Competing via social media is about customer experience

For insurance professionals looking to gain a competitive edge and stand out via social media, touting their products on Twitter isn’t enough.

“In our mind, the next battlefield will be around customer experience,” said Sylvie Paquette, president and COO of Desjardins General Insurance Group during a panel at the recent National Insurance Conference of Canada in Quebec City.

“We’re an industry quite good at managing risk and putting risk in the centre of our discussion,” she said. “We’re not quite (as) good at putting the customer into the centre of our decision.”

When it comes to social media, though, the industry doesn’t really have a choice. The good, the bad and the ugly will be posted to social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, so customer engagement through those channels is now critical for success.

Price drives only about 40% of customer loyalty, Paquette said. If a low price were enough to keep customers, “that would be too easy,” she said, which is why differentiating through customer engagement remains important, even in a social media age.

“Most definitely, brokers have some work cut out for them,” said Shelagh Paul, vice president of corporate communications at The Dominion and another NICC panelist. “I also think that people’s experiences shape what they value.”

When it comes to necessary products, such as insurance, customers will pay more for a better experience. Social media actually allows brokers to do what they’ve been doing for years, just in a different format, Paul said.

Successful social media campaigns are genuine, personal and about establishing relationships, often at the local level, which can provide brokers an advantage over a large company. Tweeting about a local charity, for example, can establish bonds before the insurance conversation even begins.

Targeting the right customer at the right time with valuable information has become increasingly important. As Desjardins, for example, the company has begun using more sophisticated “big data” analytical tools around customer service, Paquette said.

Inevitably, negative “reviews” will pop up online, and how you react is dependent on the situation, but ignoring it shouldn’t be an option. In the insurance industry, you may need to take that conversation offline, Paul pointed out, but the idea is to respond to customer concerns quickly.