The Art of Communication: Empowering Producers
According to a recent study, happy customers share their experience with approximately 11 people, while unhappy customers share their experience with approximately 15 people.1 A whopping 80% of customers believe the customer experience is as important or more important than a company’s products and services.2 Communication is defined as the transmission and interaction of facts, ideas, opinions, feelings or attitudes.3 Effective communication can help build trust, respect, and understanding. This is why communication is a critical component at ManhattanLife.
In the insurance industry, communication is especially imperative among policyholders, contract holders, agents, brokers, enrollment companies, employer groups, and the insurance carrier. Without clear, concise, and effective communication, critical information can be misunderstood or missed entirely, potentially eroding trust between us and our partners. In this blog, we will discuss the importance of agent communication and how our organization deploys that communication.
Agent Communication Mediums
At ManhattanLife, our agents are vital to the organization, its growth, business model, and service to policyholders. Providing transparency to our agents and soliciting their feedback, ideas, and suggestions holds considerable weight with us. Agents operate on the “frontlines” of the organization. We need to ensure they are armed with the tools needed to represent ManhattanLife, sharing the company’s compelling story, believing in our products and services, and conveying our message effectively and succinctly.
The ManhattanLife Corporate Communications team works diligently and thoughtfully to develop, design, and deploy those necessary tools and bring them to market for our agents. We are consistently using feedback and ideas received to create what is essential for agents to be successful. There are numerous tools our team has already developed and made available for agents to utilize. However, our success doesn’t happen in a vacuum. The healthy symbiosis between us and our agents allows us to seamlessly initiate innovative ideas and implement them quickly.
Our Tools
The Communications team has developed several tools currently available to use for marketing and communication purposes:
- Marketing Brochures – All product segments and lines of coverage have brochures available for agents to access. These typically describe the product, benefits and features, and identify positioning points for each product. View examples of our brochures for PAID Enhanced and Cancer Care Plus.
- Flyers – From enrollment flyers, infographics, and sales flyers to general product flyers, these one-pagers provide high level information about a particular product, an entire portfolio, or a specific benefit feature.
- Videos – Our team creates videos for general product information, benefit “explainer” overviews, enrollment communications, or company overviews. Find our videos on Vimeo here.
- E-postcards and landing pages or Microsites – Using our recently purchased Flimp software, we have new capabilities allowing us to develop interactive e-postcards or microsites/landing pages that cover a range of topics. These can incorporate a litany of information, links and materials on a particular line of business, a portfolio of products, or a specific large employer group, with product information and links to brochures, videos, or other websites.
- Email blasts – We conduct several email blast campaigns that reach thousands of agents announcing product launches, highlighting established products, or providing important company or segment information.
- Producer highlights – Celebrating our producers and obtaining their input is a vital part of our process. Last year, we launched the Producer Spotlight Series, interviewing five of our top producers. The series exceeded our expectations. It was not only eye-opening, but contained a similar thread woven throughout the interviews: Our service model stands out among other carriers. Our dedication to policyholders, responsiveness, and willingness to be nimble and respond quickly to customer needs was also a common component. We are extremely grateful to our agents. We also remain very loyal to them and appreciate what we have cultivated together. View one of our Producer Spotlights on LinkedIn.
- Customization – One of the Communication team’s strengths is the ability to customize any of our marketing communications to meet the needs of a segment or a group. The team consists of top notch and highly experienced individuals that all understand our mission and commitment to our customers.
We, as an organization, are only as successful as the people who effectively convey ManhattanLife’s story, believe in our products and services, and impactfully deliver our message. Transparency, open communication, input from our producers, and the ability to integrate that into our process helps us evolve and grow into a more successful and thoughtful organization. A significant component of our success is the tethered and continued relationships with our valued producer partners.
For more information on ManhattanLife’s products and services, please spend time perusing our website in detail. Thank you.
John McVey, Vice President - Corporate Communications, ManhattanLife
Sources: