It's All About Price

By Clay Ricord
Senior Consultant

Have you had an experience where professional lessons learned and your personal life come together to really drive a point home? This is one of those stories. Recently, I had the chance to observe the same behavior from two sides of the call center phone—the consultant’s side and the consumer’s side.

In most engagements, especially those involving processes, a call center will be involved to some degree. Today, call centers are a central part of service and sales delivery, not just at insurance carriers, but in virtually every type of business. At their best, they pose challenges for businesses and create frustration for consumers; at their worst, they are a barrier to business. Call centers are a key customer touch point, one of the few occasions when you will actually have contact with many of your customers and prospects. Call centers have also become significant cost centers, consuming large investments in technology and staff.

Let’s talk about the consultant perspective I saw in a recent assignment with an inbound call center. The review involved looking at the processes in place and finding opportunities for improvement, and the call center was one of the areas in scope. That meant looking at those things that present a barrier to the purpose of the call center and that increase the effort (expense) to reach the goals. There were a number of call flows, documentation processes, queuing practices, and behaviors that could be changed to provide better results and reduce total call time and operator work time. These actions would improve the call center productivity and improve the results, but what was most striking was what was missing—and it was consistently absent across agents. It was the message of how the client company adds value, how it is different from the next name on the list.

This client had a powerful story of differentiation to tell. They did, indeed, add a lot of value for the consumer, but this was largely unpublicized. The typical caller is confused about the factors that make up an insurance product, and as a result, consumers view it as a commodity; there is no question that price is a driver for the consumer. I would suggest that value is also a driver, especially in cases where the price difference is small. The call center representative did not attempt to interject value features into the conversation. The conversation basically covered qualification, data gathering, and a price quote. Many prospects said that they would call back. A small percentage asked questions about coverage and service.

Now, on to my own experience as a consumer. We recently purchased a condominium in a different state and needed insurance. We did what most consumers would do: we applied online and by phone. We contacted about seven different insurance providers—direct writers, captives, and independent agents. We explained that we wanted to get insurance and supplied the particulars. Yeah, you guessed it: we received prices, but no one offered any reason to buy from them other than price. When we asked about coverage and service, the responses ranged from really good explanations to silence followed by an admirable attempt, but there were no compelling answers.

Clearly, this is not a reflection on any of the call representatives or call agents; they are doing what the instructions prescribe. They qualified the risk, got the information they needed, and offered a quote. But adding value has always been the crux of every successful business model. How that value is added can be different, but having a reason for customers to pick you over the next company seems to be a fading art. It would be worth a listen to your call center’s calls to see if this is being played out in your organization.