Archive
What Do You Do if You’re Bashed Online?
I was just interviewed by a journalist who is writing an article for an insurance agents publication. Her question is the one I mention above – what do you do if you’re bashed online as an insurance agent?
Here was my response, which I would like to share with all of you…
- Don’t get angry. Or at least, don’t WRITE angry. No good ever comes from hastily typing an angry response and hitting “send.”
- Examine who it comes from and what they are trying to accomplish. Is it a legitimate complaint? Is there any merit at all?
- Have someone on staff (most likely the person in charge of social media – and there should be one) and train them on proper responses online.
- Never, ever ignore. Take responsibility, ask questions, respond professionally, whatever. Just don’t ignore it.
- Most insurance agents are going to get attacked over nothing. Usually, it will involve a bad customer experience or claim gone bad. This is their opportunity to shine by making a bad situation good.
- Track your name and brand on Google Alerts. That way, you won’t not respond because you didn’t know.
- Be prepared. Use case studies of real life messages and practice how you would respond. Practice makes the process much easier to handle if it does happen.
Do you have a social media plan in place in your agency?
© 2012 Dan Weedin. All Rights Reserved
Cyber Liability Redux…
On August 22nd, I wrote an article on cyber liability. One of the comments came back and asked for ideas on how agents can market cyber liability to clients and prospects. Great question!
Below is my answer to the comment. I thought I would share it with all of you…
1. Write an article or white paper and distribute it to your community – clients and prospects. Discuss the reasons to consider and why they are better off with this coverage.
2. Find places to speak on the coverage. Venues that have business owners. Rotary clubs, Chambers of Commerce, etc. Don’t itch…just educate. They will want to talk with you.
3. Create a podcast or webinar and promote it.
You can probably think of more, but this is a good start.
© 2012 Dan Weedin. All Rights Reserved
Cyber Insurance: Are your clients lost in space?
I just spent 30 minutes being interviewed for an article that will be run in a journal for risk managers. The topic is cyber insurance and why about 50% of businesses don’t carry a policy. The journalist asked me why I thought more insurance buyers don’t purchase this coverage. My answer was pretty simple. I think it’s the fault of insurance agents.
Large, multi-national corporations all buy cyber insurance. The ones who really need it are small business owners. These are the people you deal with most. Businesses with under 100 employees are now being targeted by cyber thieves because they are low hanging fruit. You have a responsibility to sell them cyber insurance to protect their financial assets and future. It may be the most important coverage they need.
I believe it’s the agents fault for two reasons…
1. Insurance buyers don’t know about cyber insurance. They are not being told by their agents, or even those trying to win their account. They might read an article and bring it up, but that shouldn’t be the norm. You really have an obligation to make it part of your checklist.
2. They may be told and not educated. Sure, you tell them about it and they decline because they don’t think they need it. Your obligation is to fully educate them on what they are missing and what it could ultimately cost them. I sold insurance. I know insureds hate new costs and policies. Most didn’t buy Employment Liability Practices 20 years ago. Today, it is very common.
I am guessing the same will happen to cyber insurance. In 10 years, this will be a non-issue in insurance. In fact, you may find company carriers making it a part of their regular policy. As technology becomes stronger, faster, and more important to the success of business, the risk will also grow. You need to protect yourself and your clients by being more assertive about cyber insurance. That’s why you do what you do!
© 2012 Dan Weedin. All Rights Reserved
Social Media Crisis: Even Flo Can’t Help Progressive
Even that spunky and sassy Flo can’t help Progressive out of this fix.
By now, you’ve heard that Progressive Insurance learned the damaging power of social media. One guy, a blogger named Matt Fisher started the social media uproar as he started blogging about the bad service he and his family received from Progressive. Mr. Fisher’s sister was tragically killed in an automobile accident and she was insured by Progressive. Mr. Fisher was angered by the company attorney’s appearance at a hearing trying to blame the accident on his sister. The complaints went viral and national. Read the Wall Street Journal column written by Erik Holm.
I don’t claim to know the policy in question, or any details of the accident. This blog is about understanding the power and depth of social media, and what it can do to an insurance company or agency. Progressive will rebound. They are a large insurer with resources to do so. But what about your agency? What if you are a small regional insurer? What if you don’t have the gravitas of Flo?
You can’t be perfect. Bad things happen, and sometimes you make mistakes. Social media has the ability to exacerbate them. Simply saying to be on your best behavior isn’t going to cut it. As more and more situations like this happen and gain notoriety, the chances that more will come is guaranteed. Here are a few things you need to know to protect yourself and mitigate issues that arise out of social media challenges…
- Catch it early. Are you watching your own name on Twitter and Facebook? How will you know if someone is talking about you (bad or good)? You need to have some process or mechanism to follow your name and brand. It might be as simple as having an employee sophisticated in technology and social media keep tabs. At the very least, you should have Google Alerts following your name.
- If you made a mistake, acknowledge it. I know this flies in the face of conventional American wisdom. But spinning isn’t good for politicians, and it’s not good for you, either. People figure it out and it ends up doing more reputation damage. Be honest.
- If it is untrue, you can stand up for yourself. Acknowledge the facts. Don’t call out others.
- Don’t get into a cyberspace war of words. You will never win. American Airlines held its own against Alec Baldwin. Don’t try to do the same. You will only come out looking worse.
- Try to deal with the situation offline. Find some resolution outside of a public forum.
- Don’t stop your own social media activity. It looks like you’re hiding. Should be business as usual.
- If things do get worked out, ask them to tell the world. If they were angry and blogged or tweeted, and now they are happy, they can fix a lot of ills. People are attracted to businesses making things right. Make sure if you did, you get some credit.
Bottom line is this – all insurance industry representatives (companies, agencies, claims adjusters, etc) are vulnerable to what happened to Progressive. Do the right thing, acknowledge mistakes, make things right, and move on. But, the biggest lesson is awareness. If you don’t know you’re being blindsided by a blog or Tweet, it may be too late by the time you do.
Social media is here to stay. It will evolve and change constantly. In order to leverage it’s power for good, not evil, you need to stay aware of how your name and brand are being represented. It’s your responsibility to stay on the leading edge, so you don’t get thrown off of it!
© 2012 Dan Weedin. All Rights Reserved
Web Site Woes – My Top 10 List
Most insurance Internet sites seem to drive the visitor to hiding money under the mattress rather than investing in insurance.
I never cease to be amazed at the woeful state of so many insurance brokerage and agency web sites. We are a full 15 years into the Internet and this platform has now become your storefront, brochure, credibility statement, and face of your company – all in one package. Yet at least 75% or more of the ones I visit are simply horrid.
Here is my TOP 10 LIST of the most egregious errors…
- We don’t know who you are. The “About Us” section is filled with information about the business and not people. I don’t read who the owner is, what the names of the key agents are, and what they specialize in. Is this supposed to be a secret?
- Lack of photos. This is a relationship business. Show the pictures of your agents along with their name and what they do.
- Lack of testimonials. You have clients. Get testimonials about why they do business with you. Plaster them on every page and have a special section.
- Add videos. Video testimonials, videos from the principal, videos from the agents, videos about the agency. People are more visual then ever and this is an easy and free way to gain an identity.
- The font is too small. I’m not kidding. I saw one today where I needed to look for a magnifying glass (and who owns a magnifying glass anymore anyway). Wasn’t this checked by anyone before going live?
- Lack of a value proposition. Stop talking about your tremendous customer service, because that should be a given. Stop talking about the length of time in the community. Stop talking about your friendly staff. Start talking about how you improve the condition of your clients and why someone should talk to you. My guess is, many of you don’t know the answer to this. If you don’t know, it won’t be evident on your web site.
- Hire a professional to create a professional site. If you use a “do it yourself” web site, it shows and you won’t be thought of as successful.
- Provide free resources; instant chat with a customer service rep, forms to fill out prior to coming in, or anything that will make your client’s life easier.
- Stop using clip art pictures. For goodness sakes, take pictures of your staff and your building. It looks like you bought picture with a fake family and stuck in in your home.
- Be creative. I know the insurance industry is wary of taking chances. Be a pioneer. This isn’t life or death and it can all be changed if you make a mistake. The worst thing you can do is have a boring web site, and I’m here to tell you most of you do.
Final thought. This should be a “department ” in your agency. It may or may not include the principal. It should include bright, creative people who are willing to think outside of the box and try new things. They also should be tasked with checking it every quarter to make sure it doesn’t get outdated. Next to boring, this is the next unforgivable offense.
To you 25% or less who are working diligently on your web site…congratulations. You are the few. To you others, it’s time to ride into the 21st century. Make fixing your web site a priority and watch your brand and identity improve, and your sales increase.
© 2012 Dan Weedin. All Rights Reserved
