How Much Does Your Organization Value Speed?
Steve Anderson
Keynote Speaker | International Best Selling Author of The Bezos Letters | InsurTech Advisor | Co-Founder at Catalyit®
Speed is a powerful way to enhance your customer experience.
Getting away from the speed of change is hard. You feel it every day. Technology is developing and changing faster than ever. Many people like their smartphones because it allows them to connect to the world’s information. Some feel everything is going way too fast and just want to get off the merry go round. The need for your agency to do things fast is real.
Speed is a Value
TED talks are a maximum of 18 minutes, and many have changed how I (we?) think about small and significant topics. 18 minutes does not allow for many details. Each talk is very focused. And, if I do want to go deeper, a massive amount of information is available with a quick web search.
I am sure you can think of multiple other examples.
In many of my presentations, I ask the audience if their client's expectations have changed. Their answer is an overwhelming YES.
Speed is a part of the ongoing change in your customer’s expectations: immediacy. Velocity. They want what they want now. They probably really want you to anticipate what they are going to want, and have it ready when they decide they need it.
The other day, I decided I wanted a label maker for my office. I could have gone to the office supply store to see what (limited) models they carried. Instead, I just went to Amazon and found a wide range of label makers. Looking at ratings and reviews, I narrowed the virtually unlimited options to one model that I thought would best fit my needs. With Prime free shipping I received the box the next day.
Shopping at Amazon saved me a trip to the store, and I got the type of label maker I wanted, fast.
See? You and I are trained for fast.
Speed is a Powerful Metric
Amazon Prime. Two days in most places (one HOUR in some). Netflix and Amazon Instant Video (included with your Prime membership). Our local Kroger grocery store allows you to order online and someone in the store does the actual shopping for you. Just drive up to the store and your bags are loaded in your car for you. My last trip to the store had a line of four cars waiting outside waiting for their groceries. Some places will deliver to your house.
McDonald's has home delivery in over 1,000 locations and climbing.
Chris Brogan says: “Delivery is the new retail.”
Technology is removing barriers — that we did not even know where obstacles — in so many places and ways that we’re getting used to having what we want as near-instantly as possible.
Faster can be a competitive advantage.
How Fast Is Your Organization?
Faster can be a competitive advantage. And, faster does not mean you take people out of the process. How can you hide “speed” to give your customer a better experience? Here are just a few examples:
- Electronic signature
- Electronic payment
- Mobile documents (Electronic policy or Auto ID card)
- Text message communication (payment due, payment posted)
- Real-time claim notifications (my claim received, adjusted assigned, claim approved, claim paid electronically to your account)
- Video email and conferencing (a personalized way to be visible)
What else could you add to the list?
How can you deliver a better and unrushed experience to your client by making your processes faster or better or easier to perform than your competitors down the street?
Hire a secret shopper
To make this happen, you need to look at your organization from the customer’s perspective, not yours. Hire a secret shopper. What is it like for an unknown person to deal with your office? Walk through your current processes. Think about all the steps; the pain points your prospects and clients face when dealing with your agency. How can you take the friction (the pain) out of the process?
You can choose not to see speed as a value. It is up to you. You can continue to do things the way you have always done them. It made you successful, right?
However, I want to do business with an organization that sees speed as a value. I order more items from Amazon because it is easy and has 2-day — free — delivery.
Speed is a trend. You see it too, don’t you? And, don’t fool yourself into thinking that small and large businesses do not want the same thing.
Speed is Hard
Speed is hard. Start somewhere. If you can make parts of what you currently do for your customers faster, you will then have more time to slow down and reach out personally when it makes a real difference to build customer loyalty.
What do you think? Leave a comment below.
Keynote Speaker | International Best Selling Author of The Bezos Letters | InsurTech Advisor | Co-Founder at Catalyit®
7yMichael, great suggestion. There are some many simple process that can (and should) be improved.
Assisting agencies with training, system configuration, consulting and integrations with regard to AMS360 and related systems!
7yI have done "secret shopping" for a consultant friend...and boy was it enlightening! In those cases I would call for a quote. What could have been a 10-15 min call, turned into a week long wait for a quote. More often than not, I never received a quote! I use the speed concept in my training on endorsement requests. In many agencies if a client calls in a endorsement request (lets say new car) the service team member will take down a few notes and do the process later. Often they will forget to capture a key piece of info and have to chase that info later. Perhaps what they should do is use that call as opportunity to review other needs, then go and do the endorsement while the client is on the phone. That way the system prompts for missing info and at the end of the process you can tell your client that the change has been made/requested.
Strategic Accounts @ Memora Health
7yGreat post! Speed CAN be a competitive advantage. How do you see the speed of the insurance sales process changing? Are there any technologies that you think will better the client interaction and improve the sales funnel?