Service Tops Price Once Again
A recent article in The Wall Street Journal stated:
“Drivers who were asked to rate overall satisfaction with their insurance provider gave more weight to customer service than price, according to the most recent J.D. Power & Associates ranking of auto insurers.”
The survey asked consumers what they liked and disliked about their insurer, whether they had price-shopped or changed insurers in the past year, and what drove the change.
None of the responses surprised me, and if you keep up with this blog, or have read my book, “The Best Damn Sales Book Ever: 16 Rock-Solid Rules for Achieving Sales Success,” they won’t surprise you either.
For example, customers generally gave higher scores to insurers that allowed them to resolve a claim or other issue with one phone call, as well as insurers that gave them a discount for bundling home and auto insurance into one package. Hmm, sounds like “Speed,” “Ease,” and “Convenience” to me.
The more phone calls a customer has to make to resolve a problem, the lower the overall score the insurer receives said J.D. Power (no kidding). Giving customers a clear picture of any discounts they receive improves satisfaction, as does conducting an annual policy review to make sure coverage is up to date. Whoa, “Showing up,” what a novel concept!
Jeremy Bowler, senior director of the insurance practice at J.D. Power said 22% of the 14,066 respondents said they price-shopped for a new provider last year, but only 9% actually made a change. There were many reasons why a customer would shop, Mr. Bowler said, including advertising or unhappiness with price. He added, the most likely to actually switch are those who had a service problem rather than a price problem.
No one reading this should be surprised at that last statement. Why would you ever want to leave a company that gives you great service, especially when the odds of finding one better are so slim?
What I find particularly interesting about this is that both the insurance companies and their agents have always treated auto insurance as a commodity only to be sold by price. But the customers are not stupid. They know through experience that whoever has the best price this year, will probably not have it next year.
They also know that many companies try to capture business with an artificially low introductory price, but when renewal time comes around, look out!
Let’s face it, you might be able to capture customers with price the first time around, but it’s obvious from this survey what keeps them coming back: quality, service, convenience and value.
In other words, what can you do to save me time and make my life easier?