Insurance Industry - Increase Sales and Retention from your Customer Service Team

The Insurance marketplace is highly competitive, with internet buying, increased insurance claims and tighter margins. Most Insurance Brokers and Insurance Companies are searching for that winning edge, but frequently miss the full potential offered when Customers ring in to the Organisation.

A Sales Management Approach to Customer Service
Customer Service teams in the Insurance Sector are trained to give quotes, or to accept renewals or cancellations. Some Insurance Renewals or Cancellations Teams are Save Teams, dedicated to keeping our Customers from leaving. Unfortunately, few of these are managed like Sales Teams, or are encouraged to use core sales skills. When met with negatives from a potential Customer about price, or the benefits offered by the opposition, many Customer Service or Renewals Teams are simply not equipped to deal with this and they often do not have anything useful to say.

Central to an effective Sales type approach is that the Managers and Team Leaders are working constantly to give their Teams the right focus, and to arm them with what to say in specific situations and how to put this across in a positive way that the Customer will accept.
They work continuously on building positive belief, product knowledge and interactive skills.

The following are a few good Sales Management practices for Customer Service or Renewals Teams -

1. Build positive belief in our Company and in our Products. Agents are constantly listening to negatives about our policies and prices. It is important to market internally as well as externally. Keep the Teams surrounded by positive messages, and real, concrete evidence as to why we are a good organisation and offer good value for money.

2. Ensure that every member of the Team is up to speed in our BENEFITS. Sales people work on this all the time as it builds positive belief as well as product knowledge. Have the Team list all the benefits of our Company and our key policies. Why should a Customer buy from us, and why should they stay? Many Teams have quizzes on this, or invite Sales or Marketing personnel in to Team Meetings to keep them fully briefed.

3. Practice and refresh frequently our unique selling points. What the Agent says on the phone in response to an objection must be totally relevant and real. The Insurance business changes on a monthly basis, prices go up and down, policy selling points change. Investigate your opposition, and find out a) their vulnerable points and b) our strengths against them. We never say anything negative about the opposition, as it simply does not work. Customers do not respond positively to this. However, your Customer Service Team can, and must, offer the Insurance Buyer a good, sound reason why we are better for them. Every Agent should have these on the tip of their tongue!

4. Identify each of our target groups and prepare specific benefits that are relevant for each group. This is important in Direct Lines Insurance, and it is practiced only by the best of the best!
Take the example of Motor Insurance. Most Agents on the phone are young males or females. They think like a young person and will make assumptions about their Customers based on these assumptions. A young male will always assume that no Customer is interested in the benefits of the policy, and will try to convince all those around them that the only important thing is price!

That is, of course, because most young males are like this. Older males and females are completely different, and will definitely want to know what they are buying. They are not buying a ‘price' they are buying a service! The message is that we prepare and practice what we can say to young Males, preparing two or three benefits, and we prepare different benefits for older males, older females and young females.

We find out which are the most effective benefits by asking them! Older Females have often had accidents, and they will have bad or good experiences of their insurance provider. They are paying for an ‘accident service', and they will be impressed by how fast you can settle claims, how well you look after them when the break down and so on.
Young males do not think they will ever have accidents, and they just want to get in the car and go! We do not mention accidents or roadside assistance with this group. Our benefits are all about price and the speed at which we can process the policy and get them in their car!

Any Customer Service or Renewals Team will benefit hugely from this Sales type approach. Working on these areas will improve focus, increase motivation and deliver better results.