Sell the Experience

Retention & Attraction-"Sell the Customer the Experience"

Herb Kehlleher, former CEO of Southwest Airlines said, "I keep telling them (visitors to Southwest Airlines) that the intangibles are far more important than the tangibles in the competitive world because, obviously, you can replicate the tangibles. You can get the same airplane. You can get the same ticket counters. You can get the same computers. But the hardest thing for a competitor to match is your culture and the spirit of your people and their focus on customer service because that isn't something you can do overnight and it isn't something that you can do without a great deal of attention every day in a thousand different ways."

Years later after his comments, Southwest still remains one of a few profitable airline companies out there today. Much of that has to do with Kellehers philosophy of the intangibles.

What was Kehlleher saying? He wasn't saying that the tangibles don't matter. Certainly, a quality product is a requirement to be an impact player in any market. And by the way, Nationwide has without question quality products. So then, what is it that he is saying? What is it that he is saying that we can walk away with that can help us in our business?

What he's saying is that the tangibles are intertwined with the intangibles…Like good customer service and a positive emotional buying experience are inextricably tied to an extraordinary customer experience; the tangible elements of product and service coupled with the intangibles of a positive customer experience are what differentiates us from the competition.

The tangibles are so easy for us to measure and reproduce, for that matter. We point to them on reports and have promotions that look at the bottom line results. It's what we are used to…that's why we focus on them. It's the intangibles that allude most sales professionals. They are those things that the customer experiences and feels and, in the great majority of cases, ultimately relies on when deciding where to buy...and from whom they will buy it from. To put it in "insurance speak", that's customer retention and customer attraction.

Call it the E-Factor, for Emotion Factor. Whatever name you give it, the truth remains the same. Emotions rule. Experiences matter to customers particularly when they buy and make choices. The E-Factor is the difference!

The Transaction of Business is Never an Emotionally Neutral Event...Never.

So, what are your customers experiencing when they walk into your office? How about when they call in? What about at claim time? Is their experience a positive one…at least from the standpoint of how easy it is to get in touch with someone.

Do you consciously react in appropriate ways to their situation? I mean, are you consoling when consoling is appropriate? Are you understanding when understanding is appropriate? Do you follow up with handwritten notes…as may be appropriate in a death claim? Do you have a system of visiting the family when a death claim occurs?

Do you make "quality control calls" to see how everything is going as could be done with an auto or homeowners claim? By the way, isn't claim time an inherently emotional event for customers anyway? What better opportunity exists to reinforce positive experiences than by having a set strategy at claim time that "goes the extra mile" for a customer.

Sell the customer the experiencde...and all other matters will fall into place.



Copyright © 2009 - Tony Cefalu