Social Media Works: Here’s Proof
January 10th, 2008Earlier today, I wrote about my experiences with two online life insurance brokers. I actually had Mack’s post about a woman’s experience with Panera in mind as I wrote it.
Because both of the insurance brokers don’t come off as Web 2.0 type companies, I figured that neither of them would ever see what I wrote, and that was unfortunate. I would always want to know how my customers or prospects felt after they had an encounter with a service that I was offering.
I was pleasantly surprised when Sean Cheyney responded to my comments and explained more about his business and the way it works. Because I have no reason to do otherwise, I take his comments at face value and now the company he works for (AccuQuote) have a much higher standing in my opinion.
It takes a lot of time and energy to track down people who are talking about your company and even more integrity to engage them in conversation. If more companies did this, the concept of “PR Nightmares” would largely go away.
People want to talk to other people. That’s why social media works.
Our exchange can be read here.
January 10th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
Ray good to see that AccuQuote was monitoring the blogosphere to see what you wrote about them. Hopefully they will take the issues you raised to heart. What many companies don’t understand is that when a blogger raises concerns about a company, he/she isn’t talking in a vacuum. All it takes is the right person reading the right blog, and suddenly one person’s complaint about a company can snowball into a PR nightmare, if the company isn’t smart enough to keep an eye on what their customers are saying online.
January 10th, 2008 at 6:08 pm
Thanks for stopping by, Mack, and for your comments. Your blog is one of my new favorites.
I agree - AccuQuote responded in a very positive manner. It does take effort, but all things considered, it’s a simple thing to do and it pays off well.
January 11th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
You’ve got to be kidding me! What a terrible day to be confined to bed sick (that’s me, yesterday).
I come in this morning to find that after gaining an advantage with our lower quotes, our professional calling practices, and our one-of-a-kind ratings display, I missed the most important beat– making the contact personal.
Is it an excuse? No, it’s an explanation. Dang it, fine, it’s an excuse.
Anyway, I’m glad you agree with us that our online life insurance shopping process is the best on the internet. Of course, we are always looking to improve, and any suggestions you might offer are welcome.
Best,
Joe White
January 11th, 2008 at 5:51 pm
Hi Joe - Glad you found this discussion as well.
I checked out your blog and it’s great to see that both your company and AccuQuote are following the rapid changes and taking the time to engage in conversation.
The main suggestion I could offer at this point is that the best way to stay competitive, aside from having a great product, is to stay accessible and involved with consumers. I can’t tell you what a difference it makes to have someone with pull involved with consumers on a personal level. He (or she) or listens most will win.
If you read my original post on this topic, you’ll see that I brought up both Insure.com and AccuQuote as sites that have a ton of opportunity to innovate further and make life insurance truly self-service. I’m curious what your thoughts are on this, especially in light of Sean’s assertion that life insurance is inherently not a self-service product and there will always be a need for consultation.
If Sean’s team could prove to the consumer that additional consultation is necessary and not have people worried about being upsold, then it could be a compelling development in this model.
If I’m overstepping my bounds in this line of questioning, feel free to ignore it, but as a consumer and as someone who is fascinated with social media marketing, I’m very curious.
January 11th, 2008 at 6:25 pm
It’s an excellent question, and our answer is what I believe really separates us from the rest of the market.
Is life insurance a self-service product? Well, it’s a complicated product sometimes; there are a lot of variable to consider; the average consumer could use some help in his choices. That’s what Sean is talking about when he says that Accuquote always conducts a “needs analysis” over the phone before selling a policy.
Now our take is somewhat different. We are certainly always available to talk to customers by phone, to evaluate each situation individually, and we have a highly-skilled team of case managers who work each case through, keeping in touch with the customer as needed.
But we also believe in educating the customer so that he can make his own decisions. That’s why we’re the only agency in the industry that can offer AM Best, Fitch and S&P Ratings side-by-side with each quote. That’s why we have an unparalleled database of over 3,000 insurance articles at http://www.insure.com/articles covering everything from insuring teenage drivers to identity theft to life settlements.
In the end, Sean has a point: insurance is complicated, and some people need help choosing term lengths, coverage amounts, etc.. But we believe in letting the consumer choose whether or not to enlist our help or educate himself. There are no hidden tricks here. Every recommendation we make, a consumer can read up on at our website, see why we said what we said, and choose to agree or disagree.
It’s our way of making a traditionally non-self-service product as accessible and self-explanatory as we can. I hope this helped.
January 11th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
Great stuff, Joe. Thanks again to both of you for participating and being so open.