Committing to an insurance program can be a daunting task for any person, and to fully reel the customer in, you need to earn their trust.
There is a multitude of ways to achieve this, they will mostly focus on how you present yourself and interact with the customer, and what needs to be done to make them feel safe, secure, and fully confident in their decision to give you their precious money. Without further ado, let’s explore the topic.
1. The Way You Present Yourself is Key
Speak the common tongue, most people dislike people who only talk in niche lingo and can’t figure out what they are saying. This can create a sense of distrust between the customer and the insurance provider, so it’s best to stick with the common tongue to get your point across and explain what needs to be explained.
This way the other person will see you as a down-to-earth person and will be more open to cooperation. While you should speak the common tongue, you should still be professional and still give off the aura of an expert in your field. Even when you want to come off as friendly, always remember that you aren’t talking to a close friend, but a customer.
Maintain politeness and respectfulness at all times. One way of doing this is by being mindful of the client’s time. You must respect other people’s time as you would your own. So if told your client you are calling them, call them. Also, respect scheduled meetings and you’re on your way to a prosperous relationship.
Stay clear of speaking ill about your competition, as it is extremely distasteful and can downgrade your relationship with the customer. You don’t want to come off as an arrogant asshole, instead, pride yourself on your services, and show them why you are the top choice on the market without slandering your competitors. People are sceptical of people who liberally trash-talk others, so don’t think your area of expertise is an exception.
2. Honesty and Transparency
Some business practices can be universally applied. As Dougherty says: “If there is a void of information, employees will fill it and they will always fill it with negative information”, taking this into account, as an insurance provider, you should actively keep your customer informed of the situation.
Even if you think the information is not relevant to the customer, it is worth bringing it up to see whether it will spark their interest, as providing full information about the services you are offering is a perfect start to a trusting relationship.
Of course, there will be certain information that you can’t share but try to minimize the secrecy as much as possible. Customers will be more open to cooperation when they don’t see a smudge of ulterior motives that drive the service provider. The same goes for honesty. We like to hear good things, but that will only lead to temporary happiness. Once the customer realizes that you were lying or being deceitful there is no going back.
Honesty is the best tool with which you can achieve a strong sense of trust between yourself and the customer. Research that was done by Mintel shows us that only around 26% of women think that insurance companies are more trusting now than they were 5 years ago.
While millennials generally have a better outlook on insurance providers lately with a 61% trust rate. With this in mind, millennials are a good target group for insurance companies, they have their starting approval, and now it’s only needed to maintain it. So don’t make any false promises that could damage your reputation.
3. Improve the Customer Experience
Enhancing the customer experience is a good way of maintaining customer loyalty. Provide quality support for their problems, both online and offline. Don’t destimulate arranging meetings to make sure they are 100% on board. Emphasize the fact that they shouldn’t rush the process and that they have time to reach a decision. This is a great way of showing them that you care, and don’t just aim to do a fast money grab.
Do not rush the process to make a quick sale, this is the best way of losing the trust of your customers. Sell only what your customer is asking for, and don’t push them towards any side services.
4. Non-verbal Communication
In jobs where you have to physically be with the customer and persuade them why to purchase your services, non-verbal communication is vital. This comes with things like personality traits, attitude, and behaviour are all important factors that you have to practice. Adapt to your customer’s needs to be perceived as a more fitting person for their requirements.
Traits like positive body language, maintaining eye contact, and nodding when they speak can go a long way in demonstrating your devotion. This all plays a factor in building an atmosphere where the customer will be relaxed enough to trust you. If they have a feeling that you are trying to deceive them for their money, you have already lost.
5. Listen More Carefully
Most of the time, the clients will voice their primary concerns, it falls upon you to hear them out and come up with an adequate response to assure them that your services are worth their time and money. Generally, people will not react lightly if you just disregard their opinions or fears as utterly irrelevant, no matter how illogical they might seem.
Genuinely listening to the needs of the customer is a good way to earn their trust and respect and is practised by Entsia. After going over some important personality traits, ways of presenting yourself, and generally, ways of increasing the trust between you and your customer, you can find some aspects in which you can improve your approach to be more trustworthy.
Because if you are doing all of the above-mentioned things, then you are improving the reputation of the entire insurance industry, which is no small feat. Until next time!