It goes without saying that a good reputation is vital to business success, especially in financial services. This is not just about your customers and clients – it extends far beyond and into recruitment, retention, influence, social media, government, regulators, marketing, budgets and more.
A firm with a great reputation can often spend less to achieve the same results, for example, if not better or faster. Which, if true, suggests firms or industries with poorer reputations may need to spend more – and take more time to make an impact.
The trouble is that spending more and waiting longer for the all-important ROI isn’t something boards are keen to sign off. Long-term campaigns can also be hindered by changes in senior personnel.
So, we often continue doing the same things in the same way, wondering why things don’t change.
I’m writing about this now because I’ve been privy to several situations recently where reputation management was arguably not the key focus in a decision-making process.
We often continue doing the same things in the same way, wondering why things don’t change
On these occasions, a company’s reputation has potentially been risked in deference to either budget cuts, compliance, poor or brutal decision making, a lack of understanding, time constraints, or a combination of all the above.
In protection circles, when a claim is declined, a customer complains to the Ombudsman and it ends up in the weekend newspapers (and online and social and down the pub), what do readers remember? Do they remember the specific company? Maybe. Maybe not.
I’d argue they are far more likely to remember the industry (or their perception of it) than the company making the mistake. Another (life) insurance claim declined. The insurer didn’t pay out. The customer was ripped off.
This is what stays in people’s mind – not the individual company. And it stays for a long time because we don’t really tell them much else.
I was disappointed recently when talking to an insurer who spoke about a consumer campaign promoting their paid claim statistics – I was very pleased they tried it, but disappointed when they said it didn’t deliver the expected ROI. I asked how long the campaign ran for, expecting a minimum of 3-6 months, if not a year. But the response was ‘six weeks’.
I’m somewhat baffled as to how a six-week consumer campaign in protection will make any tangible difference.
Kevin Carr: It’s almost as if we want to put people off…
In our evolving world, reputation is not about posting a few videos on Tik-Tok (although, if done well, this can be very productive, of course). Reputation is far more about how a company treats people. Not just its customers, employees and peers, but their families, the media, the wider world (ESG, DEI etc) – plus animals and the planet too.
So, who owns your reputation? Is it the head of marketing or the CEO? Or does your reputation ultimately belong to others. You are essentially whatever other people say you are, whether you like it or not.
I read a book about reputation management that described reputation as a combination of performance plus behaviour plus communication. With a good dose of authenticity.
But you can’t blag authenticity. Not forever, anyway. The good will out and it will catch up with you.
How can we measure a great reputation? Customer trust. Happy employees. Social responsibility. Innovation. Engagement. Influence. Social media presence…
You can’t blag authenticity. Not forever, anyway. The good will out and it will catch up with you
The UK protection insurance industry is often said to be very altruistic, and largely I would agree. But if we carried out consumer research on that question, I doubt words like humane, selfless and noble would figure highly, if at all.
So, I wonder this… what if we took all the marketing budgets over the last decade that promoted protection companies and their products – and instead had a constant stream of simple and repetitive consumer and adviser marketing that talked about the good that can be done, how the money can be used, how much is paid out in claims, average costs (and so on).
Would more policies be in force?
Let’s just think about that for a moment – the same 3-4 simple messages – on TV, radio, social, billboards, buses and more – for ten years.
I’m convinced sales would be notably higher than where they are now. Because reputation matters.
Kevin Carr is managing director of Carr Consulting & Communications
