Don't Let Your Agency Be Like Barnes & Noble

As you’ve probably heard, book stores are dying. More than half of Borders Bookstores have closed; Barnes & Noble is struggling to stay afloat. Meanwhile, Amazon.com is thriving; with its stock price on a never ending climb. What has caused this change? Is it high overhead for brick-and-mortar stores? Somewhat. The booming e-reader and tablet market? Perhaps.

People still like going into a bookstore, buying a book, and sitting down and grabbing a coffee – something Amazon cannot offer. People also like buying books online. Borders and B&N offer both, and e-reader’s to boot, so why are they still drowning? It is their culture, they are not dedicated to online sales and they are offering eBooks because they have to.

How do I know this? Amazon offered a livingsocial.com gift card half off. B&N follows up with the identical deal on Groupon. Except its not identical because they don’t get it – they do not get customer service. How does this manifest into a terrible experience for the consumer? Let me explain.

After you bought the B&N gift card, it takes you 24 hrs to receive it. When you receive it, it says you can’t use it quite yet, but in a few days you’ll be good to go. It also said it can’t be used on Nook products (their eBook readers) and that you have to use it by a certain date or it loses value. Groupon is made for businesses to attract new customers. What better way to get these new customers to hate you than to limit what they can buy, when they can buy, and force them to buy during a certain time frame. Besides the loss in value being illegal in some states, it’s just downright dumb. Once you order a book from B&N, they email you, but for whatever reason, they are not white listed in Gmail, so check your spam folder. And for the cherry on top, they use DHL for shipping which hands off to USPS. So expect to get your book 7-10 business days after ordering it.

How does this apply to insurance? Why am I ranting about a book store? Because insurance agencies can learn a lot from this case study. If you want to do something, do it well and be committed to it. If you want to sell insurance where people are looking for it today, do it online. But do not do it half-heartedly. Having a Facebook page doesn’t mean you are involved in social media. It’s in the execution. In this case, Amazon executes – they deliver great customer service, Barnes & Noble doesn’t and they are failing.

If you want to be an awesome online insurance agency (or any business for that matter), you must first be an awesome customer service company. It is not always about price – think I’m going to get a cheaper book at B&N over a more expensive version on Amazon any time soon? – it’s about the experience.

Being a customer service company first has its advantages. You can take Amazon for example – they have branched out well beyond books and into every consumer product under the sun including groceries. But let’s take an insurance agency example. Paul Murphy Insurance delivers great customer service and happens to sell insurance. Now he also sells online marketing services for small businesses in his area. This is a natural transition for them as they look to move into new markets and generate more profits. But if it wasn’t for their focus on being a customer service company, none of this would have been possible.