You are unique! And so is your business. Regardless that you own a business similar to thousands and thousands of others, yours is just a little bit different.
The problem is most prospects for your products and services don’t see it that way.
They view you as “an insurance agency” and they have certain expectations of what that means. Each of these prospects or customers comes to you, or stays with you, for one or more fairly concrete reasons that are also common, but in their view are uniquely their own. Do you know what that reason(s) is?
It is critically important you do, because customers leave you for the same reason(s) they came to you in the first place.
It is critically important you know very clearly why your customers are your customers. If you aren’t very clear on the reasons, it will be difficult, probably impossible, to build a high level of customer retention over time. And, a high retention rate (as I have written about here before) is much more important to agency profitability than new business sales.
If you know why your customers are your customers then you are a leg up on your competition because most of them don’t. They think they know, but if they aren’t rigorous in their analysis, which begins with asking the customer, they don’t. Right?
Customers leave you for the same reason they came to you, and since customers reasons are theirs and may have little to do with your uniqueness (at least initially), not only do you need to understand their reasons, but you need to understand if you don’t continue to meet those criteria you will lose them.
Customers who come to you for price, will always expect a competitive price, for example. Those who value personal and extraordinary service need to see that you are constantly getting better in that regard. It’s a fact of human nature that people always want more. So, to insure a high level of agency retention and profitability, you have to get better and better. Your competition will enforce this.
As you look at the coming year? What are your plans for tweaking your value to your customers? It may seem daunting, but if you talk to your customers they will give you the answers!
