S2E2: Insurance Social Media

When it comes to the topic of insurance social media, no one knows more than Terry Golesworthy. In today’s episode of Denim Rivet we sit down for our full interview with Terry Golesworthy, President of The Customer Respect Group. Terry has been with the CRG for 12 years and for the last six years, he has been researching how insurers interact with consumers online. With the steady evolution of social media over the years and the advent of insurtech companies, it’s safe to say Terry has had a great deal to dive into.

Terry remembers in the mid 90’s insurance companies were asking whether or not they even wanted to have a website. It was thought if all information could be found online then consumers would have no need to call an agent. Some insurers went as far to have incomprehensible information on the site just so consumers would get frustrated and call an agent. That era is now over. In today’s age the customer has more control than ever, and if a company’s website and user experience are lacking, they will go elsewhere. Many of the new insurtech companies that have blossomed offer more ways for carriers and customers to communicate. This ease of communication is starting to allow new products to be offered since marketing and distribution is more efficient than ever before. Stereotypically difficult policies like renter’s insurance become less of burden to handle since customers can easily access and purchase through their smartphone. This highlights a shift that will continue in the industry; further improving user experience with friendly, powerful systems that make purchasing easy and keep customers engaging with insurers.

Key Takeaways

The days of manipulating ranks on Facebook, figuring out how to get the most retweets, and going to conferences to listen to social gurus are long past. Apart from initially purchasing, renewing, or making a claim on an insurance policy – there isn’t much interaction between the customer and carrier.

American consumers have their own version of an operating system that they interact with on a daily basis. This OS allows them to collect and distribute information while allowing for easy research and purchasing to take place. This OS is composed of a person's smartphone and a social media newsfeed. Mobile devices help to break down barriers as these devices are a part of us and with us at all times.

Scalability was a major area of focus we wanted to tackle in creating Denim™. When a business has multiple agents taking time out of their day to manage their social presence it opens up the door to a host of problems. Aside from being a distraction from the agent’s primary work of selling, inconsistencies in pricing and other errors are more likely to occur each time an ad campaign is launched by individual agents. Denim was built so agents and advisors don’t have to be experts social media advertising and micro-targeted advertising can be scaled to more than a thousand different advisors and agents – all within two minutes.

For a long time, it was thought that complexity in enterprise software platforms directly equated to value. The truth is that complexity in software design often makes it too difficult to use, and businesses only utilize 10% of a platform's functionality. Denim focuses on breaking down this complexity, delivering an intuitive and easy-to-use product, while leaving all the value intact.

Pay-to-Play vs. Organic Reach – social platforms are not charities. Paying for advertising has given businesses the opportunity to be the first to reach a specific target consumer. When you present an advertisement to the right person, at the right time, with the right message, it's no longer an advertisement—it is simply information to the consumer. This allows for the consumer to easily share and pass along the information, which blends organic reach with paid social media advertising campaigns.

Show Links

Customer Respect Group

Twitter: @TerryCRG