To say the insurance industry is competitive is an understatement. We’ve all seen the ads urging us to switch our coverage for the best deal, wherever that may be. Shop around! Save some money!

No one on either side of the equation – insurer or insured – seems to have high expectations that customers will stick around from one year to the next. Carriers may hope that customers renew, but with over 30 percent of consumers changing carriers annually, repeat business simply can’t be counted on. But it doesn’t have to be that way. What if, instead of making it really easy for people to switch, we made it easy for them to stay?

As you might have guessed, we’ve given some thought on how to delight customers. It’s really what customers expect from any company these days. Transparency. On-demand service. Speed. Personalized attention. But when it comes to insurance, a little more is needed. Customers want us to be there in a crisis, in that moment of truth, poised to provide the help they need and maybe even a little bit of love. 

Simply by differentiating on service, companies can deliver a better experience that drives customer retention and growth. It’s all about customer experience. And insurance simply can’t wait any longer to embrace this approach.

We’ve seen other industries do this right. Travel and retail are great examples. Most industries, in fact, have moved into a subscription economy over the past decade. Their primary focus is on delighting and retaining customers for life. Yet insurance remains the complete opposite. We think it’s time for that to change.

Are you up to the challenge of taking a customer-first approach? Here are a few “golden rules” for inspiring the kind of loyalty that makes people want to stay:

1. Be there for your customers when they need you.

2. Make it easy and enjoyable for your customers to reach you.

3. Anticipate your customers’ needs and be prepared to meet them.

4. Make it possible for your customers to communicate on their own terms – and in their preferred language!

5. Listen. Full stop. More than anything, people want and need to be heard.

As a carrier, you basically have a choice: woo people with price or with service (it can be difficult to accomplish both). A pricing war by definition is going to be costly. But it doesn’t have to be costly to deliver a simple lovable experience. There’s tremendous opportunity in the decision to put customer experience first.

Is this going to be the year that the insurance industry begins to delight customers? That’s our aim. It’s why we do what we do. But we can’t do it alone. So we hope you’ll join us in raising the bar for customer experience this year. Because the only way to change an industry that hasn’t changed in 500 years is together.