How Insurance Agencies Can Earn & Maintain Customer Trust

If you do a quick search of almost any insurance website or marketing piece, you will find the word “trust” in prominent use.  It has proven a valuable word in identifying the north star that the industry, and those who work in it, are pointed towards. It can also be the hardest thing to secure and maintain.

“To earn trust, money and power aren’t enough; you must show some concern for others. You can’t buy trust in the supermarket.” – The Dalai Lama

Part of the issue is that trust itself is a hard concept to make concrete, as it can be highly personal and subjective. However, the reward for achieving and maintaining trust proves worth any effort we put towards it.  So, how do we improve customer experience in insurance in order to build trust? In this article, we will outline 8 ways your insurance agency can earn and maintain trust.

1.Focus on the problems you solve, not the products you sell.

Author and TedTalk celebrity Simon Sinek often talks on how to build trust and credibility with customers and is perhaps best known for his adage, “people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.”  After all, most humans prefer not to be sold but rather welcomed toward a solution.  Your communication efforts should paint insurance in a meaningful way as a proactive problem-solving tool where customer and company align towards a positive outcome.

• Train your sales team to get to the root of what the client’s needs are and explain how your agency can solve those needs.
• Make the consumer the hero of the story, not your insurance agency. Show how their involvement and action can be the tipping point towards achieving a goal(s).
• Anecdotal evidence of customer success is powerful, too. Your sales team should be storytellers, recounting past customers whose lives have changed for the better due to the agency’s products & services.

2. Be transparent about options.

Oxford University Lecturer Rachel Botsman noted, “You cannot build trust; you have to earn it. And to do that, you have to demonstrate that you are trustworthy all the time.”  It can be tempting to try and sell the most expensive insurance plan to every lead. This may work in the short term to secure high-paying customers, but it is rarely a recipe for long-term success or customer satisfaction.

• Customers who buy insurance outside their budget have a higher chance of switching to a cheaper company upon realizing they are paying more than they should. A loyal customer with an inexpensive plan is more valuable than a short-term customer with an expensive plan that is over their budget.

3. Offer personalized products.

h Significant advances in technology and so-called “big data analytics” have made it possible to offer more customized insurance products. And offering personalized insurance products helps consumers feel like they are more in control of their experience and their costs.

• In a 2022 report on customer growth in insurance, “Big Four” accounting firm Ernst & Young found, “Hyper-personalization is at the forefront of the customer journey, and the time is now for insurers to embrace this approach.”
• Consumers are looking for more personalized insurance plans such as pay-per-mile auto insurance and healthy lifestyle incentives. 72% of consumers now say they would share significant data with their insurer about their health and driving habits in exchange for lower rates.

“The big difference in insurance in the future is going to be service.” — Eldes Mattiuzzo, CEO of Youse Seguros.

4. Make personal connections.

One of the big technological challenges in insurance is knowing when it is appropriate to automate a task, and when human action is needed. One can’t ignore the draws of technology, but finding a balance between beings and bots remains vital to gaining trust.

• According to LivePerson’s 2020 Survey of Consumer Preferences Around Insurance, 75% of consumers say they prefer to have a conversation with someone at their insurance company before making a purchase.
• In that same survey, 71% of respondents said they would also trust an insurance company more if it provided personalized service

5. Obtain high-quality online reviews.

5-stars, a thumbs up…and likes have become shorthand for positive experiences in our modern world and are equally as important in the insurance space.

• 98% of people read online reviews for local businesses. This staggering statistic proves that soliciting honest, positive reviews is imperative to the success of your insurance agency.
• Bad reviews happen but you can’t just delete them. If a review is just plain false or “spam”, you may report the review in hopes of Google identifying it is inaccurate and removing it. But the best way to rid of bad reviews is to obtain genuine, positive reviews to outweigh the bad.
• How do you get more online reviews? Just ask! You can ask in person by training your agents to ask after securing a sale or prioritize it as part of your insurance agency marketing strategy. Make the process as easy as possible, including a link to the exact place where the customer can write their review.

6. Roll out an NPS Score initiative.

A Net Promoter Score, or NPS, is a simple yet powerful metric to assess customer satisfaction with your brand. It asks one question: “On a scale of 0-10, with 10 being the highest, what’s the likelihood that you would recommend us to a friend or colleague?”

• The benefits of NPS are many:
  • They can reveal trends about employee and company performance.
  • Allows customers an opportunity to share their feedback, making them feel heard and important.
  • Attracts new customers when an impressive overall NPS score is showcased (typically any score over 50 is brag worthy). Sharing your high score on social media and across your website creates a Trust Symbol, increasing consumer trust in your brand.
• Consider deploying quarterly automated emails requesting that customers complete the NPS survey and track those results.

7. Check up on your existing customers.

In a recent Insurance Industry Reporter column titled “Customer Retention is the Most Cost-Effective Path to Growth” they note, “It costs an average of seven to nine times more for an insurance agency to acquire a new customer than to retain one.”  The simplest strategy to increased retention (and growth) might be touching base with your current customers regularly.

• Consumers typically only have two touchpoints a year with their insurer, when purchasing/renewing and when filing a claim – often not the ideal time to introduce new products or ask for additional engagement. Ensure you are maintaining healthy ongoing relationships with your customers, introducing them to new products as they become available, and keeping up with their changing needs and life events.

8. Deliver on your promises.

This last point may indeed be the most important when it comes to the overall health of the trust relationship you have with your customers.

• Do what you say you will do. Trust comes down to consistently answering the question: Did my insurance agency deliver on its promise(s)? The ultimate test of trust is this follow-through, and agencies and individuals shouldn’t take lightly their ability to impact the trust clients have in them by simply delivering on promises.

Deepen Your Customer Relationships and Begin Building Trust

PrintMail can help your insurance brand deepen relationships with your customers and earn their trust. Connect with our team to learn more about how a partnership with PrintMail can transform your customer communications and marketing efforts and be sure to subscribe to our blog for more great articles on improving customer relationships.