When your customers talk about your business, do they do so with respect? Gaining the respect of your customers is much more important than impressing them with flashy insurance marketing. How can you gain true respect and build your business?
Know Your Values
According to the Business Insider, “earning respect is about sticking to your convictions and making the best decisions possible.”
Every day, you’re faced with many decisions at work, and you need to create a set of values that guide your business decisions. For instance, you could value supporting families in your community or being accessible to seniors. You could value making a conscious and visible community contribution. Whatever your values, make sure that you articulate and follow them and you will be more respected in your community.
Create Outstanding Content
One way to become a well-respected insurance provider is to give good advice. This could involve giving advice in the community, but it could also involve doing so online. If your blog is full of insurance advice that people can’t find just anywhere, then you’ll become a valued information source and a leader in your field.
Be Part of the Community
Be a contributor to your community, and you’ll see that you get a lot more respect from your customers because they know that you care about the community as a whole. This could be an online community where you dispense advice, or it could be the local community around your brick and mortar store. Millennials, in particular, want their preferred businesses to be involved in social causes. Showing that you care while engaging with the community is a way to do some subtle insurance marketing, but primarily it’s a way to get involved and make connections as you contribute.
Be Friendly and Welcoming
Having exceptional customer service is all part of being a well-respected business. If some of your employees treat clients like gold while others dismiss their concerns, then you need to talk. Work to achieve a consistent feel to your customer service, and make it feel friendly and welcoming to customers.
Know That You Can Fail
In spite of all of your efforts to become an outstanding business, sometimes you will fail. When this happens, you need to be able to acknowledge this, repair the damage, and learn from the experience for the future. According to Entrepreneur, “people immediately see through your mask if you present yourself as always being right or are unable to acknowledge that you made a mistake.” Let people know that you do make mistakes but that you’re open to remedy them as well as you can.
Follow Up
You might have excellent insurance products, but if you frustrate potential customers, that’s not helpful at all. Make sure that your employees follow up promptly when responding to clients’ questions and concerns. This lets your clients know that you’ll be there when they need you, and that’s particularly reassuring in the insurance business.
At American Agents Alliance, we’re here to help you create a strong, independent insurance business. We know that is done best when you have a lot of support behind you. Come and join our network of insurance businesses like yours; contact us today.
