Insurance Advisors and Online Tools

Insurance Brands have not been upbeat about Social Media because their legal department may not clear roadblocks that easily. It might be very difficult to get past them with interpretations of legal liability running high. The industry has been conservative. The insurance subject also is more local and hence stuck to traditional ways.

I have been listening to the advisors daily chores and how they promote their business and also service clients. Most of the time they are answering FAQs and it gets highly repetitive. They say their expertise in answering the FAQs wins them customers and also helps them in retention. A lot of generic questions and answers are involved in customer interactions for these advisors. Simply said, Educating customers seem to be the job. Satisfied customers spread the word. Now, exactly that is how you can use Social Media tools to help increase your productivity and Build your Brand.

I have a few prospective clients who are insurance advisors and upbeat about using online tools. My discussion with them includes the following:

How many customers are looking online for answers on products and services? Look at the rate at which this is growing and will there be a huge online customer base?

How many insurance companies are present online and offer online policies and solutions which you can refer to?

Are there any restrictions of individual advisors referring the Brands that they sell online?

Do you think you get a lot of generic questions and do your answers satisfy your clients? If so, do you think neatly publishing your answers under your brand name and referring them to such a wealth of FAQs would benefit them? Will it also improve your efficiency by not answering same 20 FAQs everyday over phone?

Do you think publishing your profile, credentials and areas of expertise neatly and allowing customers to have a look will build confidence and save time instead of their knowing you by way of asking these questions over phone? Will it help you save your time?

Do you think you can publish a small match making questionnaire to ensure that customer's basic needs can be met when they choose you as advisor?

Do you think your customers can benefit from a networking platform, if you are available to them online?

Do you think your customers can benefit from your Insights, Experiences, Data and Research Findings?

If you put your customers interest first and be available to answer them and allow them to refer your expertise, do you think you will build a community? Aren't you already building your Brand on such a trust factor in real-world to build your business? Don't you think building the same on-line is important and useful?

Can you get ahead of the curve with on-line communities by starting early?

Can you educate and update your customers by publishing under your Brand name? Will that be useful to your customers? Will it help establish your Brand?

Do you think your customer feedbacks help you fine-tune and customer reviews help you establish yourself? Is it not easier to do it through Social Media tools than the traditional way?

Where to Start? Start Now, Start Here:

Within the Social Media tools, start with a Blog and use it to express yourself to your customers. Concentrate on helping people. If they find your content useful, they will go out and refer to others. If you help in one situation, they are likely to come back. Invite comments. Be sincere and engage them. Extend Real World Practices to Social Media. After starting with the blog, you can move onto Social Networking platforms like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn where you can answer your customers real-time, participate in conversations and do much more. As you progress, you can evaluate other tools one by one and integrate them into your work flow productively.