Life around my home has been very interesting the last couple months. It started with a busted valve leaking water all over our brand new bamboo floors and ended with a meeting between the back of our car and pole in our garage this past weekend. Based on my experiences dealing with these two issues, I feel I can confidently say I have identified 3 industries that need to learn more about inbound marketing.
#1 - Insurance Companies
I have been dealing with both my homeowners insurance company and my auto insurance company. While customer service at both has been acceptable (and even on the good side) it has often required long waits on the phone before I can talk to a human. This is a BAD experience for me. The questions asked by both have are clearly form questions asked to everyone reporting a claim, why can't I report my claim online and have someone call me?
The reason is that the sites of both insurance companies are relatively pitiful brochure websites. Sure I can find the number to report a claim and I can do a zip code look up to find and agent, but what if I want to find information about what the process is for fixing my crunched car or damp floor?
If I were an insurance company I would recognize that most people have lots of questions when filing a claim. How will this affect the cost of my insurance? How do I pay the auto body shop for the work? Can I bring in my own contractors to fix the floor? Is this accident going to add points to my license?
As an insurance company I would make sure getting the answer to those questions was not only easy for my customers, but didn't require 10 minutes of hold music or 3 phone transfers. It could be handled through a forum, an FAQ page or even a blog about how to get issues resolved quickly and easily.
#2 - Auto body Shops
I know how to drive a car, fill it with gas, add windshield washer fluid and oil and that is about it. I am pretty much a novice when it comes to all things car and don't feel that I can begin to judge an auto body shop in any way. So how am I going to go about picking which one to take my car to?
First stop for me is Yelp. There aren't an excessive number of reviews on auto body shops in the area, but there are enough. The one that catches my eye is A Plus Auto body. It's in Somerville, it has 5 stars and 8 reviews, my next stop is their website to see what information I can find. This is what I get,
Yes, that is a photo of a burning car, and that's the whole website! While I understand the impact, it doesn't fill me with confidence. I finally ended up heading back to the website of the dealer were we bought the car and checking out their collision center. I liked the people when we bought the car and while their website doesn't give me all the information I need, at least it doesn't have photos of burning cars!
If I were an auto body shop, I would make sure I had a fantastic website that inspired confidence. It would include
- before and after photos of jobs I had done,
- customer testimonials,
- answers to questions about how to get my car fixed and how long to expect it to take,
- information I would need on hand when bringing my car in,
- questions I should ask before it gets fixed,
- and tips on dealing with the insurance company after an accident.
In addition, I would as customers for reviews on Yelp and apply to rank on Google local search since people look for auto body shops close to home.
#3 - Contractors
The deal for contractors is much the same as the auto body industry. I don't know much about fixing my damaged floor, but I know I want someone I can trust who does good work. I got lucky in this regard because the developers of our building were able to suggest contractors who are fantastic. After they recommended them, I checked out their site and was amazed to see a decent, informative site pulled together with testimonials and referrals.
The only things I would do differently is get more exposure on Yelp (since that is where I looked first) and add a blog to help answer questions about work done on your home and what to expect. As a first time homeowner having work done for the first time, I had no idea what to expect. It would have been nice to get some more information from them directly through a blog.
Bottom line for all three industries is they need more of an online presence that is helpful to their customer base. I have spent a lot of time on the phone trying to get information and on the internet doing research. It's been hard to find the information I needed and if a company within these industries that took the lead in being open, transparent and informative online, they would have my business in a heartbeat.