Understanding your customers is the basis of a strong customer relationship. After all, you can’t market to your customers effectively or even talk with them about their needs if you don’t understand them. However, if you’re faced with an overwhelming amount of information in a customer contact database, how can you use that information to gain more insight about your customers? Gaining a deeper understanding of your data allows you to understand your customers and refine your insurance marketing.
Know Why You’re Collecting Data
You have a customer database. Do you know why you have it? Yes, you’re collecting information like email addresses for your customers, but you could be collecting more than that. According to the Harvard Business Review, many companies fail to properly analyze or use their customer data. They “Collect and quantify data on it but don’t circulate the findings. Still others do the measuring and distributing but fail to make anyone responsible for putting the information to use.”
Start by having a discussion about purpose. What customer data would be useful for your business and your insurance marketing? How would you use this information if you were to get it? Is the data missing, or is it there and not being analyzed and used?
Move From Who to Why
You have basic customer information such as phone numbers and email addresses for your customers. This basic information helps you understand data such as the geographic distribution of your customers, which can certainly help you in your insurance marketing. It also tells you about the demographics of your customers.
However, you also need to measure and dig into the “why” behind your customers’ insurance purchases. You must collect, organize, and analyze data that investigates not only why your customers purchase a specific product but why they value your company over others. You could discover that your main asset is that you’re close by or that another group of customers purchases your insurance due to your excellent deals on auto insurance for seniors.
Understand and Measure What Your Customers Value
You want your customers to understand that your insurance business gives them value. This can be key to your insurance marketing strategy. However, it can be difficult to understand what your customers value and measure how you achieve success in matching your business service and products with your customers’ values.
According to the Harvard Business Review, you can develop customer value models by talking with a number of customers about the details that are relevant to them and finding out what those details are worth to the customer. This allows you to create a model that can ultimately generate data on how you are serving your customers’ key values.
For instance, you could discover that a certain group of customers greatly values timely service and attaches a large monetary value to this. You can then track your performance in this area by looking at their satisfaction.
By understanding the reasons behind your data collection, how your customers perceive your business, and what brings them value, you can collect and analyze the right data and bring your insurance marketing and your business practices to the next level.
At American Agents Alliance, we know that connecting with customers is one of your key priorities. We provide the opportunity to network with other insurance companies, access information and training, and develop your internal resources to better manage your insurance agency. Are you curious about what we have to offer? Contact us about our many membership benefits today.
