it seemed like she sort of meant it and was unsettled by the intensity of her feeling.
Earlier in the day, she’d been approached by someone selling a subscription to some kind of art magazine or newsletter. And as a full-time artist and an avid reader, my friend was an ideal prospect, someone probably more receptive than most.
(Keep in mind, though, this is an urban setting, and there was probably the natural apprehension that accompanies opening a door to a see stranger selling something.)
This particular person proceeded to recite a canned spiel in a tone that was both dogmatic and lazy. Put off, my friend tried to halt the monologue and say thanks but she wasn’t interested.
Bowling over her attempts to interject, he kept going with his routine. His lack of originality was impressive, and she would have felt sorry for the guy had his delivery not been so arrogant at the same time.
We’ve all got customers that make our jobs harder–particularly when we have to deal with problems that arise from that business relationship.
But as Best Buy has recently shown us, ignoring the problem and the customer don’t work. In fact it can land you in a serious amount of legal trouble, with bad PR to boot.
If you haven’t heard, Raelynn Campbell filed at $54 million lawsuit against the mega electronics chain for giving her the run-around about her laptop computer, which she turned in to be fixed under her warranty. But after six weeks the machine still wasn’t ready–three months later, Best Buy finally admitted to Campbell that they had lost her computer (and all the personal information contained therein).
Ultimately, Best Buy offered to pay her $900 for losing the machine… as a gift card. She countered that it had originally cost over $1,100, not to mention all her data that was now gone for good. She demanded $2,100, and Best Buy simply ignored her.
At this point, Campbell was made aware that all her personal data on the machine could lead to a major identity theft issue, though Best Buy never filed their legally required notice that she was at risk. That was the last straw, and she filed suit for $54 million, representing herself.
In case you haven’t noticed, consumers no longer tolerate being walked on by businesses big or small.
When it comes to insurance, there’s a real benefit of being an agent (instead of being involved with online policy purchases), because you can give the kind of personal attention that keeps customers from feeling neglected and abused–which can keep you and your agency’s name out of the mud.
As for Best Buy, I’m sure they’re wishing they’d have dealt with the problem instead burying their heads in the sand. I can’t say I’m surprised–their lack of customer service is one of the reasons I don’t shop there anymore.
So, how does your customer service stack up? Don’t stay in the dark about it–survey your current customers and see where you need to improve. The results might not be pretty, but they’ll help you improve retention in the long run.
