I received a letter yesterday from my car insurance that delicately told me I was being dropped. By law, they had to state the reasons and one of the reasons was because my sister received a moving violation ticket. She’s not on my policy nor was she driving my car. How Asinine.
Today, I called my insurance agent up to talk about the charges. I knew going into it that I wouldn’t be able to change the outcome as I’ve been in a couple accidents, but I needed to do this because I know that I shy away from conflict. That needs to change.
After a 5 minute conversation, I hung up the phone with a big smile on my face and thinking that I couldn’t wait for 3 years to clear up so that I could go back to them. Two minutes later, I was internally screaming because I had called them to complain! What happened?
Here’s how she handled it:
When I told her I had been dropped, she immediately apologized. I pointed out the ridiculous charge and she agreed with me. In fact, she told me she had called them herself because she didn’t agree it and they had told her it was the accidents that were the main problem. Understandable. I told I was unhappy, but I understood. She told me that I needed a clear a record for three years to come back and that they wanted me back because they liked me.
Seriously, I hung up the phone smiling and it took me a minute to remember that I was being dropped.
What a wonderful way to deal with an upset customer!. It negates negative interaction right off the bat. She apologized, listened to what I needed to say, did what she could (or told me she did), and then made me feel important.
I’m still upset that I lost my car insurance, but I couldn’t ignore the lesson from this interaction. It’s a wonderful way to handle an upset client and keep them coming back! Sometimes all we really need is to be heard.
