Agents Must Walk The Walk, Not Just Talk The Talk In Providing Top Service

Few agency owners have the intestinal fortitude to recognize that their agency's customer service is not up to par.

In reality, service quality is about perceptions and expectations–the perception an agency owner has of the service the agency provides versus the service level the agency owner believes the peer group provides–as well as the perception the client has of service provided versus their preconceived notions of the level of service they expected to receive (that is, falling short of, meeting or exceeding expectations).

I can hear the grumbling: "But my agency really does provide great customer service!" How do you know? To find out, ask yourselves the following questions:

o Have you undertaken an examination of whether the agency is living up to its full service potential?

o Have best practices of service leaders within the industry been fully evaluated and implemented where appropriate?

o What are the agency's one-, three- and five-year client retention rates by line of business from both a client headcount and revenue dollar perspective?

o What are the results of your latest client satisfaction survey?

o What type of organizational structure and checks and balances are in place to insure a client gets their definition of exceptional service each and every time they have an interaction with the agency?

If you cannot answer these questions, you have much work to do before you can definitively say that your agency provides good service.

Indeed, if you cannot answer the above questions, the agency may in fact be providing great service–but it is more likely a function of the personalities and work ethic of your people rather than your management acumen or anything you are actively facilitating.

Service quality can be broadly broken down into five dimensions that a client will knowingly or unknowingly use to judge the level of service that has been provided:

o Reliability: The agency's ability to perform the promised service both dependably and accurately.

o Responsiveness: The willingness to help clients fulfill their needs promptly.

o Assurance: The knowledge and courtesy of employees, as well as their ability to convey trust and confidence.

o Empathy: The provision of caring, which includes approachability, sensitivity, understanding and individualized attention.

o Tangibles: The tangible products (insurance policies, risk management assessments, communication materials, etc.), as well as the appearance of facilities and personnel.

Clients use these five criteria to form judgments as to the quality of service being provided, based on a comparison between what was expected and their perception of what was actually received.

Note that to understand service quality, one must understand the client's perception of reality. The gap between the level of service a client expects versus the perceived level of service that has actually been provided offers a measure of service quality.

Measuring this gap is a routine customer feedback process that should be employed by every agency striving to accomplish exemplary service on a habitual basis.

However, measuring service quality is often a challenge due to client satisfaction being a function of intangible factors–many of which are psychological in nature.

In addition, service quality provided by an agency extends beyond the initial point of sale, as products and services are utilized over time through repeat agency interactions.

For example, a client may have had a very satisfying experience with a particular risk management consultant. However, the client's view of the level of service provided by the agency as a whole may be overshadowed by a subsequent negative encounter with a claims adjuster or billing department employee.

Another gap that often presents itself in the service continuum is that of the client's expected level of service (as may be influenced by word-of-mouth communications, personal needs and/or past experiences) and management's preconceived perceptions of these expectations.

In other words, the client may have developed a notion of what constitutes quality service in a given instance completely separate and distinct from what management conceives to be quality service in the very same instance.

It is therefore important to survey clients on a routine basis–and particularly after each agency encounter–to establish the absolute client assessment at the time of each encounter, and also to assess any changes in the client's opinions over time.

These surveys do not necessarily need to be long, all-encompassing questionnaires–although it may be helpful to institute a thorough questionnaire for new client relationships to get a sense of the client's existing perceptions or misperceptions.

Rather, for the average client who has been with the agency for some time, routinely asking two simple questions can often be quite telling:

o How can we improve our existing services?

o What services would you like to see us offer in the future?

Responses to these questions often provide a clear road map for what areas of the agency need to be improved, and also provide insight into the client's perception of what products and services are likely going to be important to them in the future.

In short, responses to these questions point to exactly what improvements and innovations your customers desire.

In the business of insurance, great customer service should be viewed as a given, not a competitive differentiator.

The reality of today's competitive market place is that marginal customer service is no longer adequate for an agency to remain successful over the long term. The end goal should always be to exceed customer expectations.

Service quality must be continuously tested and probed if one is to truly know whether or not great service is being provided.

Daniel B. Price is vice president at Hales & Company in Harrisburg, Pa.