Happy Sunday Everyone:
Finally a little rain in Northern California, which is nice!
Often I talk about how we make our clients feel. What type of an experience do they have with us? Why do they come back? Why do they not? why do we win deals, why do we lose deals? what could we have done differently? So this Tuesday, Kim’s car was stolen. Major bummer for so many reasons….best car we’ve ever had, boys baseballs stuff, including well broken in gloves, had been in there as well as other stuff. Bottom line though is you feel violated. Some jackass took what was ours and stole it from us. Makes you angry. Also scares you a bit that some person, who isn’t good, has our home address, names, etc..you have to run home, change the locks, change garage door, etc…unfortunately, it changes how you look at things.
When this happened I was on my way to watch the Giant’s game (and lose). Kim was obviously and rightfully upset. I told her I would call Ivan, our insurance guy, and call her back. This is where things get good. For one, Ivan answered my phone call, he then listened to me without speaking for a minute, he then said and did the following:
1. Hunter is Kim okay? I’m going to call her the second we get off the phone just to make sure.
2. after I speak with Kim, I will call the claims department and get this started for you while you’re at the game.
3. I will have a car ready for Kim at Enterprise in 30 minutes.
4. “Hunter, this sucks, but you will be okay and I will make sure everything comes out as right as possible on this, enjoy the game, I’ve got this”.
So I would ask you, How many of you would have the same experience with your insurance company? My intention is not to plug Ivan, my point is to bring EMOTIONAL COMMITMENT to our mindset. Do our clients feel our emotional commitment to them? Do our referral partners feel our emotional commitment to them? Do our clients feel our emotional excitement for them when they buy their first house? is it real? or is scripted and fake? do our referral partners feel our emotional concern when something isn’t going right on a deal? do they feel like we have their back? When I say emotional I mean commitment, a vested interested in their wellbeing…I do not mean acting “emotional”….major difference there.
Going back to initial questions and why people do, or do not use us….why they continue to use us or look elsewhere? When I’m on the client side of things, my eyes are wide open as to why I use Ivan. I can promise you this, I have no idea if his rates are as good as geico, state farm, allied…..whoever. I barely know the name of the insurer…..BUT I know Ivan cares about me, he cares about my family, and he cares about my business. One step further, I also know he cares about the referrals I send him. So I get to sit back and think,…is this the feeling my team and I leave our clients, and referral partners? Initial answer is “most of the time, BUT not all the time”. Here’s what’s interesting too…Ivan was just doing his job and acting like himself (including showing emotional commitment through his voice inflection/words/actions), but because he was on speaker phone in my car, he now will have 2 of the 3 guys I share tickets with moving their insurance over to him. It’s a good way to do business. The simple response from others in the car was “WOW”.
I would ask you and your teams to consider what you’re doing day in and day out to show your clients you care about them. What are you doing differently than your competition for them to understand you’re emotionally committed to their wellbeing? My team and I have been focused on it all week since that call and will never stop.