I have been ruminating lately on a tale of unusual personal service, and have found myself considering the lessons for local, independent agents in a wired world.
I traveled across the country recently, and was able to catch up with an old friend. During my visit, we started swapping stories about kids becoming teenage drivers and he shared with me a service provided by his insurance agent that, more two years after the fact, still engendered a sense of wonderment in the telling.
His agent called dad and lad in for an hour long meeting about the nuts and bolts of liability and driving responsibility. It seems that this particular agent used to counsel the kids solo, but she was so effective that many of the new drivers tossed their keys to their parents on their return home, muttering they weren't ready for the responsibility.
A lot of us think that 'risk management' isn't really part of personal insurance, but this is an example of risk management at its finest. Not only that, the teen driving counseling story has been told countless times to friends, neighbors, co-workers, and... me. Two years later, the story is still going strong. You can't buy word-of mouth referrals like that. And what about the improvement in retention resulting from this kind of service? (For more on that, take a look at the August 2008 National Auto Insurance Study, published by JD Power, and the effect improved loyalty has on price sensitivity. 36 percent of auto insurance customers have actively shopped for a new insurer in the past year - how many of your agency customers actively shopped for a new insurer or agent?)
Too often we are tempted to compete head-to-head with GEICO by providing online quotes, leaving a personal insurance prospect or customer to figure out their own needs, and manage risk on their own. There is nothing wrong with having articles, videos and helpful information on your agency website to help mitigate teen driving accidents. But when those web resources can be combined and promoted along with personal counseling service, a value is created that is unassailable by blandishment of quick quotes and arms-length relationships - even in the face of massive advertising.
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Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Video on Your Insurance Agency Website, Part III
Professional or Amateur?
There’s a lot that can be done with video, and having video production capabilities in the family (the kid with the Mac)gives you options. Clearly there is a place for professionally done video production, as well as a place for (reasonably professional), low/no cost, self-made videos (the 50-something with the digital camera).
In fact, there was a recent news item featuring CNN’s opening of ‘bureaus’ in seven cities where they previously did not have one. Expense is a determining factor in opening and maintaining a network news bureau – equipment, technical personnel, etc. The new CNN bureaus will provide broadcasts via web casts, ‘directed, filmed, and produced’ by the reporter. The vastly reduced cost of that kind of production makes it possible for CNN to provide direct coverage in more areas – an example of how fast and inexpensively produced video can coexist with higher production value programming. In fact, CNN has taken this a step further with their iReport service, where virtually anyone can report news and publish video 'story'.
You have to wonder if there is a 'best' balance between videos that are slick and professional, and videos that are not edited with layered soundtracks. I'm sure there is no one right answer, but I'm going to throw this out there: providing only slick, commercial grade videos may suppress total views. Allstate Insurance has had a YouTube video channel for over two years, and the total views have been somewhat underwhelming at 7,114 (and 4 videos account for nearly 75% of all views). There are 37 videos on the Allstate channel, most have been seen fewer than 200 times. I'm not suggesting that Allstate has not achieved acceptable ROI from its YouTube channel; remember, production and publishing costs should be low. I am suggesting that commercial grade videos may not always be the best way to go on the web, particularly when videos are published to a social site like YouTube.
What does this mean for your insurance agency? Don't be afraid to have employees, customers, and others in the community produce videos for you. Worry less about matching TV quality production values, but focus on quick publication and community relevance. Your video views, and site traffic, should go up.
There’s a lot that can be done with video, and having video production capabilities in the family (the kid with the Mac)gives you options. Clearly there is a place for professionally done video production, as well as a place for (reasonably professional), low/no cost, self-made videos (the 50-something with the digital camera).
In fact, there was a recent news item featuring CNN’s opening of ‘bureaus’ in seven cities where they previously did not have one. Expense is a determining factor in opening and maintaining a network news bureau – equipment, technical personnel, etc. The new CNN bureaus will provide broadcasts via web casts, ‘directed, filmed, and produced’ by the reporter. The vastly reduced cost of that kind of production makes it possible for CNN to provide direct coverage in more areas – an example of how fast and inexpensively produced video can coexist with higher production value programming. In fact, CNN has taken this a step further with their iReport service, where virtually anyone can report news and publish video 'story'.
You have to wonder if there is a 'best' balance between videos that are slick and professional, and videos that are not edited with layered soundtracks. I'm sure there is no one right answer, but I'm going to throw this out there: providing only slick, commercial grade videos may suppress total views. Allstate Insurance has had a YouTube video channel for over two years, and the total views have been somewhat underwhelming at 7,114 (and 4 videos account for nearly 75% of all views). There are 37 videos on the Allstate channel, most have been seen fewer than 200 times. I'm not suggesting that Allstate has not achieved acceptable ROI from its YouTube channel; remember, production and publishing costs should be low. I am suggesting that commercial grade videos may not always be the best way to go on the web, particularly when videos are published to a social site like YouTube.
What does this mean for your insurance agency? Don't be afraid to have employees, customers, and others in the community produce videos for you. Worry less about matching TV quality production values, but focus on quick publication and community relevance. Your video views, and site traffic, should go up.
Web 2.0 and a Blast from the Slow to Adapt Past
In the earlier days of the internet, companies big and small limited access to the web to a few key employees and frequently did not provide email addresses. That reflex to restrict was born of a combination of two things: the clarity with which businesses recognized potential employee abuse of web surfing and non-business emailing coupled with the inability to grasp the advantage of quickly gathering information and communicating instantly using the same tools.
Most businesses learned how to manage concerns about productivity and resource drains, and employees now routinely use the web and email. In fact, particularly as web services begin to replace networked or desk top office suite applications, most of us couldn't conduct business at all without web access.
We're seeing a similar reaction from businesses, particularly larger ones, in response to Web 2.0. Facebook, YouTube, and other social networking apps are switched to the always on position at home for employees in their 20's and 30's, but are locked down in the off position at work. But change is taking place, just as it took place in the 90's with email and web use in general; check out this article from IT Week.
YouTube is often Web 2.0 non grata. Of course band-width is an issue; a bunch of employees watching videos via the web simultaneously could bring internet browsing to a crawl company-wide. But an increasing number of companies and agencies are using YouTube videos for instructional, promotional, and general business communication purposes. Locking YouTube out, whether for band-width or productivity concerns (aka screwing around)is a short sighted reaction. Companies are starting to get past the fear of Web 2.0 unknown. Those that persist in the just-say-no approach are bound to miss out on a competitive advantage.
Most businesses learned how to manage concerns about productivity and resource drains, and employees now routinely use the web and email. In fact, particularly as web services begin to replace networked or desk top office suite applications, most of us couldn't conduct business at all without web access.
We're seeing a similar reaction from businesses, particularly larger ones, in response to Web 2.0. Facebook, YouTube, and other social networking apps are switched to the always on position at home for employees in their 20's and 30's, but are locked down in the off position at work. But change is taking place, just as it took place in the 90's with email and web use in general; check out this article from IT Week.
YouTube is often Web 2.0 non grata. Of course band-width is an issue; a bunch of employees watching videos via the web simultaneously could bring internet browsing to a crawl company-wide. But an increasing number of companies and agencies are using YouTube videos for instructional, promotional, and general business communication purposes. Locking YouTube out, whether for band-width or productivity concerns (aka screwing around)is a short sighted reaction. Companies are starting to get past the fear of Web 2.0 unknown. Those that persist in the just-say-no approach are bound to miss out on a competitive advantage.
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