Happy Fall to everyone! I hope you all have dug out your best flannels, sweaters, pumpkin spice recipes and favorite Halloween Costumes. I am very excited, as I’ve stated in the past, that fall is my favorite time of year and in less than two weeks I will officially be married. As always, lots to look forward to!
Speaking of things to look forward to I want to spend some time today discussing first impressions and how important they are. As an agency you will always have folks calling in whether it’s for a new quote, a question on their policy, changes to their policy, and so on. The phone will always be the primary form of communication. With that being said we, as agency professionals, need to know that when people are calling in they are looking forward to a particular experience. They believe that because they are either going to be spending money or currently spending money with your agency they are going to want a positive experience when they call in. I believe very few people would argue that.
We need to be hyper vigilant to how we and our staff are answering our phones. The reason I bring this up is because of a recent experience I had. As mentioned, I’m getting married soon and needed to call my agent to ask a few basic questions. My expectation was that I would have a pleasant experience and my questions would be answered fully and I could go on with the rest of my day. Sadly, I was sorely mistaken.
I called the agency at 930 in the morning and the young lady who answered the phone did so like this:
Receptionist: Insurance
Me: Good morning, is this XYZ Agency?
Receptionist: Yeah.
Me: Great, can I speak to Jon Smith please? My name is Michael and I’m a current client with a few questions on my policy. I’m getting married in a few weeks and I need to tighten a few things up.
Receptionist: He’s not in right now. He will probably be in about 30 minutes.
Me: Ok, can I leave you a message for him to call me back?
Receptionist: Do you have his email? You’re probably better off sending him an email?
Me: Wow, I’m sorry to have bothered you.
CLICKKKK!!!!!
That was a brief conversation and in just that short amount of time that receptionist successfully talked me into taking my business elsewhere. Now, I understand I’m not a whale of a client but my questions for that agent were going to be about purchasing a life insurance policy, moving my fiance’s auto over to him, upping our renters coverage, and potentially talking about a life insurance policy for her! Those policies were immediately taken off the table because all I could think about was how much I didn’t want to ever speak to that woman again.
The next day I called my fiance’s agent and without writing out the whole transcript it basically went the exact opposite. I was greeted on the phone by a bubbly warm “Hello, thank you for calling ABC Insurance, my name is Amanda. How I can I help you today?” Great opening, let’s see how far this goes! I asked to speak to my fiance’s agent and while she wasn’t available the receptionist asked if I wanted to leave a voicemail, a message with her or if I would like the agent’s email so I can email them directly. She gave me options and asked what worked best for me!
Needless to say we moved all of my stuff over to the future wife’s agency and we are in the process of getting Life quotes for the both of us. So far my now former agent hasn’t called or reached out to see why I cancelled.
The point I’m making is that first impressions are everything. People will decide if they want to work with you within the first 5 minutes of them calling in. If you have folks who are less than helpful, have zero positive inflection in their voice and do not thank a person for calling in you may as well disconnect the phones. Before you do that though please know that there is help available. We have worked with hundreds of agencies to recruit and train folks to be their Director of First Impressions and we can help you! Give us a call today and learn how!
