HOW DO YOUR CUSTOMERS KNOW YOU



HOW DO YOUR CUSTOMERS KNOW YOU?

ARTICLE 3

In previous articles, best practices were discussed regarding those first communications with your customer. Here, several types of communications are offered that help increase your customers’ loyalty and offer you valuable feedback.

Customer Service Postcard

Just as businesses such as hotels and car dealerships ask for consumer feedback after the customer has an experience with their business, so should insurers.

Each time a customer calls or writes in with a request such as a beneficiary change or address change, or a question about loans or benefits, your company has the chance to get valuable feedback. This can take the form of a postcard that is sent out with every written communication to the customer, or a special letter with a return postcard if there isn’t a necessary communication.

The cover letter would say something like:

You recently contacted (COMPANY) for information or assistance. We would like to know how satisfied you are with our service in response to your contact. Please complete this short survey and return the postcard to us at your earliest convenience. If you have questions about this survey or about your policy, please call a customer service representative at (800) XXX-XXXX.

The return (postage-paid) postcard should be coded so that neither the name nor policy number appears on the postcard, but the company would be able to tell which customer sent it in, if there are potential complaints or problems. The survey questions would include these:

1. Were the customer service representatives polite and helpful? Yes___ No___

2. Were any questions you had answered completely and clearly? Yes___ No___

3. Overall, did you receive the assistance you needed when you contacted our company? Yes___ No___

4. Is there something that would have made this experience better for you?

5. What else would you like to tell us?

This is an inexpensive tool, because the cost is limited to the printing costs and postage for those who respond. Experience indicates that the response rate may be less than 2%, but it may be the most important 2% of your customer base, because they have something to tell you. You’ll probably get back the ones you really need, which are from those customers who were not satisfied with their experience. This method of feedback is also a valuable tool for monitoring customer service training, as well as being proactively customer-friendly.

General Satisfaction Survey Postcard

This postcard can also be used for the above scenario, just a general customer service feedback tool. However, it can also be sent to all policy-holders annually, for instance with your Gramm-Leach-Bliley required privacy notifications. You probably won’t receive many of them back (which means the company’s investment is primarily in the printing cost) but you can reach customers that haven’t called in with a problem to find out what their needs might be. The text of the card would read something like this.

Please tell us about your experience with (COMPANY) during the past year.

Very Very

Satisfied Satisfied Dissatisfied Dissatisfied

Producer or Field Representative

Promptness ____ ____ ____ ____

Courtesy ____ ____ ____ ____

Overall Service ____ ____ ____ ____

Home Office Representative

Promptness ____ ____ ____ ____

Courtesy ____ ____ ____ ____

Overall Service ____ ____ ____ ____

Would you refer others to (COMPANY)? Yes_____ No_____

Are there other comments you’d like to make?

May we call you? Yes_____ No_____ Best time to call _______ AM__PM__

Again, you can code these cards to reflect the policy-owner’s identification. If you choose to ask them for name, phone number and/or policy number, use a folding postcard or return envelope that will help protect that information from the general public.

Policy Cancellation Postcard

An important piece of information for your company is why policy-holders cancel your policies. Of course, there are any number of reasons – some of which you will already know or expect because of your market. However, from those consumers who straightforwardly tell you why they cancelled, you will gain valuable insight into consumer priorities and concerns.

This postcard can contain the same questions and ratings as the one shown immediately above, and adds one more inquiry:

Please tell us the reason you cancelled your policy.

Collecting and Using Feedback

Of course, besides being perceived as customer-friendly, the purpose of each of the above examples of postcards is to gather information.

When the company has decided to use any of these tools, management must assign responsibility and resources to collect, record and analyze the responses. Complaints in the comments section should be forwarded to complaint handlers, just as any written complaint would be. Trends from these responses must be analyzed for the future of the company’s service responses.

Someone with influence must be able to take these trends and analysis and recommend changes within the company’s products, sales methodology and/or service structure for improvement.

Without this forward progress, the resource investment is wasted; with the full circle in place, the resource investment is invaluable.

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