Client Service as a Competitive Advantage

Written by Doug Brown


*My name is Susan Young and I am Doug Brown's publicist. If you have any questions, please feel free to call me at 732-613-4790.* (Do not include this in this article)

As someone who has been heavily involved facilitating strategic planning processes with organizations duringrepparttar last 15+ years, I often find it somewhat amusing how people answerrepparttar 139872 questions I pose.

For example, if I ask people, “What is your unique differentiation inrepparttar 139873 marketplace?” or “What does your organization really excel at?” They will almost always reply, “It has to be our client service.” Almost no one will admit to being “lousy” in client service, any more than they will talk about living in an average town with average kids. Instead I seerepparttar 139874 “Lake Woebegone Syndrome.” In Lake Woebegone it seems allrepparttar 139875 women are pretty, allrepparttar 139876 men are handsome, and allrepparttar 139877 kids are well above average.

If while getting to know someone’s agency or company, I askrepparttar 139878 question, “If I hauled you into a court of law and accused you of being a ‘world class’ client service provider, would there be enough evidence to convict you?” Many times, unfortunately, their answer is, “Probably not.”

Therefore, if so many people think client service and satisfaction is so critical torepparttar 139879 success ofrepparttar 139880 vision andrepparttar 139881 execution ofrepparttar 139882 strategic plan, why is it not usually monitored withrepparttar 139883 same intensity asrepparttar 139884 financials? After all, financials are a lagging indicator (telling what happened afterrepparttar 139885 fact) while client satisfaction may be a leading indicator (it can be predicting what may happen inrepparttar 139886 future).

Many organizations go through all sorts of trial and error and purchase various software programs to keep their finger onrepparttar 139887 pulse of dollars and cents because they want to know where they are and minimize opportunity for loss. For years it has been known that “what gets measured gets done.”

If that isrepparttar 139888 case, why is it that many organizations choose to almost ignore measuring client satisfaction? By doing so, they runrepparttar 139889 risk of losing established clients torepparttar 139890 competition.

Client Service as Overarching Philosophy In 1960, Professor Theodore Leavitt wroterepparttar 139891 groundbreaking article, “Marketing Myopia,” inrepparttar 139892 Harvard Business Review. To paraphrase, he basically concluded thatrepparttar 139893 purpose of all business is to attract and maintain customers while generating adequate profitability today and improved profitability inrepparttar 139894 future. That balancing act still holds true today. How many organizations do you know that are masters at bringing business inrepparttar 139895 front door only to lose it outrepparttar 139896 back door just as quickly? We have also dealt with organizations that service their existing business so well thatrepparttar 139897 owners and principals “never get around to developing new business.”

Those organizations and agencies that see customer or client service as simply a department to be managed rather than a point of strategic differentiation may be looking atrepparttar 139898 business throughrepparttar 139899 lens of short-term focus. So many people that we talk with have never calculatedrepparttar 139900 lifetime value of a typical insured and even those that have usually aren’t communicating that number to their staff at every level ofrepparttar 139901 organization on a regular basis. Knowing that number can provide a framework to make decisions forrepparttar 139902 long haul and maintainrepparttar 139903 client relationship rather than looking at it from a “transactional” basis.

To calculaterepparttar 139904 lifetime value, takerepparttar 139905 number of years that a client/insured usually stays withrepparttar 139906 agency multiplied byrepparttar 139907 estimated net profit per line of business (auto, P&C, E&O, DB, etc). The total dollars can give you some idea of what is at risk inrepparttar 139908 future if you under serve your client base.

For example, if a typical insured stays with your agency 15 years and has 3 different policies with you each generating $200/year in profit, each new insured is worth approximately $9000 going forward (15yrs x $200/policy x 3 policies = $9000) if they are treated so well that they won’t even consider moving to someone else. Now ask yourself, how cavalierly would you treat a check written to your agency for $9000? Would you dorepparttar 139909 equivalent of going into your back yard, digging a hole, burying it there and walking away from it forever? In essence that is what happens when clients are taken for granted. The cause can either be by default ie. not paying attention, understaffing by design, allowing a lack of systemic follow-up and follow-through, or it can be attributed to a management team with so strong a focus on short-term results that they become almost greedy. Does your organization have a client service strategy? If you examine your strategic plan, it’s necessary to differentiaterepparttar 139910 agency strategy and plan fromrepparttar 139911 client service strategy. They are not identical. Organizations need to implement a “Client Bill of Rights.”

Small Business CRM Is Here To Stay

Written by Cameron Brown


If you ask most small business owners what priority CRM has in their short-term business plans, chances are you'll get more than one blank stare. The fact is that most small business owners don't even know what CRM is not to mention how significantly it can benefit their growing company. This prevailing ignorance of small business CRM (customer relationship management) usually stems from just a few basic causes.

Excuses not to invest in small business CRM The first and most common reason for disinterest in small business CRM isrepparttar very nature of small business. With limited financial and personnel resources at their disposal, business owners believe they can't affordrepparttar 139871 money or time that a small business CRM system would require to show a significant ROI. Often timesrepparttar 139872 chief concern is just staying afloat long enough to sign that big contract or receive a large product order.

Still other owners of new businesses believe that they can build and maintain quality customer relations simply byrepparttar 139873 virtue ofrepparttar 139874 their cordial personality or particular market niche. They see small business CRM as an unessential luxury to be enjoyed exclusively by their larger competitors. What these owners often find is that without sufficient small business CRM support their business will never expand beyondrepparttar 139875 number of customer names they can remember. The problem is compounded whenrepparttar 139876 company expands into internet sales (an essential move by any growing company) and suddenly finds its present customer tracking system overwhelmed byrepparttar 139877 sheer amount of incoming customer information.

The Bottom Line The bottom line, as all successful small business owners have learned, is that it takes more than one good idea to build long-term business growth and stability. You may be great at attracting new customers to your business, but if you fail to care for, track, and understand your customer base, not only will you hemorrhage your hard-won clientele, you will also fail to capitalize on future opportunities by not anticipating future market trends.



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