Two sayings are repeated in business time and time again, “The customer is always right” and “Power is in the hands of the customer”. They’ve been said a million times before and they’ll be true for a long time to come. In fact, if anything the power of the customer is increasing. The growing expectations of clients is affecting businesses across the board, but it opens up interesting opportunities for anyone in the Risk Management “supply chain”. But where has this movement in “customer power” come from? Five main reasons for the increase are:
1 – Information is more readily available and hence, customers are more informed than they have been before.
2 – Internet transactions and other technologies are replacing human interaction more and more.
3 – Without realising it, businesses are training the public to shop around and are encouraging them to be disloyal by bombarding them with price-based marketing rather than emphasising service and commitment.
4 – Customers today are all too eager to voice their opinions when they’re not satisfied, and there are extremely quick and powerful media tools that they can use to do it with.
5 – Following the worldwide credit crisis and collapse of established finance companies has seriously hurt peoples trust in the finance sector.
And so?… What this means for business is that people are a lot more demanding of the professionals they surround themselves with. There is continuous scrutiny about whether a company is living up to what they claim, and traditional advertising is being trusted less and less. Now days people look closely at what’s on offer and are putting a greater emphasis on personal contact and quality experience before deciding who they want to work with. Gone are the days where insurance is all about business. These days it’s very much personal.
