Is anyone listening?

At one time or another, it's a question that crosses the mind ofevery businessperson, from C-suite executive to small businessowner.

Companies of all sizes are challenged by how to punctuate thechatter that surrounds consumers these days. People are bombardedby e-mails, text messages, Facebook updates, blog feeds and 500cable TV channels, among other things.

How do you know if consumers are getting your message, hearingyour value proposition and listening to what you have to say?

Sure, there are traditional brand awareness measures–like howmany people have heard of your company or seen your advertisements.But getting consumers to hear your message and getting them tolisten to your message are two very different things.

People listen to businesses they trust. They listen tobusinesses they feel good about. They listen to businesses theybelieve have something valuable to share with them.

For this reason, one way to gauge how successful a company is atgetting people to “tune in” is to look at measures of consumerengagement. Businesses scoring high on such measures, companieslike Apple or Amazon, are creating intensely loyal customers whoare more apt to listen to what the firm has to say and offer.

Unfortunately for the insurance industry, some common measuresof consumer engagement suggest lots of room for improvement:

o In Forrester Research's 2010 Customer Experience ratings, nota single insurer was ranked in the Top 20. Moreover, not a singleinsurer's customer experience earned Forrester's top rating of“Excellent.”

o Many insurers fared even worse in Net Promoter Score (NPS),one of the most widely used measures of customer engagement andloyalty.

In 2010, the average NPS for all industries was 23 percent, withtop-performing companies earning scores in the 70s. Life, healthand property/casualty insurers averaged 14 percent, meaning theydidn't have a whole lot more promoters (elated customers) thandetractors (irritated customers).

o The third sign of trouble comes from the Reputation Institute,an international research firm that asks consumers to ratecompanies on their product and service quality, as well as theircommitment to ethical and transparent business dealings. In theinstitute's most recent annual ranking of corporate reputations,insurance firms came in 15th out of 18 industries.

What all these statistics indicate is that consumers aren'tfeeling very good about the insurance industry, which means they'remore likely to ignore what insurers have to say.

That's a real problem for an industry where acquisition costsare so high and the economics of customer retention are socompelling.

That's why all insurers should be familiar with the Top Fivereasons that customers tune them out. In reverse order, theyare:

#5–Customers don't like insurers, or are indifferent tothem.

With mediocre NPS scores, decidedly average Customer Experiencescores and a Reputation Index that's cringe-worthy, it follows thatconsumers just don't like the insurance industry very much. Atbest, consumers feel indifferent toward insurers, which is hardly arecipe for engaging them in a meaningful way.

To help get customers to like–and listen–to you:

o Nail the basics.

Don't be fooled by the adage that insurance is a “relationshipbusiness.” Consumers don't want to have a “relationship” with thebusinesses they patronize.

What they do want is for the products and services that they buyto work–as they were promised, as they expected.

Most businesses fail to meet even this low bar, which is whysimply nailing the operational basics can actually drive unusuallyhigh levels of customer engagement.

o Stand for something.

Great brands that resonate strongly with consumers are oftengrounded in a compelling sense of purpose. More than mere missionstatement, the purpose-driven brand defines a company's “reason forbeing” in terms that transcend profit and market share.

As companies like Whole Foods and Google have found, when youput principle before profit, when you truly stand for something,consumers take notice and reward you with their admiration, trustand loyalty.

#4–Customers never hear from insurers.

After purchasing insurance and getting their policy, what doinsurance customers tend to hear? Crickets.

Sure, they'll get some bills and maybe some renewal documentsfrom their provider, but beyond that, years can go by without acustomer ever hearing anything from their insurer.

That makes it easy for customers to tune out insurers. Afterall, if the company is rarely communicating with the policyholder,it doesn't take much brain power to ignore the firm.

Overcoming this pitfall doesn't require rocket science:

o Speak up.

Before customers can tune you in, you need to startbroadcasting.

Look for new opportunities to communicate with customers, be itat certain policy events or life cycle milestones. View everycustomer contact not as a transaction, but as a chance to reconnectwith your customer and reinforce your brand.

#3–Customers don't have a clue what insurers aresaying.

When insurers do take the time to communicate, it is all toooften done in confusing and undecipherable ways.

Studies have shown that many consumers have just stopped readingwhat insurers send them, because it's so unintelligible. One studyeven found that consumers were more likely to read the back oftheir cereal box than information sent to them by their financialservice providers!

From policy documents to call center interactions tocorrespondence and forms, insurance communications are riddled withindustry jargon that brings a glaze over the average consumer'seyes. It becomes easier for customers to just ignore insurers thanto figure out what they're trying to say.

To help make sure customers understand what you'recommunicating:

o Keep it simple.

Rid live, written and electronic communications of industryjargon, instead composing information in plain language. And don'tjust focus on simplifying current communications. Question whatyou're communicating in the first place. Make sure it's not justintelligible, but also relevant from a customer perspective.

o Capitalize on cognitive fluency.

People prefer things that are easy to think about compared tothose that are hard.

This dynamic–dubbed “cognitive fluency” in academic circles–caninfluence consumer behavior in fascinating ways. For example,401(k) enrollment rates fall when too many investment options areoffered.

How products are designed, how services are structured, howcommunications are visually presented are all examples of areaswhere cognitive fluency can play a big part in engaging (orrepelling) your customers.

#2–Customers don't believe what insurers aresaying.

Even if customers understand what you're saying, it doesn't meanthey'll believe you. If the messenger doesn't have credibility, ifthe insurer has not earned the customer's trust, then it's nearlyimpossible to get people to take you and your messagesseriously.

This has become an increasingly thorny point for insurers givenevents of recent years. For decades, insurers trumpeted theirfinancial strength, their centuries-old traditions of honoringcommitments, their conservative business practices and investmentstrategies, their stability and security. These were key componentsof most every insurer's brand.

But then the credit crisis and Great Recession came. Consumerssaw a triple-A financial services giant (complete with anadvertising tagline claiming it had “the strength to be there”)nearly fall into bankruptcy overnight. They saw insurance companiesthat had touted their strength, stability and conservatism gettorpedoed by bad investment bets, poor product diversification andnon-existent enterprise risk management. Firms that had toutedtheir rock solid foundation were being downgraded left and right,with many forced to seek financial assistance from theirgovernments or other white knights.

Making matters worse is the tone deafness insurers oftenexhibit, failing to appreciate how what they say and do–particularly as it relates to public policy matters–will beinterpreted on Main Street.

The industry's response to recent regulatory developments–inareas such as compensation disclosure, contingent commissions andthe fiduciary standard–sound dreadfully out of touch (and decidedlycustomer unfriendly) to the average American.

For all these reasons, consumer confidence in the insuranceindustry has eroded. People are more cynical about what insurerssay and are much more attuned to what insurers actually do. Theyare skeptical that the industry has consumers' best interests atheart, and are therefore more inclined to tune insurers out.

To build credibility and trust that will encourage customers totune you in:

o Put a stake in the ground.

Think carefully about your organization's reason for being.Define what business you're in and what's important to you in a waythat sets you apart from the crowd.

Google, for example, doesn't define itself as a search enginecompany. They have articulated a higher purpose: organizing theworld's information and making it universally accessible.

Purpose-driven brands that resonate with your target audiencecan be great credibility builders.

o Act in the customer's best interest.

Many insurance manufacturers and distributors claim to put theircustomers first. Far fewer infuse this principle into theirbusiness practices in highly visible and compelling ways.

Acting in the customer's best interest–especially when it maynot be in the company's best interest–is an extremely powerfultactic for cultivating customer trust and loyalty.

#1–Insurers never send the right message at the righttime.

As mentioned in Reason #4, insurers often fail to communicatewith their policyholders in any meaningful way, beyond basictransactional documents like policies and bills.

Even if they do proactively communicate in some manner, thecommunication is rarely grounded in any contextual relevance. Whatcustomers often receive are generic, cookie-cutter mailings thatexhibit little sensitivity to each policyholder's personalsituation.

Consumers can sense when a company's messaging isn'tpersonalized, and it's a turn-off. It smacks of robotic businessmechanics, a world where you truly are a policy number and not aperson. It's hardly an approach that encourages customers to listenintently to what you have to say.

To better engage your clientele by sending the right message atthe right time:

o Tune into your customers.

If you want customers to tune into you, you've got to tune intothem. Every day, in every interaction, customers are transmittinginformation to you about their hopes, their worries and theiraspirations. Whether it's a question they pose to your call center,a transaction they seek to execute, a page they dwell on withinyour website, or a mention they make of your firm in socialmedia–these are but a few examples of the many frequencies throughwhich customers are constantly sending signals.

Embedded in those signals is a treasure trove of informationthat can help you interact with your target audience in morepersonalized and relevant ways.

o Shape a dialogue.

Once you begin deciphering all those signals, the next step isusing the information to shape a more robust dialogue with yourcustomers. That means reaching out to them proactively, when itappears they have a need, a concern or a question you can helpaddress.

Even seemingly mundane customer activities, like an addresschange, a coverage question, or the purchase of a new vehicle,present key opportunities to dialogue with your customers in anengaging and memorable way.

Getting customers to tune you in isn't about saturating theairwaves with advertising. It's about capitalizing on each andevery customer interaction in a way that impresses andinspires.

As the Top Five Reasons demonstrate, getting and keepingconsumers' attention is a complex endeavor, with many pitfallspresent that can derail even the most well-intentioned efforts.

Nevertheless, it's a strategy worth embracing because the payoffcan be substantial. When customers are engaged by your company'spurpose, when they sense that you're genuinely looking out fortheir best interests, when your products and services performflawlessly, that is where lifelong customer loyalties areforged.

And once those loyalties take hold, the resulting competitiveadvantage is compelling–because not only will you get customers totune your company in, you'll get them to tune everybody elseout.

Jon Picoult is the Founder of WatermarkConsulting (www.watermarkconsult.net), acustomer experience advisory firm that helps businesses impresstheir clients and inspire their employees. Mr. Picoult previouslyheld senior executive roles in service, technology, sales andmarketing at Fortune 100 insurance companies.

This article is adapted from a keynote speech Jon delivered atthe Insurance Marketing & Communications Association's 2010Annual Meeting.