GEICO, Tony Blake, and Reducing Attrition.
It was 7PM when the phone rang.
“Hello. May I speak to Sean Marler, please?”
“Yeah, this is Sean.”
“Mr. Marler, my name is Penny. I’m with GEIKO and, as a matter of courtesy, I’m calling to let you know your insurance lapsed on the 5th”
“Really? But the payments are automated…”
“Well, Mr. Marler, your policy was for a 6 month period. You have to renew the policy manually at the end of the 6 months. I can take care of that right now, if you’d like.”
Awwww. Penny and GEICO are so sweet and helpful, aren’t they? I mean, come on, they even gave me a ‘courtesy call’, right?
Ummm, no, they didn’t. A ‘courtesy call’ would have come 4 days BEFORE my policy expired - NOT 4 days AFTER the expiration date. Nope, no matter how they position it, this was a ’sales call’.
Positioning it as a courtesy probably works wonders in creating a feeling of good will with customers. It immediately breaks down the “telemarketer” wall of resistance.
Smart.
The bigger picture is where the real lesson is, though. This was more than a sales call… This was part of an Attrition Mitigation Program. This was a slice of a full-blown system designed to keep paying customers as paying customers - a system designed to make it easier for customers to stay than to leave. It removes the customer’s need to think or take any significant action.
Obviously, their system has a few kinks, but still…
Smart. Very smart.
Online, you almost never see companies actively employing an Attrition Mitigation Program. You see it employed even less when the “product” is free.
Products where the customers are more accurately defined as ‘users’ or ‘members’ would still benefit greatly from a system to reduce attrition.
Here is an example: Several weeks ago I registered to participate on Tony Blake’s new internet marketing forum. So far, the forum has great content and is growing rapidly. But, you know what? I damn near forgot about it the moment I left the site.
I’ve received a couple emails informing me that Tony has posted a new Vlog - but not much more than that, really. Consequently, I’ve visited the forum very little. Hmm, now that I think about it, “very little” is probably an over-statement.
But, what if…
What if I received weekly emails with the titles and excerpts of the “most thumbed up” posts of the week?
What if I received a “spontaneous” email giving me a heads up about an interesting or heated debate taking place?
Or, what if Tony showcased the author of the most instructive or useful post of the week? What if he actively championed frequent posters?
What if Tony enthusiastically encouraged members to vote of the best posts? And rewarded activity?
What if he did all of that in a couple of weekly emails, as well as on the forum proper?
I can answer ALL of those “what ifs” in one short sentence:
Tony would probably have a hell of a lot more member interaction, a stronger relationship with the members, greatly increased chances of WOM, and, ultimately, end up significantly reducing attrition.
The forum (and the associated social network) is one of Tony’s platforms for reaching and engaging his target audience. It might even be his primary platform.
Developing and implementing a system to keep more people coming back more often is essential.
So, I ask you, what can you do in your business, or on your website, to keep the folks that matter from straying?
What system can you implement to keep your customers/members engaged with you?
Think about it.
Do something about it.
Sean.
P.S. Don’t worry about Tony. He’s a smart cookie and is totally on top of things. I just wanted to give him shit.
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I finally decided to write a comment on your blog. I just wanted to say good job. I really enjoy reading your posts.
Tina Russell
Good Layout and design. I like your blog. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. .
Jason Rakowski
Sean…
We are actually currently working to install almost every suggestion you mentioned in your post. Over the next few weeks we will be rolling out new ways to let the membership know about the best posts of the week, hot discussions, members favorites, etc. — that’s why when someone registers on the board they are also automatically added to an autoresponder, this way we can send out emails to our members without having to rely on the board software, which is not really designed for emailing large amounts of people (and WE WILL get a large membership)…
Great blog post, I like your thinking. Now if only that damn Geico lizard would leave my house! Damn thing is drunk, breaking things and lizard-barfing all over the place… I’d whack his tail off but it’d grow back! hummmph…
Success!!!
Tony Blake
you know what these companies need.. I was thinking about this the other day.. a type of “hot button” twitterish program that automatically submits post or topics with a certain number of viewers.. etc.
This program would update itself and subscribers would be instantly notified… it brings much more diversity and attraction to the posts of interests rather than just a q and a forum whereby you need to check back and see if anyone has responded.
Everything is automated these day.. yes.. it is freggin’ hard to think sometimes.. so it best to put whatever message you have directly in our face, that may actually be the only way we will respond!!
So.. what can I do.. how can I implement a program… mmm good question??
Standout from the crowd…
Create a burning interest…
Develop a contest…
Offer an incentive to revisit…
Reward readers…
will have to think more on this
nice post mista!!
Word. The amazing thing is that, as time goes by, and Internet technologies continue to develop, this type of customer relationship management just becomes easier and easier.
That’s an odd setup they have. I’ve had insurance on autopay, and the payments continued until I canceled the policy.
Even a caveman should realize that makes more sense- don’t most people want to keep their insurance, unless they contact the company to cancel it?
Howdy again, Chris.
“Even a caveman…” <– now that was some funny shit.
Honestly, I didn’t tell the entire story with GEICO because it would have ruined the flow and made it harder to get back on topic -
- I left out the part that they had sent me numerous emails to alert me to the fact I was about to cancel.
- I left out that I never opened those email because they send me loads of promotional material. I ignore it. (lesson - multiple email addys with different FROM names for different types of messages.)
- I left out the fact several months earlier I had canceled the CC that was billed to - they COULDN’T automatically bill me.
But, I’m sure you can see, adding all of that into the “setting the stage for the message” part of my post would have detracted from the point.
They did call AFTER it had canceled; not before.
It was part of a system to reduce attrition.
I took some some stuff out, and changed the “reason why” but it doesn’t really change anything significant.
Leaving all of that in would have forced me to give a reason why for a reason why for a reason why - would have been boring and unfocused blah blah blah.
Like this comment has become…
To all: sorry about the delay in responding - I’ve been trying to get a damn “respond to this comment” threaded comments plug in to work right. It kicked my ass.
@Tina thanks for stopping by and taking a moment to comment. I do appreciate it. I also appreciate the kind words.
@Jason thanks, dude. I added your feed to mine as well. A related topic from different perspective. I can dig it.
@elle sup, yo?
Sean
@Tony
The forum rocks, dude. I’m looking forward to contributing. Thanks for taking the time to drop a comment.
Now I gots to go tweet something.
Prime example of another reason why Geico is so big. I still wonder why they dropped the “I have some great News, I saved…” commercials, they were the most viral ones they put out there. The caveman ones are good, but not quite as good as the others.
I know the local insurance place I have used here, doesn’t stay in touch. They are a multi company place, so once you sign up you deal with the company you chose, but you can still pay through the local office, so they have to know when your policy cancels, yet, never hear from them. How much money are they losing?
Great post though Dean. I know I do not map out all the point, but I will from now on. Guess I never really thought too much about it.
My example, I am surprised how many list owners let subscribers go without even asking why, something that can be set up on automatic pilot. Course I think many don’t want to hear the truth.
There was one membership site I was on, when I requested to cancel, the owner called me on the phone, actually did keep on a while longer the first time. No hard sell. Long distance is next to nothing now days, would be a cheap avenue to reduce attrition.