What do great businesses do to engage and educate clients before they have actually started the client discovery meeting?
They have at their disposal waiting room excellence.
In other words the client experience begins as the client enters the business premises. And by design rather than default these great businesses tap into client behaviour and emotion to educate and inform before the formal interview has even commenced.
How?
Follow these five steps and start your transformation.
Create a welcoming environment.
Like the PCE Assurance Letters, the waiting room environment is all about confirming to the client that they have made the right choice. This means that it needs to speak to the client needs that are in play. If you are pitching to senior executive clients a waiting room needs to evoke the environment they are accustomed to. The details right down to the magazine selection needs to be appropriate. If pitching to families a waiting room that is child friendly is a winner.
Your pitch to your prospective client that you understand them, starts in the waiting room. Create an environment that loud and clear announces that you know your market.
Have great front of house staff that can engage your clients.
This works because you can find out vital information about a clients decision making internal influences such as ...attitude, motivation, how they learn (do they watch the video screens, read the magazine, look at pictures in a brochure, read your business collateral?). Recently PCE were strongly engaged in two adviser waiting rooms. Once by a dynamic receptionist who was also studying law. PCE were quite put on their heels and certainly discovered there were some issues over and above what PCE were there to discuss that it was suddenly illuminated that this particular business could assist with. The second occasion PCE was struck by the smiles, the welcome, the conversation of two front of house staff.
Start educating and leading your clients.
Create and use focused and targeted collateral be it brochures, case studies, video that provides information about your business and what it is you do and why.
Importantly what is your process and what sort of clients have been through your process and succeeded. There are many ways to do this. Video, flow charts, client storyboards. What you are doing here is creating credibility that positive results happen for people who work with you.
Demonstrate the value you provide.
With the pressure you face from an ever increasing Competitive environment, differentiating your offer has never been as vital as it is now. To win you need to demonstrate that your offer transcends what else in out there. Easily done. Simply create a map/ a process/ a visual of all the things you do for clients and how broad your network is, in a way that clearly identifies that you can provide and facilitate a multi faceted solution for your clients and that you are the vital hub of their world.
Let them bond with you before they meet you.
How? Let them know you and who you are and who are the clients you've helped. You, your staff, your clients should be on display. This means visuals, photos, a library and other items that can make an emotional connection with your clients. What community contribution do you make? What about charity? What do you stand for and what is valued in your world that you are willing to share? By opening yourself up and displaying your values you will have as a result like attracting like and people bonding with you or at the worst people understanding and respecting your values and giving you the opportunity to reciprocate.
Waiting rooms.......not just for waiting.
Wednesday 26 September 2012
Friday 21 September 2012
Insurance Company Client Retention - how to retain clients and advisers
Some time ago the McKinsley Quarterly published work on limiting customer churn in insurance. Whilst the report looked at various types of insurance contracts across general and personal risk the learnings can and should be applied to the life market in Australia if not globally.
One of the interesting findings was that some companies suffered high departure rates despite reducing prices, highlighting that price and customer price sensitivity may not in fact be a pre-determining factor to a resultant high lapse rate.
First and foremost, customers of insurers have relatively low barriers to an exit. Secondly price is but one of several factors that sees a client depart.
McKinsey identified several factors within the insurers control that impacted on retention rates:
- Lack of service differential for clients with a high policy spend
- No service differential between older and younger clients with older clients less likely to stray
- Discounts to long term customers (who are less likely to leave) and thus a lack of focus on clients at threat
- misunderstanding the profitability of the client base in regard to the application of retention activity in that there is not adequate focus on the clients worth keeping
- Engagement of the adviser force
- Poor claims experience
- Poor service experiences
None of the above factors are adviser driven. They are all associated with the client experience and the service encounter. And most importantly the client for an insurer is not only the end policy holder but the adviser distribution force.
So what's important to advisers when it comes to insurance providers?
PCE are told by advisers:
- passing back of policy benefits to all policy holders
- consistent pricing
- underwriting relationships which encompasses the ease of collaboration and contact with underwriters
- fast efficient administration
- claims service and payment protocols
- value adds and true business development
- price
In short it's about being able to speak with your insurance provider representatives when you need to and long term sustainable relationships built on efficient service and empathetic claims delivery.
Are there instances where a shift from one insurer to another is adviser driven for the sole purpose of generating a commission payment to the adviser? Sure, and no set of protocols around restrictions to an advisers business model be it legislated or otherwise will stop those instances.
But would a risk adviser need to shift business from an organisation that provided solutions designed around a focus on a positive client and adviser experience in line with the areas discussed above? Never say never, but mostly likely the answer would be no.
One of the interesting findings was that some companies suffered high departure rates despite reducing prices, highlighting that price and customer price sensitivity may not in fact be a pre-determining factor to a resultant high lapse rate.
First and foremost, customers of insurers have relatively low barriers to an exit. Secondly price is but one of several factors that sees a client depart.
McKinsey identified several factors within the insurers control that impacted on retention rates:
- Lack of service differential for clients with a high policy spend
- No service differential between older and younger clients with older clients less likely to stray
- Discounts to long term customers (who are less likely to leave) and thus a lack of focus on clients at threat
- misunderstanding the profitability of the client base in regard to the application of retention activity in that there is not adequate focus on the clients worth keeping
- Engagement of the adviser force
- Poor claims experience
- Poor service experiences
None of the above factors are adviser driven. They are all associated with the client experience and the service encounter. And most importantly the client for an insurer is not only the end policy holder but the adviser distribution force.
So what's important to advisers when it comes to insurance providers?
PCE are told by advisers:
- passing back of policy benefits to all policy holders
- consistent pricing
- underwriting relationships which encompasses the ease of collaboration and contact with underwriters
- fast efficient administration
- claims service and payment protocols
- value adds and true business development
- price
In short it's about being able to speak with your insurance provider representatives when you need to and long term sustainable relationships built on efficient service and empathetic claims delivery.
Are there instances where a shift from one insurer to another is adviser driven for the sole purpose of generating a commission payment to the adviser? Sure, and no set of protocols around restrictions to an advisers business model be it legislated or otherwise will stop those instances.
But would a risk adviser need to shift business from an organisation that provided solutions designed around a focus on a positive client and adviser experience in line with the areas discussed above? Never say never, but mostly likely the answer would be no.
Wednesday 19 September 2012
Gen Y Clients and Staff - Gen Y bother?
There is something different about the Gen Y's.
They communicate in a different way compared to X'rs and Boomers.
Growing up in a post internet world they have adapted and adopted a different mode of communication that often does not translate to the workplace or in dealing with service professionals.
Rapport can be a series of abbreviations in a text message and not the rules of etiquette that PCE were taught.
The way Gen Y's have been brought also lends itself to them in general having a different view of how they should be treated in the workplace or in an advice relationship. Having had parents who during a period of increased wealth and productivity provided opportunity beyond that which they had experienced has led to a Gen Y stereotype of entitlement and neediness. How that translates into the workplace or in advice relationships is a need to be praised for doing what is expected and tailor made solutions.
What this leads to is from a Gen Y perspective is constant disappointment that the lofty expectations can not be met and this is observed as a lack of loyalty as a mobile thought process adopted by many Gen Y's leads them to believe that they can do it better sometimes simply because they know where to find the information and how to connect without regard for whether they actually have the skills to implement.
Is it all about them?
To a degree yes.
The expectations they have for success, for career, for remuneration and ongoing reward, for service are lofty and perhaps unrealistic in that they do not fit with defined structures and the operation of a corporate let alone a mutually beneficial long term advice relationship.
So are they worth the trouble?
They can be. But what PCE belives is that you need to look at it from a different angle. Forget age forget Gen Y, Gen X, Boomers.
Rather look at it from the perspective of how has this individual been brought up? What a their motives, their perceptions, their attitude and how do they learn.
From that you essentially find yourself with two groups - traditionalists and new age.
Traditionalists have been brought up with discipline and work ethic. New age can be seen as self centred but really it's a consequence of them being taught that there is an entitlement that their very being demands. The impact of this can be dramatically varied in our broad generalisation of Western humankind into two groups.
But what is true is that traditionalist will
- cooperate
- collaborate
- seek advice
- deliver on promises
- are true their word
- will accentuate the positives
- work hard
- are driven by intrinsic motivation
The new age will
- challenge
- seek autonomy
- seek information
- deliver on what they see as priorities
- are often non committal and seek contracts and written agreements
- look for shortcomings
- seek flexible work arrangements that fit in with their lifestyle
- driven by extrinsic motivation
What you need for your business culture if employing them and if seeking them as clients how you go about charging them appropriately without factoring in a long term relationship - are critical elements to consider.
They communicate in a different way compared to X'rs and Boomers.
Growing up in a post internet world they have adapted and adopted a different mode of communication that often does not translate to the workplace or in dealing with service professionals.
Rapport can be a series of abbreviations in a text message and not the rules of etiquette that PCE were taught.
The way Gen Y's have been brought also lends itself to them in general having a different view of how they should be treated in the workplace or in an advice relationship. Having had parents who during a period of increased wealth and productivity provided opportunity beyond that which they had experienced has led to a Gen Y stereotype of entitlement and neediness. How that translates into the workplace or in advice relationships is a need to be praised for doing what is expected and tailor made solutions.
What this leads to is from a Gen Y perspective is constant disappointment that the lofty expectations can not be met and this is observed as a lack of loyalty as a mobile thought process adopted by many Gen Y's leads them to believe that they can do it better sometimes simply because they know where to find the information and how to connect without regard for whether they actually have the skills to implement.
Is it all about them?
To a degree yes.
The expectations they have for success, for career, for remuneration and ongoing reward, for service are lofty and perhaps unrealistic in that they do not fit with defined structures and the operation of a corporate let alone a mutually beneficial long term advice relationship.
So are they worth the trouble?
They can be. But what PCE belives is that you need to look at it from a different angle. Forget age forget Gen Y, Gen X, Boomers.
Rather look at it from the perspective of how has this individual been brought up? What a their motives, their perceptions, their attitude and how do they learn.
From that you essentially find yourself with two groups - traditionalists and new age.
Traditionalists have been brought up with discipline and work ethic. New age can be seen as self centred but really it's a consequence of them being taught that there is an entitlement that their very being demands. The impact of this can be dramatically varied in our broad generalisation of Western humankind into two groups.
But what is true is that traditionalist will
- cooperate
- collaborate
- seek advice
- deliver on promises
- are true their word
- will accentuate the positives
- work hard
- are driven by intrinsic motivation
The new age will
- challenge
- seek autonomy
- seek information
- deliver on what they see as priorities
- are often non committal and seek contracts and written agreements
- look for shortcomings
- seek flexible work arrangements that fit in with their lifestyle
- driven by extrinsic motivation
What you need for your business culture if employing them and if seeking them as clients how you go about charging them appropriately without factoring in a long term relationship - are critical elements to consider.
Wednesday 12 September 2012
How our clients brains stop them making rational decisions
So you've written a great plan, an insurance strategy that is relevant, appropriate and desperately needed by your prospect and yet.....the response is...I'm not sure, I need to think about it.
Maslow offers us some great guidance on motivation and drive.
We at PCE would love to accept that positive view of people that analogy that cream rises to the top that people really do try to be the best that they can be.
For us the one of the greatest examples of Maslow's hierarchy working is Chris Gardner;think Will Smith in the Pursuit of Happyness.
Chris's journey and struggle to be the best he could be was Maslow personified.
But Maslow does not fit when you think of a client walking away from a sound financial plan. Maslow does not explain why someone who has it all still wants more. Maslow can't explain why your COI having engaged you does not continue to provide referrals. Maslow does not explain why people make decisions that appear and probably are totally irrational.
How you understand what is going on in someone's mind and why they make the decisions they do is really the key to positive client engagement.
It's what this website/blog is all about. It's about being the best you can be and being self aware enough that you can engage clients with honesty and genuine curiosity and sincerity.
It's about emotional intelligence and it's application.
As Golemon writes in his groundbreaking work, in 1995, it's about knowing yourself, managing yours and your clients emotions, motivation and understanding motivation, recognising emotions and motivations in your clients, building relationships, maintaining relationships.
People's ability to do this differs and PCE is about developing tools to assist.
But heres the big tip. Ready?
If you want a client to go through a process with you.......do it yourself first.
Go through the PDS and full out your own application. Do a fact find on yourself. Mind map your world on a single page. Get underwritten. Walk through your business with your clients eyes. How do you feel about that policy loading, about some of the personal questions on the application....did you answer the honestly ...really?
What about that fact find process.....how'd it feel.....fake, false, like you were a number.
Draw your family tree......
Examine the way you shop. The last holiday you went on ....did you use a travel agent ...or did you go online......do you value advice when it's your business but diminish the value of advice when it's someone's elses business.
Do you walk the talk?
Do you believe in what you sell? Can you state why you do what you do? Do you know who it is that you help, what problems they have and what you do about it and what your clients feel about what it is that you do?
Our brains have evolved from a brain stem that kept us alive and to this day still regulates all that is automatic.
The other systems that evolved have at their core an emotional centre, the limbic system that receives all the information that bombards us each day and attaches emotional markers to it before our pre frontal cortex makes that decision that we hope is rational but that is driven by experience and acquired knowledge.
What is key here is the emotions that we assign to things, that drive us that shut down rationale thought when the feelings are strong enough.
So how well do you engage your clients on an emotional level? Really? A fact find? What are you doing in your business to really connect with clients?
If you can answer and articulate and demonstrate that then you are well ahead of the curve. And on the way to positive client engagement.
Maslow offers us some great guidance on motivation and drive.
We at PCE would love to accept that positive view of people that analogy that cream rises to the top that people really do try to be the best that they can be.
For us the one of the greatest examples of Maslow's hierarchy working is Chris Gardner;think Will Smith in the Pursuit of Happyness.
Chris's journey and struggle to be the best he could be was Maslow personified.
But Maslow does not fit when you think of a client walking away from a sound financial plan. Maslow does not explain why someone who has it all still wants more. Maslow can't explain why your COI having engaged you does not continue to provide referrals. Maslow does not explain why people make decisions that appear and probably are totally irrational.
How you understand what is going on in someone's mind and why they make the decisions they do is really the key to positive client engagement.
It's what this website/blog is all about. It's about being the best you can be and being self aware enough that you can engage clients with honesty and genuine curiosity and sincerity.
It's about emotional intelligence and it's application.
As Golemon writes in his groundbreaking work, in 1995, it's about knowing yourself, managing yours and your clients emotions, motivation and understanding motivation, recognising emotions and motivations in your clients, building relationships, maintaining relationships.
People's ability to do this differs and PCE is about developing tools to assist.
But heres the big tip. Ready?
If you want a client to go through a process with you.......do it yourself first.
Go through the PDS and full out your own application. Do a fact find on yourself. Mind map your world on a single page. Get underwritten. Walk through your business with your clients eyes. How do you feel about that policy loading, about some of the personal questions on the application....did you answer the honestly ...really?
What about that fact find process.....how'd it feel.....fake, false, like you were a number.
Draw your family tree......
Examine the way you shop. The last holiday you went on ....did you use a travel agent ...or did you go online......do you value advice when it's your business but diminish the value of advice when it's someone's elses business.
Do you walk the talk?
Do you believe in what you sell? Can you state why you do what you do? Do you know who it is that you help, what problems they have and what you do about it and what your clients feel about what it is that you do?
Our brains have evolved from a brain stem that kept us alive and to this day still regulates all that is automatic.
The other systems that evolved have at their core an emotional centre, the limbic system that receives all the information that bombards us each day and attaches emotional markers to it before our pre frontal cortex makes that decision that we hope is rational but that is driven by experience and acquired knowledge.
What is key here is the emotions that we assign to things, that drive us that shut down rationale thought when the feelings are strong enough.
So how well do you engage your clients on an emotional level? Really? A fact find? What are you doing in your business to really connect with clients?
If you can answer and articulate and demonstrate that then you are well ahead of the curve. And on the way to positive client engagement.
Friday 7 September 2012
Social Media For Financial Services - What You Need To Know
With the Financial Standard launching a scholarship to support financial advisers who are taking the lead in social media, http://www.financialstandard.com.au/smileys
PCE thought it worthwhile to look at some of the aspects of success in social media community building.
As fans of Gossieuax and Moran and others such as Iggy Pintado, looking at their research and writings makes sense for any one grappling with how and what they should be doing to engage clients via social media.
1) People trust people in their tribe.
As humans we have simply not evolved to engage with businesses who deliver to us content embedded with jargon and that is positioned to us in a way that portrays why dealing with said businesses is a good choice for us. What really matters are stories shared with us around the campfire. In other words we look to people we know and we trust to give us green light signals about our purchasing options and choices.
2) Building relationships is predicated and successful only when there is reciprocity.
A bond between people or indeed between people and a corporation is only successful if the bond is mutual which means there needs to be some give and take. In a social media sense this means that in order to engage a community you as the business need to bring something of value to the conversation / to the community.
3) People want to hear, read, see, experience what other people say about you, your services, your service encounters that you deliver.
It however is more than the what you do. People want to know and understand the why. Why is it that others have chosen to work with you. Testimonials are not enough. True engagement that is required is the power of the open forum. In essence an ongoing and virtual conversation about why you do what you do.
4)Forget traditional segmenting.
The financial planning business who talks to us about A,B,C and D segmenting based on revenue should forget about social media marketing.
What needs to occur is a mind shift in your business so that you explore and think about your clients in terms of the communities or using Gossieaux and Morans language the tribes you have in your client base and which tribes within your client base and beyond you would like to engage with.
5) Become truly customer focussed.
This means you need to assess your client service encounters and reshape them so that It speaks to the interests of your core identified communities.
6) To do that you need to listen.
Where is the community that your business can engage with value congregating? What interests do they have? What forums do they engage in? What are they saying?
7) Throw out the rule book.
Easier said than done. This means getting the people in your business to allocate time, budget and resources to placing emphasis on social media strategies. This requires a single dedicated and senior person in you business (senior in regard to hierarchy not necessarily age!) responsible for the strategy. It requires time to spend in forums to respond in a consistent customer focussed manner with alignment to the goal of the business that is importantly something the business can deliver on.
But let's make it clear that you can't do any of the above without the business knowing who it is they want to deal with, what problems those people and people in that community have, what it is that the business does for those people and the results that are provided. This is essentially your raison d'être.
Without that you will sadly get lost in the socia media clouds.
PCE thought it worthwhile to look at some of the aspects of success in social media community building.
As fans of Gossieuax and Moran and others such as Iggy Pintado, looking at their research and writings makes sense for any one grappling with how and what they should be doing to engage clients via social media.
1) People trust people in their tribe.
As humans we have simply not evolved to engage with businesses who deliver to us content embedded with jargon and that is positioned to us in a way that portrays why dealing with said businesses is a good choice for us. What really matters are stories shared with us around the campfire. In other words we look to people we know and we trust to give us green light signals about our purchasing options and choices.
2) Building relationships is predicated and successful only when there is reciprocity.
A bond between people or indeed between people and a corporation is only successful if the bond is mutual which means there needs to be some give and take. In a social media sense this means that in order to engage a community you as the business need to bring something of value to the conversation / to the community.
3) People want to hear, read, see, experience what other people say about you, your services, your service encounters that you deliver.
It however is more than the what you do. People want to know and understand the why. Why is it that others have chosen to work with you. Testimonials are not enough. True engagement that is required is the power of the open forum. In essence an ongoing and virtual conversation about why you do what you do.
4)Forget traditional segmenting.
The financial planning business who talks to us about A,B,C and D segmenting based on revenue should forget about social media marketing.
What needs to occur is a mind shift in your business so that you explore and think about your clients in terms of the communities or using Gossieaux and Morans language the tribes you have in your client base and which tribes within your client base and beyond you would like to engage with.
5) Become truly customer focussed.
This means you need to assess your client service encounters and reshape them so that It speaks to the interests of your core identified communities.
6) To do that you need to listen.
Where is the community that your business can engage with value congregating? What interests do they have? What forums do they engage in? What are they saying?
7) Throw out the rule book.
Easier said than done. This means getting the people in your business to allocate time, budget and resources to placing emphasis on social media strategies. This requires a single dedicated and senior person in you business (senior in regard to hierarchy not necessarily age!) responsible for the strategy. It requires time to spend in forums to respond in a consistent customer focussed manner with alignment to the goal of the business that is importantly something the business can deliver on.
But let's make it clear that you can't do any of the above without the business knowing who it is they want to deal with, what problems those people and people in that community have, what it is that the business does for those people and the results that are provided. This is essentially your raison d'être.
Without that you will sadly get lost in the socia media clouds.
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