One of my favorite teachers, Prof. Shakir Zahra, made a statement in a Strategic Management class that has stuck with me forever: “Business is about relationships.”
Almost everyday I see examples how that statement is true/applicable/relevant/right on the money. I think if you understand that concept, you are on your way to business success.
Why then, I wonder, do so many business/business people get it wrong? Why is customer service DEAD in America? Why do companies treat their customers as expendable–or wose yet, as adversaries? Why don’t companies/business people GET IT that it is easier to maintain a customer than it is to get a new one? (Restaurants are the WORST in this area.)
This philosophical discussion will have to wait for another time, another blog. I want to rag on my pitiful EX-insurance guy.
Ye ol’ Hubby Man (HM) and I have used this local small insurance office person for about 20 years. I NEVER liked the insurance guy (IG) because he was inaccessible. You could never get him on the phone to answer questions. The people who did answer the phone had not been properly trained and/or were not knowledgeable so they were of no help.
There was also a constant turnover of office personnel—all women, either with bad attitudes (because they were poorly paid?) or nice women with noodle brains (who were thrilled to have a job that paid anything?). You could never develop a rapport with anyone.
I NEVER liked the IG because he was arrogant. He didn’t feel the need to return phone calls when you asked for a quote.
I NEVER liked the IG guy because he didn’t work on his customer’s behalf. He was a PIMP for Big Insurance. One time he talked HM out of filing a homeowner’s claim when a big tree near the creek behind our backyard fell on our house and demolished two levels of decks. Long story…. but IG was not on our side.
Many stories about IG. (So little time…) The even more disgusting part: we KNEW we were getting ripped off! So why did we continue to do business with him? Because we were really stupid! Because we were lazy and too time-impoverished to investigate the financial hit we were taking ever month with four policies. You reap what you sow? You get out of it what you put in to it? You lay down with money grubbers and you get up with empty pockets?
Luckily, STUPIDITY and/or LAZINESS are not fatal. I finally came to my senses—with the help of the Greedy Bastards that run Anthem Blue Cross of California.
HM’s health insurance bill increased by 35%. I’m sure you’ve all heard the stories in the news. I threw a fit and called IG. Of course he was not available. A Little Twit (LT) took my call. I harangued the revolting, repulsive, and repugnant audacity of Anthem to increase the already-exorbitant rates. I went on and on and on. I told LT that I REFUSED to do business with Anthem and to tell IG to find a new health insurance policy. I implored LT to reiterate my utter disgust and outrage to IG.
IG called me at home and left a voice mail message. This was the FIRST phone call we had ever received from IG in 20 years. I imagine the “personalized service” was the result of plenty of his customers squawked at paying the avaricious Anthem policies.
IG said he would check out other plans with other companies and get back to me.
Later he sent me an email stating that says Anthem Blue Cross was STILL the BEST bet out there! ARE YOU KIDDING ME? With a $7500 deductible; $40 office visits; 30-40% payment toward covered services; a 12-page list of not-covered services; a cap on yearly and lifetime amounts?? And all this for the bargain price of $642 per month for one person!
THAT DID IT! To IG: How stupid do you think we are? OK, we were really stupid to have done business with you for as long as we did. But we are not really REALLY stupid. (There’s a difference!)
I got rid of IG. I sent him a fax to cancel everything.
Here’s where I KNOW that IG does NOT GET BUSINESS and certainly doesn’t understand that BUSINESS IS ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS.
We got a generic form letter confirming the cancellations of our policies. It was signed by LT.
If IG had half a brain and gave a rip about ever doing business with us again, he should have written a nice letter lamenting the fact that he lost our long-standing business, had enjoyed our time together (or some such schmoozing) and hoped that some time MAYBE in the future we could do business again.
But as far as giving a hoot, he wrote us off WAY BEFORE our last transaction. And as he zooms around town in his Porsche Boxer, he won’t miss us one bit.
P.S. There is ONE thing I will miss: IG’s annual Christmas card—with the perfect photo of his perfect family all smiling and happy. So disingenuous. So inauthentic. So annoying. HM used to flip through the National Geographic and cut out a pix of a monkey’s head and glue it on IG’s face in the Christmas photo. We’d get a good laugh out of it every year—one of the highlights of our Holiday Season! So I guess we’ll have to do without the extra frivolity and be happy with the extra dollars in our wallet instead.
