The primary value of a service team members has always been their ability to enhance customer satisfaction and to increase loyalty. By acting as the main point of contact for clients, they ensure that their needs are met with a friendly smile, creating a positive experience that improves retention and encourages referrals. Their role is crucial in maintaining the trust and confidence that clients place in your agency.
Some of the best service staff members take this concept to the next level. They know your clients on a personal level through regular check-ins, they act as a true resource in the agency and not simply an order taker, and they work intentionally to make any process simple for the client. They are punctual with their outreach, and a constant advocate for the client’s needs.
However, even the best service team members can struggle to have the dual interest in not only providing a service to your customer, but in creating an opportunity from them as well.
Never before have we had the immense variety of options and opportunities available at our fingertips as we do today. Here’s how the top 1% of service team members are taking advantage and being game-changers in their agencies.
How the best service staff make an impact in their agencies:
1. They build GENUINE relationships
A satisfied client is a client who stays. A happy client is a client who wants as much to do with you as possible. By providing a premium level of communication and rapport building, your agency goals can change from saving a client, to getting them to WANT to insure their family, friends, school board, etc.
2. They identify opportunities
Who talks to a client more, the sales rep or your service rep? It can vary depending on client tenure, but eventually every single client should have spoken to your service rep far more than the sales rep who initially helped them. These service team members need to be ready to identify opportunities for up-sells and cross-sells by actively listening to the client. By recommending a solution focused on additional opportunities to protect them and their loved ones, you will organically increase your new business.
3. Enhancing the agencies reputation
This goes far beyond being friendly. To enhance a reputation, you must have credibility, be knowledgable, and create a level of security. Think of a client that’s with your agency. If you were to ask them, “How secure do you feel working with X agency?”, how would they respond? If you’re being honest with yourself, it should be some variation of, “Oh, I feel secure”. What we’re looking for is a resounding, “Of course!”. Insurance is rarely considered until we need it most. Your agency and those that work within can either be viewed as another cog in the rarely thought-about insurance wheel, or as a trusted friend who is there when you need them most. The difference is in the reputation.
4. Team collaboration
How often does your service team communicate with your sales team? Only when necessary? The service team hears impactful stories and insights all day long. Insights that would prove useful for the next call a sales team member makes. Remember, one useful nugget from a longtime client may be instrumental in closing another future longterm client just moments later. Having a clear and open expectation for communication between team members in different departments will make an impact in the growth of your agency.
At the end of the day, your service team members remain an instrumental and often underutilized part of an insurance agency. Before you pursue hiring additional staff or spending more on marketing, consider the resources you currently have available, and whether they are being utilized to their fullest potential.
Let’s make today a great day,
CWC
