Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
The 3 Types of Customer Service Calls
Really? Why would an Internet company blog about telephone calls? Simple….. we all use the phone to interact with our clients. There is still something to be said for having that “personal” contact that is still essential to providing a well rounded customer service platform. Let’s take a look at 3 types of customer service calls and some ideas and tips on how to provide an effective, loyalty building experience for your clients.
1) Informational – pretty straight forward, the client has questions regarding your company, services, coverages etc…..
2) Problem solving – the client has an issue that requires your assistance to resolve. This is an opportunity to shine and earn a customer for life!
3) Angry beyond reason – redirect to #2 – the client is definitely not happy, wants to bend someone’s ear and set things straight! The goal here is to get them back to status #2.
The key to successfully negotiating all of these scenarios is to LISTEN carefully to what the client has to say! Don’t get ahead of yourself and start forming a response in your mind before they finish their statement, really listen to what they are saying. Confirm what you’ve heard back to the client, using the appropriate tone of voice. Once you’re both on the same page, respond with positive words, your willingness to assist with the request. If it is a problem solving opportunity, be compassionate and empathize with the client. Be prepared to offer alternative solutions to counter the sometimes unreasonable solution requests. Don’t make any promises you cannot keep and honor any time line commitments you make to respond to the client. By quickly addressing the issue, following through with your commitments, you can earn a client’s business… for life! For those dreaded angry beyond reason calls, take a deep breath, let the client air it out and don’t take it personally… I know, easier said than done, but you can do it! Sometimes, simply saying “I’m sorry”, or “I apologize” can diffuse a tense situation. The goal is to get the client beyond being mad and focusing on a solution to their problem (#2), which is at the root of their anger.
At AgencyIQ, we strive to provide excellent, effective, timely customer service. If you need assistance, use our video trainings, email, on-line chat or call one of our customer service reps… We look forward to hearing from you!
SPAM, SPAM, SPAM,SPAM……
If you happen to be a Monty Python’s Flying Circus fan, the word spam brings a smile to your face and fond memories of their quirky British humor. But for most us, SPAM can create all kinds of heartburn, headaches and worries. The CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 set guide lines for the use of the internet to send commercial emails. How does this affect your email marketing campaigns? If you follow a simple set of guidelines as outlined by the FTC, you will be in compliance and worry free! Check out the list below:
• Don’t use false or misleading header information
• Don’t use deceptive subject lines
• Identify the message as an ad
• Tell recipients where you are located
• Tell recipients how to opt-out of receiving future emails from you
• Honor opt-out requests promptly
Take a few minutes to review your emails and you will probably find you are already complying with these requirements. AgencyIQ has gone to great lengths to make sure that all of our clients comply with the CAN-SPAM laws. If you have any areas of concern about your emails, use a simple rule of thumb…. If you received this email, would you feel like you were being mislead, could you find the sender if you needed to, and could you stop the messages if you wanted. There are a number of individuals and some organizations that are extremely concerned with being found in violation of this law, some to the point of nearly paralyzing their email marketing efforts. If you have specific questions regarding this Act, click on the following link http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/business/ecommerce/bus61.shtm to go to the FTC website for specific guidance. This law is not designed to cripple the use of email for commercial business purposes… it was created to ensure the responsible use of a powerful marketing channel. At the end of the day, email marketing is a significant tool in your marketing arsenal and when used correctly and responsibly, you have no worries. Now, hit the Send button!
Adding Lead Providers to AgencyIQ Just Got Easier
Adding your lead providers to AgencyIQ has never been easier! Now, just go to the “my agency” link located in the top right-hand corner, then click on the new “Lead Providers” tab. Here, you can request your lead companies to send your leads into the AgencyIQ System.
Lead Providers Tab
Add a lead provider by clicking the “add lead provider” link in the top left of that tab. Next, select your lead provider’s name from the list and click the “add provider” button. You will be prompted to enter your account number or any additional information needed by the lead companies. Once you submit this information, a request will be made of the lead provider to set things up and your leads should start flowing into AgencyIQ soon!
Checking on the Status of your Lead Set Up
The status of your requests will be listed as pending until the first lead is received from that provider. Once a lead is received, you will be able see when the request was made as well as when the first and the most recent leads were received. If you have been on the AgencyIQ System and already have your lead providers set up, you can visit this location to see when the last lead was received from your lead providers and add new lead providers after you sign up with them.
Continue to watch for more updates and features coming soon!
Massachusetts Revolt
Stand Out
Last week, a major upheaval in the world of politics occurred, a Republican was elected Senator of Massachusetts after Ted Kennedy had held the Democratic Senator’s seat for 43 Years! How did this happen? I’m sure there will be a lot of blogs, articles and maybe books written about this improbable event. Let’s set the stage first. This particular Senate seat has been held by Ted Kennedy for 43 years and prior to that, his brother John Kennedy held the seat. Massachusetts’ registered Republican voters only account for 12% of registered voters statewide. The Democratic candidate was handpicked by the party leadership and held a substantial lead going into the final stretch of campaigning. So, how did the newly elected Senator Brown make this comeback?
Simply put, the incumbent party and leadership got lazy, became complacent, and did not have the pulse of the electorate (their customers). How could they lose? The Democrats controlled Massachusetts for years and could not imagine NOT WINNING! Then, a sequence of events in the economy, concerns over health reform, and a general discontentment with the established leadership…… the impossible happened, a Republican was elected. Now, the point to be made is not political affiliations or where we stand on the economy or healthcare reform. The lesson to be learned is the absolute importance and necessity of knowing what your customer base is thinking, where are they going and how do they perceive your role in assisting them! If you are somewhat skeptical, think back to 1994 when the Republican Party rode a wave of populist support in winning the majority in the House of Representatives; remember Newt Gingrich? Those Republicans had the voice of the voters and knew the changes expected under their leadership. They did well for a while, then, the Republicans lost the pulse of the voters and within 8 years, lost their majority position in the House and eventually the Senate. This loss of direction and power ripped the Republican Party apart! Now fast forward to last week…. History is repeating itself! Now it’s the Democrats turn.
This same scenario has played itself out in business repeatedly over the years. Remember Montgomery Wards, TWA, Eastern Airlines, Braniff, Circuit City, AMC General, or any of the “latest, hottest” new night spots or restaurants that have opened and closed in short order? As a business owner, don’t allow yourself to lose contact with your customers, stay in touch, keep in front of them and let them know how valued they are to you personally. Doing what is best for the client will help establish a bond and trust that will build a lifetime relationship and lead to new opportunities for growth in the future. AgencyIQ is here to assist you with those efforts to build your business and keep in touch with your most valued resource… your clients!
“Plan? …We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Plan”
Humphrey Bogart
Unfortunately that famous line from Humphrey Bogart’s movie The Treasure of the Sierra Madre”, “Badges? We an’t got not no badges. We don’t need no badges! I don’t have to show you no stinkin’badges!” is often one of the most misquoted lines in movie history, in fact, when I first started writing this, I had to correct myself when using the quote! That being said, let’s get to the point of this blog……. Planning. Our last blog discussed planning on a global, big picture scale. Let’s focus on what it means to you, as an individual running your business! The first step is to realize “WE NEED A PLAN!” How do you go about developing a plan that will be meaningful and effective for your business? There are many templates and programs that will assist you with the fundamentals, a simple Google search will provide a wealth of information. It’s what you put in the plan that counts! Following are some ideas and thoughts that you may want to consider as you develop your plan:
• What is changing in your industry?
• What is changing in technology and how does it impact your ability to connect with customers
• What is changing with your customers?
• What is changing in the economy?
We all know the traditional ways to reach out to customers….. mailings, telemarketing, mass emails and others. But what is going to grab your customer’s attention, how can you convince them to choose you over all the other alternatives in the market? Think about the following:
• Provide value, beyond the product – value in personal attention and customization
• Make yourself unique – find a way to differentiate yourself from the competition
• Build Relationships – showing the customer you really are invested in helping them make the best decisions and choices with your expertise. They will count on you to make sure their best interests are being looked after!
• Network in the community…. Join the Chamber of Commerce, sponsor a youth activity, help with a charity event, get involved in local professional groups
The key is your plan should focus on cultivating a two-way relationship with your customers. Yes, the new technology of Social Media is important, but so is an act so simple most of us have forgotten it…. Pick up the phone or stop by to say a personal “Hello”. AgencyIQ is here to assist you with all of your customer relationship management activities, we wish you the best with your 2010 Plan!
The Art of (Business) War
Have any of you ever heard the old saying “War is hell”? This statement has been attributed to General Sherman during the Civil War. I’d wager many of you feel the same way about this past year of 2009! GOOD NEWS, the calendar has turned and we have a new year with new opportunities in 2010…. YEA!
Starting a new year is a great time to step back and assess where we’ve been, where we are and where we want to go. A more formal way of stating this activity is called GOAL SETTING! Groan……. Many of us would rather endure a root canal without pain meds than go thru a session on Goal Setting. But, it is a valuable tool vital to the success of your business. Instead of using the traditional methods, I have an alternative you may find more enjoyable and effective. I recently found a book “The Art of War in Business” by Mark McNeilly.
Mark has taken the well know book “The Art of War” by Sun Tzu, a successful Chinese general in 400 B.C. and related the principles of Sun Tzu and linked them to business strategies. Following are the six principles discussed in his book:
- Win All Without Fighting – Capturing Your market Without Destroying It
- Avoid Strength, Attack Weakness – Striking Where They Least Expect It
- Deception and Foreknowledge – Maximizing the Power of Market Information
- Speed and Preparation – Moving Swiftly to Overcome Your Competitors
- Shape Your Opponent – Employing Strategy to Master the Competition
- Character-Based Leadership – Providing Effective Leadership in Turbulent Times
Join us January 13, 2010 at 10:00 am CST for an informative webinar about how to overcome these challenges in building your business this year. Register online today to make sure you reserver your spot! This webinar will fill up! Register Here
Whatever challenges you and your business face in 2010, AgencyIQ is here to provide effective, innovative tools to assist you in growing your business! We have many new features and enhancements coming online that we are very excited to add to our lead management platform. Let us know what you think!!
A Turdunkin Thanksgiving
What the heck is a Turducken and what does it have to do with Thanksgiving? And, why is this on AgencyIQ’s blog? Keep reading and hopefully your questions will be answered! First, a Turducken is a dish unique to Thanksgiving, and introduced to a largely unaware public by the well known NFL broadcast analyst John Madden during his Thanksgiving Day football broadcasts. A chicken stuffed inside a duck, stuffed inside a turkey=Turducken, here’s a link to a receipe from Paula Dean: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/turducken-recipe/index.html
The Turducken is a realistic representation of what those first Pilgrims had on the menu that first Thanksgiving celebration. The meal would have been comprised mainly of fresh meats from birds, fowls, deer, etc.. with a few seasonal vegetables, but surprising to our modern feasts, they would not have served breads, pies or any sweets. The little sugar they carried to the New World would have been nearly exhausted and they had not built ovens or stoves to bake in. Check out the History Channel link to get more interesting Thanksgiving facts to entertain your relatives and friends with this Thanksgiving: www.history.com/content/thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is a uniquely American (and Canadian) holiday. In many ways, it kicks off the “official” holiday season: all those sales (and crowds) on the Friday after Thanksgiving, family gatherings, office parties, social functions, traveling, and the hectic, sometimes frantic pace of managing all these obligations with work and business demands. How do you manage being pulled in so many directions? Remember these important steps:
- First, take a deep breath…… and exhale!
- Be selective in the commitments you make and allow yourself time to actually enjoy this special time of year with family, friends and colleagues. Reflect on the good things in your life.
- Finally, start taking steps to optimize the productivity of your business. AgencyIQ provides you a system with tools to stay in touch with your clients and more importantly, potential clients. Don’t permit the bustle of the holidays to distract your ability to close business! Features like AutoResponder, drip email, and a full CRM system all provide automated tools making the ability to stay in touch with your prospects easier this holiday season!
From all of us at AgencyIQ, have a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday!
Twitter Vocabulary
Twitter is new to all of us but it has some interesting words and concepts. For all those cool agents out there who need the down low on what in the heck people are talking about..here you go! Enjoy!
Follow - v. to associate with another person for the purpose of receiving his or her messages through the Twitter technology
Follower – n. one who associates with (or ‘follows) another person on Twitter to get messages (or ‘tweets’) from that person
Re-Tweet – v., to forward a message one has received on Twitter.
Tweet – n., the message one posts on Twitter. v., the act of sending a message through Twitter (conjugated as a regular verb in all its forms: present-tweet, past-tweeted, future-will tweet, present progressive-am tweeting, modal-should tweet, etc.) adj., tweetable.
twit – n., (1) one who is Twitter-illiterate because he or she knows nothing about Twitter; (2) one who refuses to partake in the Twitter technology
Twitter – n., the home-base of the Twitter technology built by Jack Dorsey in 2008
Twitter.com –n., the on-line website where people partaking in the Twitter technology find everything needed to register for, exist with, and disengage from their union with Twitter
Twitteree – n., one who receives a message through Twitter
Twitterer – n., one who sends a message through Twitter
Welcome the AgencyIQ Blog!
Remember when you first became an insurance agent..the fire, the drive, the passion? I remember that I wanted to reach out and really help educate consumers on insurance and make sure that they didn’t get taken from other services. To tell you the truth, I am one of those people that insurance was made for. I am the poster child for the clumsy, and the accident prone. I had a house fire 10 years ago. DESTROYED my home and my cars blew up in the garage. I lost everything except a curio cabinet, a piano and a mantle clock. I am the perfect person to ask when someone says “do I really need that?” or the infamous question of “can I decrease my property value by 20%..I am not insuring the land”. I would like to believe that there are other insurance agents like me out there. Agents that strive to protect their clients in their time of need…we just do it before they need it. We are the protectors of our clients hard earned lifestyles.
We founded AgencyIQ with the same heart. We want to partner with insurance agents to provide a great lead management solution that allows your agents to concentrate on the client. We have worked at listening to our agents and building out the system with the auto responders and drip emails that are important to them. We offer unlimited customer support to eliminate the fog around learning a new system. We are not perfect, we have a long way to go but we hope to reach out to other insurance professionals and hear what they have to say about the industry and about what they need for a system to meet their needs. That is what we are here for.
So welcome to the AgencyIQ blog. Comment away and please feel free to share it with your friends and colleagues as we discuss various topics. We are a system driven by insurance agents and we are excited to hear from you. We will let you know about our webinar schedule, updates, tips and tricks in the system as well as just plain industry chatting. Welcome and happy selling!