As we near the end of Q1 2021, client retention is key for sustaining success throughout the year. This season typically represents the combination of tax refunds and warmer weather. This year, many consumers are also reaping the benefits of stimulus checks. These three unique scenarios combine to foster a strong interest in the auto industry and therefore bolster a strong auto insurance market. To capitalize on the current market scenario, it’s key for insurance agents to understand the differences between customer experience and customer success as they map milestones for their customer journey.
What Is Customer Success Versus Customer Experience?
Customer experience is all about the feelings, sentiments and perceptions customers develop as a result of being your client and engaging in your services. Customer success focuses on the perception of value a customer builds in relation to their interactions with your products or services. While it is important the customers feel a sense of satisfaction, it is also important to help customers develop and maintain a high regard for the value of your insurance services. By focusing on delivering a positive, memorable and enjoyable customer experience, agents and sales teams are often positioned to be reactive. For example, when replying to a customer’s email or phone call, prioritizing the customer experience means actively listening to the customer’s concerns or needs and delivering solutions that respond to those pain points or challenges.
An optimized customer success strategy relies on research, leveraging your customer data and establishing processes to deliver the right experience at the right time. Customer success identifies a customer's intent, wants and needs, and creates a process to effectively deliver the services they want in a way that helps them develop a strong sense of value related to your services. Therefore, in many ways customer success is more concretely connected to helping customers achieve their goals, and is often more measurable than anecdotal customer experience evaluations.
Customer Success Plays A Role In Each Step Of The Sales Journey
When a consumer seeks insurance solutions or services, they have an objective in mind. In order to complete that objective, consumers will take actions that they believe will lead them closer to their desired results. Throughout the process, there are many different milestones that play into customer success. Here are a few examples of how customer success is presented at various stages of the customer journey and sales funnel:
- Lead Acquisition: At this stage customer success can be measured by how well your website, landing pages or lead forms help a consumer take action towards obtaining more information specific to their needs.
- Purchase/ Contract: During this stage, customer success can be evaluated by reviewing the process a consumer engages in that helps them develop a belief that your services have value and therefore, establish the urge to move forward with purchasing a policy.
- Onboarding: During this phase, customers have recently closed, but are likely not yet thoroughly familiar with your services. Customer success here can be measured by examining how satisfied a customer is with their ability to quickly find and use your resources and services.
- Adoption: The adoption stage focuses on customers actively using your products or services. Customer success during this phase can be measured by how valuable a customer views your services after more use, engagement and familiarity.
- Escalation: This phase represents any challenges or opportunities a customer encounters after they have had an opportunity to use your services. Customer success during the escalation phase relates to how much value a customer assigns to your service as it relates to their life or business.
- Retention: Customer success at the retention phase can be measured by positive client testimonials or reviews and the number of referrals generated by a client recommending your services to their family, friends and other contacts.
If a customer has a positive experience during all phases of the customer journey, customer success is most evident during the retention stage. Every time a customer enjoys their experience within a stage, their perception of your value increases. Like adding money to the bank, more positive experiences lead to customers fostering deeper belief in a company’s value over time. Quite simply, experiences over time create a belief in value.
According to statistics from Dimension Data, companies that invest in improving customer experience see an average 84% increase in revenue. By enhancing retention and reducing churn, an insurance sales agent and team can scale profitability.
Importance Of Building Customer Success Through Strategic Partnerships
By taking a proactive approach to analyzing unique needs at each stage of the customer journey, creating a process based on best practices, leveraging CRM data and measuring results often to optimize experiences, insurance agents can boost their client retention efforts. ZipQuote believes that customer success also comes from investing in strategic partnerships to enhance your goals. Being a part of the ZipQuote community means you have a best in class customer success team at your fingertips. When you partner with ZipQuote, you can expect the assistance of a knowledgeable team of professionals who want to see you succeed and have a track record built on sustained value. Click here to learn more about how ZipQuote can help you grow your business.