Customer success story: turning breakdowns around

At TSG, we love to share the great interactions we have with customers. It’s always a warm fuzzy feeling to share about the time we took away a customer’s worry and exceeded their expectations. But things don’t always go well.We experience breakdowns and we would like to share one such experience. This one does have a happy ending, but we value being vulnerable and authentically sharing the challenging parts. Here goes.Hugh and Betty (we changed the names for privacy purposes) are partners in a fire safety equipment and inspection business and they are our customers.Originally, we were under the impression the partners both had 50% shares. However, it was actually 80 and 20. This occurred because we did not communicate as well as we should have with the partners. It wasn’t the last time we miscommunicated with the partners.A bit of background about our customer: Hugh has been with TSG for a very long time and he referred Betty to us when she was experiencing a challenge with her broker.And so, we arranged a solution for the duo. Another breakdown occurred when we sent the policy for renewal this year: we did not follow our process wherein we contact customers 120 days in advance of their renewal. Plus, Hugh had acquired an alternative quote through a different broker.What’s more, our quote cost almost 30% higher. We presented it to Hugh and Betty. A few days after the meeting, Betty informed us about their other quote. The low cost raised red flags for us because we were aware that their policy had some challenges with claims.Had they informed their broker and insurer about this? It’s important to disclose these things because insurers may cancel a customer’s policy (or refuse to renew it) if the insurer discovers that the customer did not authentically communicate problem areas.Regardless, we had to get in action. We requested a more affordable quote from the insurer we had contacted. They were receptive and lowered the premium, making it competitive with Hugh’s other quote, without sacrificing any coverage. The partners ended up keeping their business with our firm.Because we weren’t truly hearing and listening, we did not fully notice that Hugh and Betty are price sensitive customers. It’s humbling and eye opening seeing how we’re responsible for negative impacts to our customers.At the end of the day, this was a very important learning experience. We had a candid conversation among our team members as to how we can improve for next time. We are putting additional training in place so that we can better serve every customer going forward. We concluded by reaching out to Hugh and Betty to acknowledge our breakdowns.You can be sure we will take excellent care of Hugh and Betty now that we have seen our blind spots. Stay tuned for more.