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There are some services that customers are super excited to have done. Enthusiastic customers tend to be easier and more fun to work with.
But if you work in an industry where customers would rather rock out to a symphony of balloons and Styrofoam rubbing together all day, I’m betting you’re used to encountering crankier customers.
Some services, no matter how hard they are to love, can’t be avoided. Customers may hire a service begrudgingly and ready to tilt at windmills at the first faint breeze.
Luckily, in a lot of tough-to-love industries, the customer experience bar is so low it’s in hell with ants doing the limbo underneath, so improving customer experience isn't as difficult as may appear.
WHAT’S NEXT:
Why Some Industries Have Customers Ready To Battle
Win Customers Over By Knowing Your Industry’s Reputation
Win Customers Over By Disarming Individual Negative Perceptions
Win Customers Over By Identifying The Big Feelings They're Having
Win Customers Over By Taking Time to Learn Their Story
Win Customers Over By Sharing The Roadmap
Win Customers Over By Simplifying Responsibly
Why Some Industries Have Customers Ready To Battle
If you’re battling your customers’ preconceived notions because the industry you’re in has a certain reputation, you’re probably in a tough-to-love industry.
You’ve probably heard things like…
Mechanics makeup, or even cause, car trouble so they can charge more.
Insurance agents don’t care after they’ve sold you insurance.
Real estate agents just want to show you houses that net them the biggest commission.
We know these are patently false as blanket statements, yet there have been enough terrible customer experiences in their industries to cause customers to be weary at best.
The truth is, when you offer a service that’s hired primarily during stressful situations, everything you do is under a microscope. Tough-to-love industry reputations plus being viewed through the lens of a microscope equals a tough situation.
It may not feel fair to be judged by the work of others in your industry, but it’s the reality for a lot of personal service solopreneurs. You can’t change the perception of the entire industry, but you can certainly make a dent by creating the best customer experience you can.
Win Customers Over By Knowing Your Industry’s Reputation
You need to know what you're working with if you’re going to create a great customer experience in the face of customer attitude adversity.
How do customers typically view businesses that offer your service?
What are the biggest complaints you see customers talking about?
You can do a little digging by:
Looking at reviews of your competition or services that are similar to your own.
For 5-star reviews, see what customers say they love.
For 2-4 star reviews, look for where things didn’t go to customer expectations.
For 1-star reviews, look at them, but take them with a grain of salt. If you see a complaint that is part of a pattern, then take note.
Search Facebook groups or Reddit for experiences customers have shared with others who offer the same or similar service.
Become a customer and hire other service providers who offer the same or similar service - what do you notice?
Look for industry studies or reports to see if there are any insights you can gather there.
Look at the feedback you’ve gotten from past customers - not just in reviews but messages you’ve received.
Customers be like...🤨
Keep in mind that your industry’s reputation can change over time. I suggest dipping your toes in occasionally to check the ‘customer perception temperature’ to see if there are any new insights that you should know.
Win Customers Over By Disarming Individual Negative Perceptions
Understanding your industry’s reputation can help you prepare in a more broad sense. This is what makes a not-so-great experience into a that's-better-than-I-expected experience.
Digging into individual customer experiences and perceptions can help you take a better-than-expected experience into a I-didn't-even-know-it-could-be-that-good experience.
Paul Simmons, founder of True North Insurance Group, isn’t afraid to dive right in and hit negative perceptions head-on:
(Customers come in with) skepticism, confusion, and sometimes even question your intentions. It can be because they've had that negative experience at the car dealership before, or something needed new brakes and they were told it didn't. The way I try to disarm them is I give everyone my background to let them know that I'm not just a salesperson, I am an expert in life insurance. It's my journey I take them through - that I've gone through this evolution in my career to get to this point to better help them. (I) share personal information with them about me, about my family, how much insurance and what type of insurance I have. It's breaking down those barriers and creating transparency. I'll ask them if they have coverage. (If) they've had an insurance agent before I'll ask them about their experience. “(How) has your experience been thus far? Do you have any questions about your current coverage that maybe you never got answered or you're not really clear (on)? I know it's been some time since you got it.“ The more I know about their experience thus far the better I know how to approach. Whenever I have someone who's either got the hair up on their neck a little bit or just completely flustered - they've gone that route of calling, filling out something online, and getting all those calls. Oh, this and that. Now you're going to call - no. (I ask) Why'd you fill out that quote to start? And it's disarming people. Asking something (they’re not) expecting and that pulls them right out of that and it brings them back into their mammalian brain of where they have to think again. They're not defensive. They're thinking. And then they're giving you a thought-provoked answer and that just seems to change the tone
Win Customers Over By Identifying The Big Feelings They're Are Having
Talking about feelings in business can make some business owners a weeeeee bit angsty, but there’s no escaping feelings when working with humans.
Creating impactful customer experiences requires identifying the big feelings your customers are experiencing at various stages of their journey with you.
If you can identify the feelings, you can create a game plan for better supporting your customers.
Paul knows life insurance customers can become anxious and overwhelmed by all the information available. They may search for answers at odd hours when they wouldn’t easily be able to get help. Or, they may be searching for answers but aren’t ready to talk to someone directly just yet.
To better support his customers when they’re feeling a bit anxious and overwhelmed, he created a recommendation quiz so potential customers can get recommendations based on their needs anytime they need them.
It's giving people the ability to pursue knowledge on something and start down the path on their schedule, rather than having to wait to talk to an agent between the hours of nine and five.
Win Customers Over By Taking Time to Learn Their Story
Your customers are the leading characters in their own movies. They have a complex backstory and other characters that contribute to where they are at this point in their movie.
The tough part for service providers in tough-to-love industries is that they’re called to the set right when your customers hit a “plot twist!” part in their movie.
You wouldn’t take a role in a movie without knowing anything about this particular movie. Is it a dramedy, psychological thriller, or straight-up horror flick?
If you’re going to appear in your customer’s movie as a cameo and turn a suspenseful moment into a sigh of relief, you need details.
Who is the leading character?
What was happening before you were called to set?
How did it turn into a plot twist?
How does the lead character hope the scene ends?
In the insurance industry, for example, customers can feel like just another data point instead of like human beings. Paul breaks this common negative customer expectation by spending more time getting to know his customers.
The biggest part for me is (they make) decisions they understand. So they don't feel like they just got through this process. Like, “What happened?" I can't tell you how many times I talked to a client, “I don't even know what I got. The guy told me this is the best I could do. And made assumptions about what I could afford. And, and this is what they got me. Can you tell me what it is?" I'm like, yeah, let's go through it. For me, that's, that's the biggest thing of what I'm trying to change. The way I do business, rather than being product-focused. I'm solution-focused. I change the narrative instead of going through a simple balance sheet, which is like, what's your needs analysis, your liabilities versus your assets, and how do we protect them, I just start off like, "What do you want this insurance to do for you? What are your assumptions or what are your goals? Like, what do you want it to do?" And I may already know some of these things from, from information you've given me, but I want to start your mind thinking about it. (Let’s) figure out what you're trying to accomplish instead of going into numbers and trying to…here's your policy sign here, (and) press hard. Like, what do you want this to do for you? This is it's going to sound geeky and silly, but this is a journey. Your insurance needs evolve and change over time. This is not I'm not going to sell you a policy, put it in force and say goodbye and I'm gone.
When your industry may be known for having an empathy deficiency, taking the time to slow things down and really learn about your customers before moving forward can not only help you do a better job but also win customers over in even the most difficult situations.
And if you can manage to do that, who knows - maybe you’ll get invited back for a crossover and be the next Deadpool and Wolverine.
Win Customers Over By Sharing The Roadmap
Customers come into some services already in battle mode. They’re telling themselves a story about how things are going to go based on what they’ve heard and their own past experiences.
The best way to help customers drop their defenses is to help them rewrite the story by sharing the roadmap so they know what to expect and warn of potential detours.
Letting people know what to expect and setting expectations ahead of time - a lot of people don't do that. "When we sit down I give you the process when we go to move forward. I give you the process when we actually start the process. I give you the process again and say, okay, so now we're here from here. There are a couple of levels of underwriting. We're applying for this policy. I'm going to hear back within 24 hours for instant approval. If that doesn't work., we go to fluidless underwriting. You don't have to have any paramedic examiners at your house, taking blood or anything. The application is going to get reviewed by an underwriter. I'll know something within the next 24 hours, I'll update you. And then we usually have an underwriting decision. If not, then within the next one week, or depending on your situation within the next two to three weeks. As underwriting goes through your file, they may have additional questions they'll communicate through me and I'll be back in touch with you throughout the process. I may email you a couple of questions here and there. Does that sound good? Or would you rather have a text or phone? Okay, great. So from start to finish the process, once you have the underwriting decision, they'll issue you the policy. Issuing the policy usually takes about 48 hours to go through their system and generate the document. At your convenience, we'll review it, make sure you understand everything once again, and you'll be able to pay for the policy and put it in force and you will have coverage for the next 10 years or 20 years." Just giving them that timeline and the series of things that they can go back to - here are the five steps. So no one's in the dark. They can go back and realize where they are. That experience is what I'm (hearing) when I get referrals, is that “Paul, please meet so and so they're in a similar life situation to us. They're about to start having a family where they have two young kids” and then they address the other person, “He made sure we knew everything that was going on throughout. It was such a positive experience. I'm giving him my full recommendation to work with.” I hope that doesn't sound too corny or B.S.-y, but that’s really what it is - people are just grateful to have someone explain it and understand it, but also to prepare them for what's ahead.
Let customers know what will happen, when, how, and why. As they move through your service, remind them of what’s coming next. By keeping customers informed about where they are in the roadmap and possible detours to expect, you can help them rewrite the story they told themselves before hiring your service into one with a much happier ending.
Win Customers Over By Simplifying Responsibly
Being told to simplify things for your customers is nothing new. But as Paul says, there needs to be a balance.
(We are) walking the fine line between simplifying things, but not over-simplifying things to the point where they're no longer accurate. That is the biggest challenge with insurance. Whether we're talking about agents that work for companies and them learning themselves or them relaying information to clients is, “How do I make it simple but still keep it accurate?” And that's where a lot of the disconnect I think occurs either between the company that's training the agent. Or the agent that is trying to train the client. They either don't give enough information or they give too much and cause analysis paralysis.
This is especially true for services where a customer is less than enthused about the situation.
They’re likely coming in already frustrated and overwhelmed, so paying extra attention to simplifying while creating clarity can be a big relief.
So yes, simplify everything you can - just do it responsibly.
THE BIG TAKEAWAY
Being in a tough-to-love industry doesn’t mean your customer experience is doomed—it means you have a unique opportunity to shock and awe.
Creating great customer experiences in these industries requires more thought, more attention, and a healthy dose of empathy. By understanding your industry’s reputation, getting to know your customers’ individual stories, and guiding them with clarity and care, you can turn even the most challenging interactions into moments of connection and trust.
The bar may be low, but that’s why you can leap over it—proving that even in the toughest industries, customer experience can be a star-worthy performance.
Thank You To: Paul Simmons at True North Insurance
Paul is the founder of True North Insurance and co-founder of White Swan, where he is an expert in life insurance, long-term care insurance, and individual disability insurance.
Paul was kind enough to chat with me about how he overcomes the insurance industry's "tough-to-love" reputation.
His teaching background has influenced his approach. With a focus on personal, transparent customer experiences and building long-term client relationships, it's clear why Paul stands out in the "tough-to-love" insurance industry.
You can connect with Paul on LinkedIn.