There is an old saying, “children should be seen and not heard.”I often wonder whether the insurance industry has expanded thatconcept, because they often act as if their customers should beseen but not heard. To invite feedback and establish more trustwith consumers, perhaps it's time for carriers to launch socialmedia sites.

That was the theme at one fascinating session during lastmonth's ACORD LOMA Insurance Systems Forum in Las Vegas.

At first, I rolled my eyes when I heard the keynote topic–”GoingFrom Me To We”–figuring I was in for some new-age nonsense abouthow we all need to sing “Kumbaya.” Even the name of the speaker'sfirm–Mzinga, or “beehive” in Swahili–sounded pretentious.

Instead, I was introduced to an intriguing philosophy about howcreating interactive communities–both internally (with employees)and externally (with clients and prospects)–can help boost salesand improve customer loyalty at a time when it's getting harder todifferentiate yourselves on products alone.

Sitting next to me was someone from an insurance company I metonly because the speaker–Barry Libert, chairman of Mzinga, aconsulting firm in Burlington, Mass.–insisted everyone introducethemselves to their neighbors to start the community-buildingprocess. His title had just changed to “customer experiencemanager,” making him a living example of what all insurers shoulddo–focus on service quality.

One way to go is to set up Web sites for stakeholders to vent soinsurers can pinpoint what they're doing wrong and do better nexttime. It's also a great forum to solicit new product and serviceproposals.

Mr. Libert's main point is people would rather do business withcompanies that listen to them–especially their criticism.“Establishing such communities allows you to mitigate risk,” hesaid. Since insurers are in the business of risk mitigation, thisshould be right up their alley, except they are usually toothin-skinned.

In establishing social media sites, the goal should not be tocontrol the dialogue but to encourage, monitor and, mostimportantly, respond to complaints filed and ideas floated. Even ifthe feedback is negative, it's better to be part of theconversation than the butt of it.

Before long, you're not going to have a choice about this, withthe tidal wave of MySpace and Facebook users pouring into themarket–both as consumers and workers. They love to talk amongthemselves online on just about everything in their lives. Theirexperience in the world of insurance won't be an exception.

ACORD–already the United Nations of the insurance world–isexploring additional community-building options and is invitingeveryone to brainstorm with them. Go to their Web site(www.acord.org) to learn more about that effort.

Are you ready to take the plunge at your organization? Why notset up an online “suggestion box,” a bulletin board, a blog or someother Web option to tap the collective wisdom of stakeholders? Whathave you got to lose? You might even come up with some profitableinitiatives and new prospects.

Or you could just continue acting like the actors in acommercial running in the New York area for a satellite TV servicethat captures this situation perfectly.

The board of a cable company, confronted with the problem ofmounting complaints, concludes that the best solution is to get ridof their customers and seek all new ones–specifically, those whowon't gripe so much!

There! Problem solved, right?

If it was only that simple!