Above all else, we need to figure out our why. As businesses, why do we exist?

For Excalibur Insurance, it’s about championing people by going above and beyond. “The challenge is, it’s become very difficult to differentiate yourself,” said Jeff Roy, President + CEO, at last week’s Insurance-Canada Broker Forum. “Does your brokerage look like everyone else? Great service isn’t a purple cow.”

Jeff outlined a few key themes during his Battle for Mindshare presentation: if you want it, you can do this too; you will fail before you win; become a purple cow (transform your business by being remarkable).

As humans, our attention span lasts 8 seconds before we move to what’s next. This makes it challenging for businesses to build trust and emotionally connect with the consumer, especially given the battle for screen time all day long. Jeff suggests rewiring your thinking: “You don’t act the same way when you think of yourself in the experience business instead of the insurance business.”

Experiences are exactly what Excalibur creates:

* Aiden – a digital insurance navigator
* Their eBook 24 Things You Need to Know to Protect Your ASSets
* New business kits and sweet branded swag
* Their company blog Excalibur U
* Stories not sales pitches: they don’t sell farm insurance (they do); they share information on barn fires and fire safety
* A playbook that outlines how to live the Excalibur brand
* Celebration and promotion of special moments in the community

Jeff’s launch – fail – learn – fix mantra is working wonders for Excalibur.

Jeff explained the importance of being both omni and single channel: provide all methods of communication and interaction to clients but be consistent with their selection. Typically they want to begin and end in the same channel.

He shared his Insurance Customer Experience 3.0: Process x Tech x Solutions x People x Brand. If you’re not doing well in all of these areas, the others will suffer the consequence.

Jeff also pointed out that 75% of brokers are risk averse, “but we’re in the business of risk. You need to have that spirit to get better, that mantra as a leader.” He reminded us that failure is an event, not a person. “We need to be lifelong learners and be aggressive in this industry… As leaders, let’s be forward thinking. Let’s take massive action… Is Excalibur there yet? No. But we’re trying to get better every day.”

 

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