We also tackled the question of what is your competitive differentiating advantage. Is it access to proprietary products? Do you possess expertise in a specific market niche? Perhaps value-added services that enhance your clients’ relationship with their employees are what you offer? Or do you provide your clients with business advisory services by creating benefits strategic plan documents? Providing meaningful solutions is always a winning strategy. Most recently we advocated institutionalizing the cultivation of centers of influence to secure more referrals. We’re not just talking about casual and occasional outreach efforts. We mean creating and implementing a systemic business development program that will be managed on an ongoing basis. These are all winning strategies that will boost your sales results in any economy.
Guaranteed service
This month we’re going to spend some more time on the topic of competitive advantage and how you differentiate your practice. In many markets where there is little or no significant carrier competition, there is virtually no variance in coverages or pricing. So, clients can essentially get the same product at the same price from any of your competitors. So how do you differentiate your offering? Superior service, you say? In several prior columns, I commented that saying you offer superior service is very clichéd.
Everyone says it, whether they provide superior service or not. Again, I have never heard of any firm bragging that it provided decidedly awful service and in fact the management team was proud of it. I’ve heard from several of you about this matter. Let’s suppose you really do provide superior service. How can you convey that in a meaningful and believable manner to your current and prospective clients? How can you differentiate your actual elevated service level from the average or inferior service provided by the pretenders and wannabes?
Well, you can put your money where your mouth is. Develop a service guarantee. That’s right. Guarantee your customers’ satisfaction. If your firm is that good, you should be proud of it and confident enough in your service delivery capabilities to stand behind a guarantee. If you are going to do all that it takes to actually provide superior service, you may as well turn it into a distinct marketing advantage, right? Otherwise, it’s like philosopher George Berkeley’s metaphysical musing: if a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? If you are going to deliver superior service, then make everyone aware of it. If no one knows about your service delivery capabilities, it cannot be a competitive advantage. You get the point. So how can you create your own service guarantee? We’ve recently been assisting several of our clients with this very matter.
The first step is to look at service guarantees through the eyes of your clients. What is most important to them about your service? If you are uncertain of what service elements are really important to your clients, perhaps you should survey them. That would be some really interesting marketing research.
The likelihood is that your clients are just like you and me. After all, we all are consumers of a variety of services. Among the measurable service standards that we all value are timeliness of communications, data accuracy and response times.
All these are important elements of superior service. So what service guarantees could be created involving these standards? Perhaps it’s a guarantee to respond to all telephonic and electronic inquiries within 24 hours or the same day. Or you might guarantee providing accurate information in response to client questions within 24-48 hours. If your firm handles claims, it might consider guaranteeing the timeliness and/or accuracy of claims processing. Maybe the accuracy of census data is a particular point of emphasis and excellence in your practice. In that case you could guarantee data accuracy. It could also involve billing accuracy. It’s a combination of what’s important to the client and what service level your firm can consistently deliver.
Don’t be afraid to think broadly about this subject. You might guarantee clients that you will provide quarterly reviews of their coverages and claims history. Frequent touch points help to improve client retention — you should be doing this anyway. If you are creating benefits strategic plans for your clients, as I have been advocating for several years in this series of articles, you will be contacting your clients frequently anyway to have a meaningful discussion about their business issues and to update their plan document. If you are doing this in a systematic manner anyway, you may as well turn this into a value proposition and marketing advantage.
Think of all the other types of service that you provide as well. Professional benefits communications are another example. The accuracy and timeliness of these pieces might be guaranteed. Do you participate in new employee orientations? The frequency, accuracy and timeliness of those sessions could be guaranteed. The processing of life event changes in a timely and accurate manner could also be guaranteed.
And let’s not forget service recovery. Consumer attitude surveys repeatedly document that we all understand that service providers will make some mistakes. What we all expect as consumers is that when mistakes or complaints are brought to the attention of a supervisor that the problem is fixed. When that happens, we recognize that as superior service. And that actually positively impacts client retention and often results in positive word-of-mouth publicity and referrals. So a service recovery guarantee might be that every problem brought to management’s attention will be rectified within 48 or 72 hours. Once you give this matter some thought, we are confident you will come up with some very creative guarantees. Let us know what you come up with.
Toothy guarantees
Also, consider making your service guarantee meaningful by giving it some “teeth.” Guarantee the service performance or a donation will be made to a charity that you support. Your firm should be involved in your community and support some philanthropic activities anyway, given your financial success. This approach will enable you to communicate that to your clients and to tie your charitable support to your superior service levels.
That’s a twofer with all the right elements. Or if your firm fails to perform, you might guarantee the provisioning of a personal service advocate (a senior service person) to manage their account. You might potentially do this anyway if there have been repeated problems with a specific client. Why not institutionalize the process and turn it into a marketing advantage? Along those lines, you could guarantee that your firm will create a benefits strategic plan at no charge. You will derive benefit from creating the plan, and the likelihood is that you had no intention of charging your client anyway. You are giving away the sleeves to the vest.
Once your team develops the service guarantee and wordsmiths the verbiage, consider branding it in a certificate format. That can then be included in all proposals, marketing materials, on your Web site and in a press release. It should be integrated into all your marketing and also become part of your corporate culture. All of your staff should be aware of it and reference it during day-to-day client interactions. If it’s important and meaningful, it’s worth repeating. We’re confident that you will find a variety of uses for a service guarantee. Be creative and have some fun with this. Don’t just give it lip service. Put your money where your mouth is and guarantee your service. That’s yet another winning way for you to differentiate your business.
Kwicien is managing partner at Baltimore-based Daymark Advisors. He can be reached at jkwicien@daymarkadvisors.com.
