Last month my annual car insurance was up for renewal. For some reason, on the run up to Christmas, I generally spend the bulk of the month’s wage on annoying bills such as said insurance which, by the time I’ve succumbed to the Great Consumer Rip Off more commonly known as Christmas, I’m usually broke over the festive season.
Car insurance is one of those outgoings that has to be paid. It’s a pain. There’s no material reward at the end of shelling out for it, unlike that joyful feeling of glee you receive after spending the same amount of money to bolster you wardrobe or the hours of entertainment that the 37″ plasma you’ve been eyeing up in Currys gives you.
Nevertheless, if you drive a car, it’s the law.
When renewing my car insurance, or any insurance for that matter, I have no particular affiliation or affection to any company that offers insurance solutions. I tend to just enter my details into an insurance search engine such as Confused.com and go with whichever company offers me the cheapest deal. This time around, the best (cheapest) offer came from More Than.
“Great!” I said, “Even cheaper than last year, you’ll do for me.” And off I went and entered my credit card details.
Generally, after I’ve paid whichever company that allowed me to spend the least money, I’ll expect my policy to arrive through the post and that’s it. End of story. Provided I don’t have any accidents and everything goes smoothly I won’t speak to you, you won’t speak to me and who knows, if you can quote me the least next year I’ll use you again.
Cheers.
Yesterday an envelope came through the post from More Than. I knew before I opened it as they have branded ones with the distinct green logo. I thought it must have been a brochure to tell me about the “fantastic” deals they had on home insurance, business insurance, pet insurance, life insurance or some other type of **sigh** insurance.
Nope.
It wasn’t some kind of advertorial. It was a letter from one of their “UK based” Personal Customer Managers. His name is Liam and he wasn’t trying to sell me anything. He just wanted to drop me a note to introduce himself and should I have a query about my current policy or any other insurance related policy to let him know.
What I particularly liked most about Liam’s letter is that it didn’t give me the generic 0800 number; it was his direct line and extension number in case I needed to contact him. As well as this, he also added his email address but not the typical enquiries@ email address but his own with his Christian and surname are part of the address itself.
He even gave me the hours he works so I know when to call but told me that if I can’t get through to him to speak to one of his colleagues who’ll pass the message on.
Now, if I was a high-rolling, big pimping, bling bling insurance spender, I may have expected this type of service. But I’m not. My car insurance doesn’t cost me thousands as I have a full no claims bonus and my car isn’t a Ferrari. Far from it.
Thing is, should I want to take out some other insurance I’ll probably send Liam an email enquiry. I’ll probably introduce myself and mention that I received his letter. If the quote from More Than is a little more than another quote I’ve received elsewhere I’ll probably still be inclined to go with More Than. Or, more specifically, with Liam.
The point of the story
Everyone bangs on about social media and how a personal, human approach needs to be taken in any type of outreach you do. This is true but we often forget that the same applies offline too. This simple letter has had much more of a positive effect on me than any kind of advertising brochure would have. The brochure would have been binned immediately, the letter will be kept for future reference.
To me, this letter is a signal that PR’s value to companies like More Than is taking a higher precedence over other marketing disciplines. And rightly so. I reckon we’ll see more of it too.
It’s those little things that make all the difference.
Stephen is a communications consultant based out of the UK. You can connect with him on Twitter or check out his LinkedIn profile. | Email Stephen
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Sally Whittle
Hi
Also doing my car insurance this month. Ugh.
Perhaps I’m overly cynical, but *surely* Liam is just a marketing invention?
I remember writing about banks that had fictitious names on letters which were devised by consultants to appeal to particular socio-economic groups – presumably Dave for the likes of me, Rupert for the people with slightly smaller overdrafts…
And while pr is a deeply honest and transparent profession (obviously) I would cite the example of a PR agency where i did some training last year. There was a note on the phone software saying that if anybody called for Jane Smith (or whatever name it was) they were to be transferred to a specific director, as this was the fictitious name given to prospects by Rainmaker.
Giles
I have to say I tried to call my ‘personal’ contact and he wasn’t available! For M&S/Fortis insurance…Sally might be right, he might actually be Joe Bloggs!
Simon Wakeman
At Egg and Boots there were always “false” people who never actually existed, but managed to sign a lot of letters. Bit of a struggle when customers phoned for them though.
I think the More Than… ones are for real though – given how heavily they advertise them they’d be breaking all sorts of ASA codes if they didn’t, plus bloggers would be all over them!
I don’t see it as a demonstration of the value of PR though – as PR doesn’t traditionally concern itself with the definition and delivery of the customer experience, although some more forward thinking PRs would do so.
I suspect that this “innovation” has come from More Than…’s product development, innovation or cust experience teams. (or even dare I say it, a marketer)!
Stephen
@Sally I might be overly naive but, like Simon above, I reckon he’s a real person. I guess there’s only one way to find out though.
@Simon I think it has some relation to PR. If it is a real person then it’s more of a PR initiative than a marketing one. To me at least. Or perhaps it’s an amalgamation of the two? Oh, I don’t know.
sally whittle
Yay, let’s find him – hunt him down!