Customer-Centric Business Approaches

If you work with the future, it's always fascinating to look at Japan. That is, to read signals like this piece about insurance by Mukund Rajan (PwC) , whether you work in the field or not. Japanese consumers have some of the highest rates of insurance ownership in the world and their longevity yields large value pools. Health (i.e., the third sector) is also an area that continues to grow and in which margins remain attractive. Despite all these favorable trends, few insurers have managed to embrace the customeragenda. None have been able to go beyond a transactional service to build trust with the customer toward a noble purpose: supporting customers through their toughest times. Changes in customer expectations, digitalization becoming mainstream, emergence of new business models, and step changes in analytical approaches present a unique opportunity for insurers—an opportunity to move beyond selling basic protection to engage more deeply with and provide solutions for the customer. To capture this opportunity, however, requires insurers to think differently about their purpose, who they want to be, and how they should participate in the market. This paper examines the changing issues in the life insurance industry and presents a capability model to help insurers succeed in the Japanese market. In addition, the paper identifies the four “minimum required” capabilities that are critical for achieving results through competition in the life insurance market and alleviating business and structural issues. Looking into the conditions for becoming a successful insurer in the future. #future #foresight #insurance #japan

Value your clients for the #goodwill they generate for your future, not by the size of their current bill value. Ignoring client grievances just because they are small can set off a domino effect, and may cause a chain reaction that the #business may not be able to afford. Focus on the intensity and nature of your clients' concerns and tackle them with a #customerfirst mindset. Here are key points to turn clients into brand ambassadors even when the situation is challenging and demanding. Listen Actively:  - Let them share their concerns without interruption.  - Show attentiveness with nods or phrases like "I understand." Stay Calm and Professional:  - Keep your composure, even if the client is upset.  - This helps de-escalate and fosters mutual respect. Acknowledge the Issue:  - Empathise and validate their feelings. Apologise Sincerely:  - Offer a genuine apology, even if it is not your fault. Ask for Clarification:  - Ask follow-up questions to understand the issue in depth. Propose a Solution:  - Suggest actionable steps that align with their expectations. Offer Alternatives:  - Present options if the initial solution is not feasible. Act Promptly:  - Resolve the issue quickly to show you value their time. Follow-Up:  - Check in to ensure your #clients are satisfied with the resolution. Gracefully handling #clientgrievance can transform dissatisfied clients into loyal advocates, demonstrating that you genuinely care about their concerns.

𝐒𝐮𝐛 𝟏𝟎% 𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐧 𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝟎.𝟓% 𝐂𝐓𝐑. 𝐀 𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐭𝐫𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐞𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐲 𝐜𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐥. Something had to change! Here’s what we did 🌟  ↴ Community Insights: ↳I reached out to operators in ClubPF ⚓︎, Pavilion, and other communities, and LinkedIn to learn from their email campaign strategies. Focused Segmentation: ↳ We noticed that the top marketers and ops professionals were creating highly engaged audience segments. We reduced our audience size by 90%, focusing on: → Last email opened from sales/marketing → Recent website visits → Event registration/attendance → Asset downloads or form submissions Building Engagement: ↳ We enriched contact details and evaluated titles, companies, goals, challenges, and content engagement across emails and our website. Gathering Feedback: ↳ We contacted 20+ engaged contacts to understand their email preferences, knowledge gaps, and content consumption habits. Strategic Expansion: ↳ We expanded our list by 5-10% weekly, monitoring performance closely. Within 3 weeks, we saw: 20%+ open rates 1.5%+ CTRs By the end of the quarter, our segmented email campaigns achieved a 30%+ open rate! Key Takeaways 💡: 👉 People-First Approach: Engage internally with the best team and externally with your audience. 👉 Data-Driven Decisions: Use engagement signals to create focused segments. 👉 Continuous Improvement: Regularly gather feedback and adjust strategies. ✨ This journey was about putting people first, aligning our team, and delivering value to our audience. The results speak for themselves! S/o to Ritakshi J. Sagar Mishra and Soumyajit Chakladar - we worked week after week to make this happen! Picture Context - Winter in Boston in 2010. Sometimes this is what being a GTM Operator feels like 🤣 #EmailMarketing #GTM #datadriven

When I founded Lion Insurance Brokers Pvt Ltd in 2020, I made a crucial decision: We would never sell insurance. Instead, we would become interpreters. Let me explain. The insurance industry speaks its own complex language of exclusions, endorsements, and obscure policy provisions. Business owners speak another language entirely - one of practical risks, operational challenges, and growth aspirations. Our role isn't to push products. It's to translate between these worlds. Here's how this plays out in practice: Imagine a client who needs coverage for their specialized equipment. Most brokers would simply find a policy with the right limits and call it a day. But when you take the interpreter approach, you first learn how that equipment fits into their production chain, what downtime costs them hourly, and what regulatory risks they face. Only then can you translate their business reality into appropriate coverage. When clients understand protection this way, the shift in perspective is everything. They move from "buying policies" to "managing risk." This fundamentally changes the conversation. If that client later faces a potential major liability situation, they're not scrambling to decipher their policy during a crisis. They already know exactly how their protection works in their specific context. True protection comes when: ✓ Your broker understands your business DNA ✓ Coverage addresses YOUR specific vulnerabilities ✓ Solutions evolve as your business grows The traditional approach puts products first. Our approach puts understanding first. Want to test if your broker is truly serving as an interpreter? Ask them to explain your most complex coverage in terms specific to your business operations - no insurance jargon allowed. Their answer will tell you everything. What's been your experience? Have you found a true interpreter, or are you still getting lost in translation? #business #growth #insurance #money #investment #finance #decisionmaking

How do we win new clients 🤷🏽 I’ve posted recently about how we’ve had a good start to the year. Whilst positive, I try to always remain balanced. ‘Never let success get to your head and never let failure go to your heart’ (not my quote but I like it) Anyway, to answer the question: 📱 Client posted on LinkedIn. Requesting help - renewal went from £50k to close to £200k for their fleet insurance 💬 I responded 11pm at night and had a text exchange with the MD. Gave him advice that would help THEM, not me. (Don’t get too many brokers involved, don’t just let people ‘quote’ - look to see what value / approach different brokers will add and then decide who you will allow to represent you) 🛌 The time everyone else woke up, I had a follow up call with the MD, learned a lot about the situation and what they needed and explained how we’d go about helping them. He liked our approach and therefore, decided that he’d like us to explore option. ❌ Long story short, there were only 1 insurer willing to offer an alternative price on the fleet. Eye watering still, but it was a better price. 🧰 For their contractors, I was honest with the client and said from the outset that their current insurer was the right insurer for them, given what they do and that their current broker chose well. The reason their price was so high? 💥Too many crashes, ultimately losing the insurer money. 🗣️ Too many open claims from a long time ago, too many over inflated reserves that have gone unchallenged, therefore making a poor claims picture look a lot worse The answer ✅ Work with insurer and client to clean up their claims. Close off old claims, reduce inflated reserves and help to manage those claims more effectively. overtime, we can reduce the frequency and value of claims which will mean that they are a more appealing proposition for an insurer. This is where an engaged broker as opposed to a transactional relationship, will add value. 🧰 for their contractors, my view, from 20+ years of underwriting was that the rates used were too high. After speaking to the insurer, turns out it was on an old version of the insurers product meaning that it was just too expensive. ⬇️ We managed to negotiate a significant reduction in their year end declaration as well as a 5 figure reduction on their base rates meaning they are with the same insurer but less money AND more cover. We amended the structure so that it was more fit for purpose in terms of what the client needed in the event of a claim. Since then: We’ve had x2 face to face meetings, several meetings with insurers and helping them with a variety of other insurances which will help them win decent contracts. So, 3 brokers, all had access to the same quotes from same insurers and we were successful. The real reason businesses use us? - we make their problems, our problems! Another amazing business to work with for years to come. #construction #contractors #financedirector #director #fleet

The number one mistake I see insurance sales professionals making is the same reason why so many insurance buyers are frustrated with our industry. Overpromising and underdelivering. Selling just to sell is a surefire way to guarantee poor client satisfaction and retention. If you sell solely on price, you’ll lose on price. If you sell solely on having better resources, you’ll lose when your competition comes out with the new shiny solution. Having a truly client-centric approach means understanding the business’s unique issues and challenges, and creating a 360 degree approach to risk management. This means asking the right questions. This means not just HAVING the resources, but knowing which ones are impactful for the specific client & knowing how to apply them. This means understanding the risk financing continuum of cost vs. control and helping your client make informed business decisions on how to retain and transfer their risk. Too many advisors are playing the volume game instead of the quality game. No wonder why so many insurance buyers are frustrated! If you want to win on purpose, you have to HAVE a purpose. (Hint: it can’t just be to sell something)

💭 Something happened this week that reminded me why I approach insurance the way I do. A prospect I’ve been working with received another condo insurance quote from a competitor. Same carrier. About 20% less. The difference? That agent never spoke with the client. No conversation, no review of HOA bylaws, no discussion of deductibles or gaps, just a number on a page. Yes, it was cheaper. But it also left the client exposed with higher deductibles and missing protections that mattered for their situation. Here’s the truth: 👉 I can’t control how other agents choose to do business. 👉 What I can control is how I show up for my clients. That means having conversations. Reviewing documents. Explaining options in plain language. Making sure the coverage actually fits. I’m not in this business to be an order taker. I’m here to be a professional. Price matters, but it’s not the only thing that matters. Sometimes the lowest premium comes with the highest risk. Because insurance should be a conversation, not just a quote. 👉 #InsuranceMatters #ClientFirst #BeyondThePrice #DoTheRightThing #ParadoxInsures

Tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today. By 2030, this preparation will define the survival and success of insurers in a world where personal AI assistants (PAIA) revolutionize the industry. Prediction is that insurance will no longer be a reactive purchase or a complex chore, it will transform into an effortless, proactive service. From analyzing risk and negotiating premiums to optimizing policies in real time, PAIA will become the primary interface between insurers and customers, leaving traditional processes behind. What will change for customers? Think about AI assistant notifying you of better policy options, securing a discount on life insurance based on your improved health metrics, and updating your auto insurance in response to safer driving habits, all without you lifting a finger. This seamless, AI driven experience isn’t a futuristic dream, it’s the logical outcome of technologies being developed today, including large action models (LAMs) and real time data ecosystems. For insurers, this transformation presents both a challenge and an opportunity. Traditional underwriting, long the cornerstone of the industry may lose its competitive edge as over a period of time AI will excel in real time risk assessment. To stay relevant, only option insurers have is to pivot toward dynamic policies that adapt to behavioral data, transparent pricing models, and proactive risk prevention. Transparency will no longer be optional, as PAIA will demand clarity in every detail, from pricing structures to algorithmic decisions. This shift will redefine customer relationships. Automated interactions will dominate, but human touchpoints will become crucial in moments requiring empathy and trust. Marketing strategies will also evolve, targeting not just human customers but their AI counterparts, emphasizing value, sustainability, and personalization. Insurers who embrace this change will reclaim their position from aggregators, compete on innovation and value beyond pricing, and redefine the industry. Finally all I can say is that future of insurance is not about adapting to AI, it’s about building it into every layer of your organization. And those who start today will own tomorrow. Refer attached report for details ⬇️ #FutureOfInsurance #AIinInsurance #Insurance2030 #InsurTechRevolution #CustomerExperience #LinkedIn

Can your marketing strategy be to “move in silence”? The Aston Martin F1 Team to me is building something truly unique and intriguing in “silence” By “silence” I don’t mean just a lack of promotion or content, because the AM team is very good with a lot of their marketing strategies. I more mean that they don’t have to do anything flashy to attract attention. #F1 teams have: 🚁 Flown F1 cars into an event by helicopter ❌ Purged their social media for a rebrand 💅 Special liveries for every occasion 📱 Teasers in social content And so much more that represents the extreme aspects of the sport and truly reflects the branding of their team. Every team has their own “vibe” - duh that’s a brand - but it’s interesting to see just how different Aston Martin works. My favorite details: 💚 The I/Am campaign 💚 Their email marketing 💚 The natural inclusion of women and sustainability 👏 I/AM Campaign: The membership with the team is how they identify the most loyal AM fans. Being a member is the only way to get signed driver cards, experiences with the team, exclusive content, rewards, special edition merch, and more. This membership also allows for fans to share their story and send messages to the team for the chance to be featured in content. Providing an abundance of options for the content teams to use at their leisure as well as providing the digital marketing team with emails and other important information on all members 👏 Email Marketing: The true power behind their building in silence. Emails are well crafted, cover a variety of topics, and actually add value to their community. Typical team emails are simply promotions of merchandise with a couple of quotes of the recent race. AM emails have clear writings at the beginning, sometimes coming from TP Krack and sometimes coming from the general team. Then at the bottom a quick peek of merch and sponsors - but never overwhelming. By sending messages that appear directly from the team principal, it makes members feel even more a part of the team and even more important. 👏 Inclusion Sometimes, less is more. AM have done a lot recently to promote their sustainability initiatives and their support of females in motorsport. But - it’s not in your face. It’s not off brand to be loud about it, they just naturally work it into their content. It’s not a one off, it’s not a special separate strategy, it’s not just a “day” or a campaign, it’s a genuine part of their team. Aston Martin moves in silence, and I think they’re building something that reflects their brand well. A rich person will tell you they’re rich, but a truly wealthy person? They don’t need to. That’s the Aston Martin brand. They do their thing and know that their fans will recognize their efforts and connect, everyone else doesn’t really matter. They don’t need every headline or the most TV time, they just need their brand and their fans. Question for the crowd: Do you prefer “flashy” or “silent” marketing moves?

Subscriber engagement isn't a vanity metric –– it's an influential factor that can make or break your email deliverability. Want to boost your open rates, improve inbox placement, and supercharge your email ROI? Here are 5 proven strategies to increase subscriber engagement and improve your email deliverability: 1. Optimize For Subscriber Quality, Not Quantity Having a large list email list means nothing if they are all low quality subscribers. Subscribers who come from questionable sources, or who don’t have a real interest in your content, are far more likely to disengage or mark your emails as spam. This hurts your reputation with ISPs and decreases your inbox placement. You’ll see better open rates, more engagement, and improved deliverability when you focus on QUALITY over QUANTITY in list-building. 2. Segment Your Audience Subscribers aren't numbers in a spreadsheet, they're real people. Group your audience based on factors like demographics, purchase history, and engagement level. Then, create targeted campaigns that are tailored to the specific needs and interests of each segment. This allows you to deliver hyper-relevant content that resonates –– and resonance is great for your engagement KPIs. 3. Personalize Your Messages Generic "email blasts" are a thing of the past. Use subscriber data to tailor your content, offers, and sending frequency to each individual's preferences and behaviors. The more relevant and personalized your emails are, the more likely subscribers are to open them, read them, and take action. 4. Nail Your Timing The timing of your email sends can dramatically influence engagement metrics. Sending a discount code immediately after someone leaves your site with a full cart can be the perfectly timed offer that seals the deal. Sending a discount immediately after someone just PURCHASED a product from you is a great way to ruin an otherwise positive experience. Use data to optimize send times based on email category and subscriber behaviors. 5. Continuously Test And Optimize Contrary to what some marketers would have you believe, email isn't a "set it and forget it" strategy. You need to constantly be testing different elements like subject lines, content, offers, and calls-to-action. More importantly, you need to ANALYZE those tests and use them to continually refine your approach. These five tactics are the most effective way to kickstart a virtuous cycle: More emails hitting inboxes → More engagement on those emails → Stronger sender reputation → Improved deliverability Implement these strategies, and you'll show ISPs that your emails are not only wanted, but valued.