August 4, 2008 by Steve.

The percentage of U.S. households with broadband Internet connections has grown from 12% in 2002 to 49% today, and 112 million U.S. adults now have high-speed Web access at home, according to a study by Scarborough Research.

The study, based on a panel of 220,000 adults 18 and older, found significant regional variation in broadband penetration. San Francisco topped the list, with 62% of adults living in households with broadband Web access, followed by Boston and San Diego at 61%. At the bottom of the list was Roanoke/Lynchburg, Va., at 29% and Charleston/Huntington, W.Va., at 33%. Most of the markets with low broadband penetration are in the South and Southwest.

Not surprisingly, adults with broadband access are more likely to use the Internet, including for shopping. For instance, 10% of those with broadband access have spent $2,500 or more online in the past year, compared with 8% of all adults. That means adults with broadband at home are 23% more likely to have spent at least $2,500 online in the past year. They are 20% more likely than average to have spent between $1,000 and $1,500 and 12% more likely to have spent between $500 and $1,000, the survey shows.

They also use the Internet in other ways, being 30% more likely than the average American to have downloaded podcasts during the past month, 29% more likely to have downloaded or watched TV programs, and 27% more likely to have downloaded or listened to audio clips.

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July 18, 2008 by Steve.

Kurt Turner is an independent agent in Shelbyville, Ky. He noticed that the best part of company meetings is talking with other agents during breaks. So, he started an insurance community forum site called InsuranceGossip.com, where agents and others in the insurance business can exchange ideas, get marketing sales ideas and tips, and ask/answer questions.

The site is agent-focused and not currently designed for others in the industry. Anyone can browse the site and read the questions and answers. Once you register, you can post (or answer) comments or questions. Different categories have been created to focus discussions on certain topic areas. Access to the site is free and there is currently no advertising.

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July 14, 2008 by Steve.

I’ve been reading quite a bit lately about how to create a customer experience that will WOW clients and keep them coming back for more. When I ask agents what they do to create these types of experiences for their clients, most have a difficult time answering. While most agents say they provide “good customer service,” many can’t define what that actually means for their agency.

For whom should you try to create these exceptional experiences? In my view, you should try to create WOW experiences for a small subset of your current clients.

Take the airline industry as an example. Most airlines have received a lot of “heat” lately due to increased fees, delays, and the hassle of traveling. Because I travel quite a bit, I follow what’s happening in that industry. I’ve noticed that many people are complaining because they’ve had difficult experiences with one airline or another. By contrast, when I started thinking about my travel experiences, I realized that they are generally pretty good. I normally fly American Airlines or Southwest out of Nashville. Both of these airlines treat me differently than they treat the occasional traveler. Let me give you one example.

Last December, my family and I went to Costa Rica for a vacation. We flew on American Airlines. The afternoon before we were scheduled to leave, I received a call from Carol at the Admirals Club in Nashville. She informed me that our morning flight to Dallas had been cancelled. Taking a later flight would cause us to miss our connection to Costa Rica. She told me that she had already rebooked the entire family on a flight connecting through Miami in first class (our original class of service). We ended up arriving in Costa Rica an hour earlier than originally scheduled.

Carol monitored the situation and was proactive in helping a good customer (me) get to the destination with the least amount of travel interruption. I could provide you with several other examples of times American Airlines personnel went out of their way to help me in difficult situations.

Does American treat all customers this way? No, and they can’t. American (and Southwest) has learned that they should focus additional attention on their very best customers. Agents need to do the same. Just like the airlines (or any business for that matter), agents need to identify their very best clients and then create customer experiences that will continue to WOW them.

For airlines, it is very easy to segment their customers by number of miles flown. The more you fly, the more personal attention you receive. For agents, it’s harder to determine your best clients. Revenue is one indicator but, in my opinion, only one indicator. Your measure probably should be a combination of revenue, number of policies (the more policies the better), who they know, and any other indicator that makes sense in your organization.

The next step is to design experiences that are appropriate for each level or type of client. If Pareto’s 80/20 rule is true, the top 20% of your existing clients generate 80% of your revenue. What are you doing to make sure they know you appreciate them?

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July 3, 2008 by Steve.

Search Engine Optimization—getting your agency to show up on a Google search result—is more of an art than a science. While there are many complicated and time-consuming steps an agency can take to improve their search result placement, using Google’s Local Business Center (www.google.com/local/add) is a simple step anyone can take. Doing so will help customers find you using Google Maps.

If you already have a Google account, sign in with your e-mail and password. If you don’t have a Google account, sign up for one and follow the instructions to create a free listing for your agency.

The street address you enter will be shown in the Google and Google Maps search results. Once you’ve submitted your business information, you’ll need to verify the listing before it goes live. A post office box can be used to register. You can verify using a touch-tone phone, SMS, or a PIN that will be sent via regular mail to your business address. Once the listing is verified, your information will normally appear in the Google results. There’s no charge for Local Business Center listings. Google doesn’t accept payment to include listings or sites in their search results.

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June 25, 2008 by Steve.

A-cappella.com Inc., a small online seller of CDs, DVDs, sheet music, and books for unaccompanied singing groups, discovered the power of viral marketing on the Internet and YouTube this past Christmas—and it’s only just recovered from a “blizzard,” in the description of one A-cappella.com staffer, of orders that ensued.

A 1998 video of the Indiana University a cappella group Straight No Chaser singing “The 12 Days of Christmas” that had been on YouTube for nearly a year suddenly took off in November and was registering 400,000 views a day. Viewers who were taken with the group’s performance began googling the name to find the DVD for purchase. And there was only one place they could buy it: The tiny A-cappella.com, based in Southwest Harbor, ME, which handles an average of 60 orders a day.

Shoppers placed hundreds of orders a day for the Straight No Chaser DVD, and the company, which was caught unawares, quickly sold out the 30 DVDs it had on hand. The orders kept coming, even when the company told shoppers it was out of stock and wouldn’t have more until mid-January.

By the time the company fulfilled all orders, it had sold 5,300 copies of the DVD—not much by most Internet retailing standards, but huge for the company that employs only two full-time people. “We’ve never sold that many of anything,” says Doug Gray, president. “If we sell 100 of an item in a year, we consider that a good seller.”

Gray has no problem explaining the popularity of the group: “It’s 10 young men, well dressed, behaving very nicely, and having fun singing. It appeals to a lot of people.” Still, he is at a loss to explain why the video suddenly caught YouTubers’ fancy. “It had been up there for close to a year, so there’s no telling who started e-mailing the link to friends and how it suddenly became so popular,” he says. “We’ve all tried to figure it out, but I don’t think we’ll ever know what started it.”

As of the end of February, the video of “The 12 Days of Christmas” had been viewed nearly 7.5 million times and other Straight No Chaser videos had been viewed hundreds of thousands of times. The frenzy of interest has had another effect. While the performers in Straight No Chaser have changed as singers graduate and others take their place, Gray says the group of young men in the 1998 video are getting back together to create a new DVD.

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June 5, 2008 by Steve.

Are your clients able to communicate with you any way they want—whether by phone, e-mail, Web, call center, or live access? Instant Messaging (IM) is an option that is becoming easier to implement. Understandably, agencies are often concerned about the practical aspects of IM. How will the conversation be documented? Is it worth the time?

One service worth considering is Provide Support (www.providesupport.com), a software and Web process that provides a “Live Chat” option on your site. You are given code that enables you to add a button on your site that a client can click to start a live chat with someone in your office. You select individuals who become part of a chat rotation. When someone clicks on the Web button, a box pops up on the computer of the next person in the rotation. That person is responsible for the instant message conversation.

The price depends on how many users you add. One user costs $99 annually, three users is $200 annually, and 10 operators is $400 annually. The software provides a transcript of each conversation after the call is finished, along with a management recap at night.

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May 30, 2008 by Steve.

It is becoming increasingly important for everyone in the insurance industry to take a hard look at our ability to attract new talent. Of the approximately 78 million Baby Boomers, about 8,000 turn 60 every day. The industry has a long way to go in order to attract and retain enough people to replace retiring Boomers.

An edited excerpt from a recent e-mail I received highlights at least part of the problem:

Dear Sir,

I found your article in the April edition of Rough Notes (Agency Marketing Technology column) of interest. I agree that the insurance industry has not embraced technology like it should… I joined the insurance industry in September 2006 and departed this past January. One reason I left was due to the lack of technology.

Most [insurance company] Web sites did not give good quotes. Or, two weeks after the sale, the company would terminate the sale. Needless to say, my clients were frustrated with me and the fact that their insurance rates kept changing. I found myself phoning underwriters on a regular basis with my clients sitting in my office reviewing quotes. Underwriters would then change and (for the most part) increase the rate, or tell me they wanted to pass on the sale. One company even had to approve all sales afterwards, again changing rates or canceling.

The agency owner didn’t want to invest in technology and didn’t see the need for basic items—such as a laser printer. Instead, my clients sat in my office while a multi-function copier/scanner/printer slowly printed documents. One client commented that his home printer worked faster than mine.

It was hard to find clients in our low-wage market who could afford insurance and deal with insurance company obstacles… I worked for $7 an hour while the agency owner spent the profits on herself.

You likely do a much better job of trying to provide the technology tools your staff needs to effectively “make the sale.” But don’t get too smug. The level and type of technology that a recent college graduate uses (dare I say expects?) is far above what exists in most agencies I have visited.

How many people who enter this industry end up leaving due to frustration with the antiquated ways we get our work done? The frustration that results from the cumbersome and time-consuming process of trying to obtain a bindable quote from an insurance company is only one example. How many more don’t we hear about?

Many who have been around for a while see that progress is being made— but are things changing for the better fast enough for the kids we need to hire? Or are they just going to give up and leave? Worse, maybe they’ll never come to work with us in the first place.

If you want to attract and retain the talent you need to be successful in the future, you have to be willing to invest in appropriate technology. There is no time like the present to begin exploring and experimenting.

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May 16, 2008 by Steve.

An old-fashioned hard copy letter is still the most effective method for initiating a new relationship with a CEO, according to a new study completed by Gentle Rain Marketing. According to 82% of the executives surveyed, the one-page letter ranks number one among the top five methods for developing new relationships with senior-level decision makers. As an increasing number of businesses realize the importance of developing relationships with CEOs and other high-ranking decision makers, the question becomes, what’s the best way to get on their radar screen?

Senior level executives said that if the letter reflected an understanding of a specific key challenge they were facing, it would be read. But there’s a catch. Even if the letter got read, it’s unlikely the letter would motivate the executive to immediately agree to take a meeting. But, if the letter focused on an issue of real interest, and offered some additional information, the executives would be likely to take that next step and request a meeting. According to the report, the key to developing relationships with senior level decision makers is to orchestrate a series of small steps rather than trying to accomplish too much with a single communication.

Some other methods that work to build relationships with CEOs and other top decision makers include writing articles or books (62%). The more the books and articles provided practical ideas that the executives could use in solving real problems, the more this method was effective as a first step in building a relationship. Fifty-nine percent said that advertising was an effective method for building a relationship. Forty-four percent of the survey participants said that they initially developed a business relationship as a result of attending an event or seminar.

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