The Mystery of the Millennial Buyer

For several years, I’ve heard clamor from the agency world about how Millennials' demands are so different from previous insurance buyers. Well, as a Millennial insurance buyer, I’m here to say… we still have some work to do. We still have a lot of work to do. According to Accenture Outlook: Who are the Millennial shoppers? And what do they really want?, Millennials are exceptionally loyal …if they feel they’ve been treated right. And, we all know it’s cheaper to keep a customer than it is to get a new one. “Right” is an incredibly subjective term and can certainly get lost in translation in the insurance world. “Right,” in the insurance world, typically means paying exactly what is fair for losses. No more, no less. That’s understandable, and, as someone in the insurance world, I understand the sentiment. But I’d like to help you to understand how I define “right” as a Millennial insurance buyer. Educate, don’t sell The days of the uninformed insurance buyer are long gone. The added value of the agent is around education. Take a step back and help the Millennial customer understand the fundamentals of risk management and see that insurance is one of many tools used to manage risk. Millennials will identify the value that you bring to the purchasing transaction and remain loyal customers rather than commodity-buyers. Empower them to make good financial choices You empower Millennials to make smart financial decisions through education. This also means explaining the upsides and downsides of different policy options. For example, explaining how deductibles and premiums correlate, rather than trying to get them to take the lowest deductible. Millennials expect that, when they come to you asking for help in the realm of personal finance, you’ll be looking out for their best financial interests, rather than your commission check. As soon as a Millennial believes you’re NOT looking out for her best interest and are more interested in the sale, you have just made yourself the commodity. No more fancy terminology We have an epidemic of insurance buyers who have no clue what they’re buying. "Limit," "peril," "liability," "occurrence" – these are not words the Average Joe and Average Jane have any practical reason to know, outside of purchasing insurance. Millennials won’t settle for someone who isn’t able (or willing) to give the layman’s definition of these terms. This requires you to have a real command of the fundamentals of risk and insurance, rather than a command of policy forms and exclusions. Embrace technology to increase service Sure you have a Facebook and a Twitter, maybe you even post regularly, but that’s not what will retain Millennials. Make yourself and your agency available to them on their terms: phone, email, text or social media. Encourage them to take pictures and videos of all their belongings if they don’t want to make an inventory list. Send periodic, non-marketing text messages to encourage safety. (Example: “With the coming cold weather, be sure you clean off your furnace and think about getting it inspected. Build-up can reduce efficiency, which costs you more money and might even cause a fire.”) These are the types of things that will differentiate you and your team from every other agent out there. As an aside: If you want to serve Millennials, you must make online payments easy. Most Millennials don’t own stamps and are using the same checkbook they got when they were 16 and opened their first checking account. Humanize them at claim time Millennials want to be treated like the humans they are when claims hit, which, in all reality, isn’t asking much. Instead of aiming for that minimum threshold, exceed expectations by doing the following when you are notified of their claim: 1) Make sure they’re okay, 2) Check in and see how they’re doing and if they’re worried about anything (lawsuits, another loss, further injury, claim not getting paid, etc.), 3) Make sure you’re communicating with them, in addition to the adjuster, 4) Explain to them how this might affect future premiums. Claims are your time to shine, and, if treated well, Millennials can be some of the most loyal customers you’ll have. In closing … Insurance is a paper and a promise Without anything more tangible than that, it’s not too much to ask to be treated well, as a smart and autonomous human being. If you can show that to your Millennial customers and follow it up at claims time, you’ll crack the nut that is the Millennial insurance-buyer. The views expressed by the author are the author’s alone and do not necessarily represent the views of Aon or its affiliates. The standard information provided in this blog is for general purposes only and should not be construed as, or used as a substitute for, financial or other professional advice.