What do customers want? Whether an insurance carrier is selling direct to consumer or though a multi-layered distribution network, the customer presents an ongoing challenge. Insurance marketers are often trying to hit a moving target as they evaluate the secret sauce to customer engagement.
A research report issued by interactive marketing and technology firm
“We wanted to better understand how people engage with companies, what they are looking to get out of those engagements, and what channels they prefer,” notes Caro. “Insurers can learn from this as they apply some of the report’s theories to their agency networks or to their direct-to-consumer efforts.”
Caro says that, based on the research results, it’s not enough for marketers to have a top-down mentality, simply making sure they have a presence on multiple channels, but to understand what makes some customers still use an 800 number, while others reach out to brands on Facebook.
To uncover what makes the average customer engage with a certain type of company—Razorfish targeted a diverse group of Virgin America Airline customers. The results of one on one interviews were combined with data collected via an online survey to form a research report called “
The problem, notes the report, is that companies assume their customers want a relationship with them. “They don’t,” notes the author. “Yes, they will engage with you, yet only if it is on their terms. The findings in “Liminal” demonstrate that, in the future, marketers will need to find ways to sustain those engagements over time, regardless of channel, whether they are traditional, emerging or new.”
With the overarching goal of building engagement strategies that will increase incremental sales, make customers more loyal, and increase advocacy over time, Razorfish outlines a multi-step engagement ecosystem plan they say flows naturally out of the research results.
“A properly mapped out engagement ecosystem will help you understand how you should invest in engagements based on expected return,” notes the report.
To start, the author suggests finding answers to the following questions:
• Why are my customers engaging? Are they getting in touch to complain about a product? To locate the nearest insurance agent? To fulfill a coupon?
• Which touchpoints are they using? Are they using the phone only after having an unsuccessful engagement on the website? Does our Facebook page give them the information they need or do they prefer to use email?
• What do they expect from their engagements? Do they expect a quick, efficient transaction when they get in touch, or are they looking for deeper information?
• How can our organization improve the engagement experience? If customers are dissatisfied with our customer service IM, is it because our agents are insufficiently trained to answer their questions? When customers email us, are we answering their questions promptly?
• What sort of investment will be required to improve our overall engagement strategy? Is it worth the money to rebuild our Facebook page to give lower priority customers a better experience?
• What is the expected return on investment? If our brand launches a campaign built around check-ins on Foursquare, is it going to pay off in terms of increased foot traffic and sales?
“For the first time, customers have an immediate voice and an ever-expanding array of channels in which to use it,” says Caro. “If marketers are to survive—and thrive—in this new world, they need to re-examine how to engage with customers, across generations and levels of technological savvy.”
