Concierge services inspire customer loyalty

Redefining the customer journey

Early adopters in the insurance industry are now offering life concierge services to their customers, ushering in a new generation of insurance services that put the focus back on the customer journey.

But what are concierge services, and why are they so important to the future of insurance providers?

Becoming architects of empathy

To understand and answer this question, let’s run through a fictional case comparison:

Your customer is abruptly woken at 3am in the morning to a serious heating leakage that threatens to cause damage to their property and their neighbours’ properties. Stress levels are high, and there are hundreds of plumbers offering their services online. So, who does your customer call? Which plumber is best for their emergency? Your customer – like most of us – probably has no idea. They are tired, stressed and now angry that they must do all the leg work. But why should they?!

The answer is, they shouldn’t.

Now consider the following scenario:

Your customer is abruptly woken at 3am by a bad heating system leak. They are alarmed but not overly so, because they know that all they need to do is call you.

They call you and are reassured by one of your attentive representatives, who arranges for a plumber to be sent to them immediately.

All your customer had to do was make one phone call.

Now, imagine this customer’s friend has a similar problem, but her insurance provider doesn’t offer concierge services. She had to do it all herself, and the plumber she booked made the problem worse, complicating the claims process. Now she resents her provider and is looking to change to another. She speaks to her friend – your customer -, who tells her how you took all the stress out of her leakage emergency and handled all the logistics and administration with no fuss or pushback.

The end result? Your customer’s friend just became your new customer.

Be there when it matters

Concierge services offer a clear path for insurance providers to remain competitive, and at the same time expand their product and services offerings.

Understanding your customers’ pain points is a step in the right direction, but this should be followed up with services that work to remove these pains. In today’s insurance industry, it is not enough to approve or deny a claim. Providers must become ambassadors of well-being and architects of empathy. By embracing such initiatives, providers leave a positive impression on their customers that are remembered long after the damp stains of their broken heaters have been plastered over.