5 min read
Customers are the heart and soul of every business. No matter how stellar your product or service, if there’s no one who’s in need of it, your business isn’t as good as you imagine it to be.
And this is why- while you focus on other areas like marketing, product development, financial planning, etc.- it is important to look at and really focus on that one area that will impact your insurance business the most- customer satisfaction.
The current state and the current face
Out of a 100, the Institute of Customer Service gave a score of 78.7 to the insurance industry for overall customer satisfaction in 2018. If you think this is a good score, also think about the fact that this is 0.7 points lower than in Jan 2017.
Further research also uncovered the fact that 60.4% of insurers are not willing to compromise on service for the sake of a cheap deal. 27.2% are even ready to pay a premium for better service. Even after such readiness, insurance ranked as the 3rd worst sector for customer service in 2017 out of 5 years. The other 9 examined sectors had only improved.
And yet its importance cannot be downplayed. The level of customer satisfaction could spell the difference between a business that thrives and profits, and one that has to close up shop sooner than predicted.
The benefits of customer satisfaction
If you thought only spreadsheets, software, and paid advertising benefitted your business, then it is time to challenge such thinking. In the end, all that you are trying to achieve with these tools and methods is a happy and satisfied customer who can possibly help your business to rise. Spixii solutions can be one of the solutions that you use to reach improve the quality of customer service.
However, if you are lacking the incentive to invest time, energy, and money into customer satisfaction, here are a few reasons to start caring right now:
Increased NPS
For those who don’t know, NPS or the Net Promoter Score is a measure of customer experience and potential business growth. It is based on the following key question:
How likely is it that you would recommend this brand to a friend or family member?
The answer has to be given on a scale of 0-10.
- If the answer is 9/10:
The respondents are Promoters who will enthusiastically buy from you and keep your business growing
- If the answer is 7/8:
The respondents are Passives who are satisfied by do not share the Promoters’ enthusiasm for your brand. They can shift boats and purchase from another brand.
- If the answer is <=6:
You have Detractors in your audience who are wholly unsatisfied and can stump your growth through negative word-of-mouth marketing.
This number will reflect how connected customers are to your brand and how they perceive it. A higher NPS not only means your customer service is soaring but that your unpaid salesforce a.k.a your customers are there to lift your business higher.
Not only this but when other businesses get to know your stellar NPS score, your credibility in the industry also rises.
Spixii solutions help to continuously improve your NPS by understanding how the customer experience is being impacted. NPS and verbatim feedback give your business the eyes and ears to revamp processes that have an impact on profit.
Increased customer retention
Customer retention is one important area that businesses often neglect. But focusing on customer retention breeds loyal customers, and according to Temkin Group, these customers are 5x more likely to repurchase, 5x likely to forgive, 4x likely to refer, and 7x likely to try a new offering.
This translates to lower acquisition costs. Recruiting new customers costs five times more than retaining new ones. So, you save money on acquisition and also reap easy profits due to already established trust. This point is particularly important for businesses with an existing large customer base.
The result of not actively working to retain customers? In aggregate, it is estimated businesses lose $1.6 trillion per year when customers move away from them.
One way to improve the state of customer retention in your organisation is to ask customers for feedback by employing the NPS question. This will give you your score and also help you to know how customers actually feel.
You can also integrate Spixii solutions into your existing services so that customer service and hence, customer retention is improved due to increased speed and personalisation.
Increased brand loyalty
British company Zurich- who won the British Claims Award- built a Zara - the FNOL claims bot to amp up their customer service and make it more intuitive and efficient.
Zara came to rescue Anne- an 81-year-old who lived alone and survived the ‘18 Beast from the East. During the storm, her conservatory collapsed. In dire need of help, she thought of calling the claims department. But, due to the storm, it was impossible to get help through this medium.
So, she decided to use Zara- Zurich’s infobot- who guided Anne through the claims-making process. “It was very easy and intuitive even for someone my age,” she says.
Within 10 minutes, she received a call from them to ensure she was okay. In a few weeks, her conservatory was back in good shape.
Such customer service- delivered promptly and caringly- leads you to gain your customers’ unending loyalty. Then they are there for you: to be your cheerleader, your salesperson, your campaign idea-generator, and your business profiteers.
Increased ROI
Customer satisfaction and customer service don’t just reap intangible, feel-good, hormonally charged rewards. There are tangible monetary benefits as well. Know the 80/20 rule? It’s applicable here, too. 20% of your customers are responsible for 80% of your profits.
A customer who is totally satisfied i.e. with an NPS of 9/10 brings 2.6 times more revenue than the one who is somewhat satisfied i.e. with an NPS of 7/8.
Moreover, the word-of-mouthing done by your loyal customer force will trump any other marketing campaign you could launch. According to the UKCSI, almost one in four customers (24%) have been directly influenced to use an organisation, by recommendation from family or friends. New customers are just one loyal customer away.
On the flip side, the result of not having satisfied customers? Working to build relationships with new ones costs 16 times more than simply cultivating the loyalty of an existing customer. So greater investment with no guaranteed returns.
Spixii solutions are one big step towards happy customers who bring in increased return on that one-time investment.
In conclusion: customers are the heart and soul of every business. And they can change the state of your business by demanding more, pushing you to be better, and then singing your name as the Best Business Ever when you deliver and care about their satisfaction.
So, what are you waiting for? Time to seriously and wholeheartedly invest in some customer satisfaction, no? In the insurance sector, that might mean upping the level of personalisation and speed with which customer problems are handled.
