Doing Business for the "You're Welcome" and not the "I'm Sorry" - ITB Insurant with Rick Fox

When it comes to your business relationships, are you in an "I'm Sorry" mode or a "You're Welcome" mode? 

Join Rick Fox in this week's Insurance The Brightway (ITB) "InsuRant" to see what you can do today to move the needle when it comes to agency success tomorrow! See how you can become the one policyholders are excited to say "Thank You" to so you can be the "You're Welcome" agent.

New episodes of the ITB are available every Thursday at 12 pm ET.

Listen and subscribe to the ITB podcast at www.brightwaydifference.com/podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts today!

ITB is a weekly podcast brought to you by Brightway Insurance, the insurance agency distribution leader coast-to-coast.

Transcript

Rick:
Welcome back to another episode of the ITB, Insurance, the Brightway podcast. I am the host, Rick Fox, and today, an insurant for you. And I'm going to get, I want to say something at the beginning here to kind of tee this up. And again, my perspective on the world, we try to rant on things that are first and foremost. This one has a lot of like as an onion, a lot of layers to peel back.

And it could mean a lot of different things to all of you, but I'm going to say it and then let's get into it. So what I'm going to say is stop saying, I'm sorry, and start saying you're welcome. Say that again. Stop saying you're sorry and start saying, stop saying I'm sorry and start saying you're welcome. What do I mean by that?

So let me give you an example of like just a generic example first, and then I'll give you a more specific one. But in general, as customer service folks, there is a built-in, somebody complains or somebody has a beef or just they want to get something done as fast as they can. There is usually a built-in like first reaction is, oh, I'm sorry, let me see if I can help you with that.

And there's nothing wrong with that sometimes. So I want to make sure I'm clear. I'm not telling you to never say I'm sorry, but what I'm trying to get us into a mindset of is that isn't, shouldn't be the default if we're doing our jobs the right way. And this is in any situation. So I'll give you a bright way example. So within our organization, you know, we're a corporate entity, and then we have the franchise model across the country and we've been around for a long time.

And there were some years back, you know, back in the day, so to speak, when, uh, you know, maybe service wasn't where it should be or execution wasn't the, ex wasn't meeting the expectation of the agent. And so we got into a little bit of a, a mode of, I'm sorry, let me fix that for you. And we created a culture around that.

And I'm working today and I've even said this to my agents to change the, I'm sorry to your welcome. Well, if I'm going to say you're welcome, I better, they better be saying thank you. But what I'm trying to get out of is instant, like this is a silly example, but you know, an agent, I'll use a generic situation. Like there is a, there's a cloud in the sky that must be corporate's fault. And our reaction in the past would be.

I'm sorry about that. Let me see if I can work on getting that cloud removed. Now that's a silly example. I'm using a silly example, but it's the kind of thing where you have the idea of the mindset and you're like, hold on a minute, I'm delivering, like, I'm going to make this up, I'm delivering good service. I'm giving you the right tools. Um, you know, the market's crazy, but we're supporting you every way we can. I'm not going to apologize for something that isn't on me.

Now that's not just an easy change. You have to be seeing this from that. You're welcome lens only if they should be saying, thank you for other things. Okay. Take off, take out the bright way lens or the bright way example. And let's, and there's nothing aggressive about this. I'm not saying like, um, is like, is, you know, I, my rates went up.

And, uh, you know, and I'm mad about this, you're welcome. Like, that's not what I'm saying, right? There's, there are definitely times too, but, but I'm sorry might not be the response either because rates are going up. Rates are, um, effectively changing. Um, service is harder than it ever was because so many people have a volatility around this market. But..and you have to be on the spectrum from I'm sorry to your welcome somewhere today. And, and all I'm saying is let's move more that way. And then your barometer at the end is, am I in fact delivering so that I should get a thank you in which I would respond to it with a, you're welcome. Okay. So let me ask this question. Are you saying I'm sorry too much? And I'm going to, I'm going to throw myself under the bus a little bit here. You know, I like to use movie quotes and songs and things like that.

And I've got teenage daughters. One's actually not even a teenager anymore, but they're of age that Justin Bieber was their guy, like grown up. My wife even took them to a Justin Bieber concert when they were little. And I do not like Justin Bieber music, but there is one song called Sorry, that is, I'll listen to it if it comes on. It's a very good song. If you haven't listened to it, kid can sing. Let's just call it what it is.

And I thought about that when I said, don't say I'm sorry too much. And he says, I'm sorry. He says sorry in the song like a million times. It's a great song. It's totally digressed and total side note, but I wanted to throw that in. But are you, is your sort of default, I'm sorry, let me fix that for you. Is that where you live? Again, sometimes you're gonna say I'm sorry, but if you live there all the time, cloud in the sky, I'm sorry, let me see if I can have the cloud removed. That's the wrong thing. What causes that?

Number one, it's a lack of confidence that you're delivering. It's a lack of confidence that you are in fact hoping and frankly expecting a thank you so that you can say you're welcome.

And is there too much, how do I say this? Is there too much negative around the business so that you sort of get kind of beat up and you're like, oh, I'm sorry. I'm like, whatever your, this is for every business in the world. Again, we're not going to stop saying I'm sorry, but if we're thinking, I'm sorry is where we are. We have an entire spectrum over to your welcome that we need to be thinking about. So if you are lacking confidence in your service, your sales skills, the fact that your customers might not be loyal because of the relationship that you have not built. Market is crazy, so is it, and I'm sorry, is it your fault that their rates just went up? No. Is it your responsibility to help them solve or give you to create a solution for that or at least an education that so they understand it... which should end in a thank you, which you can then say you're welcome to. That's the way I want you thinking about this. So I am not saying that the next guy or gal that calls the office or sends you an email and says, Hey, my rate just went up 45%. Your response isn't, you're welcome. That's not what I'm saying. Again, very clearly there are times to say I'm sorry, but it's the mindset of that being the default that we're trying to poke a hole in and start moving you down that spectrum to great service, great relationships, excellent belief in what you're doing so that you're expecting a thank you and you're able to say you're welcome. I hope that makes sense. Okay. So now over to the, you're welcome side. Why, why should I, why would I say you're welcome? Well, number one, I have the confidence that what I'm doing as an agent, as a CSR, as a florist, as a whatever, whatever I do that I'm doing what was asked of me, I am participating in the success of this transaction or this relationship. So that I should get a thank you, to which I would say, what? You're welcome. But the mindset of your welcome, it's much deeper than that because you have to think about it from the lens of, am I delivering to get a thank you so that I can say you're welcome? Or is my default, because I'm afraid I'm not delivering.

Soon as somebody calls, cloud in the sky, I'm sorry about that. Again, it's okay to say I'm sorry, but we're not defaulting to I'm sorry for things that we believe we are delivering on. So there's a confidence in that. And that comes from certain things. One of those is great relationships. Let me run a scenario by you. Talk to an agent, they're like, man, we're seeing some... and other worldly rate increases. And we have just gotten to a point where we are finding a bare minimum. So let's say 20% rate increase and we are getting a note out to those people, email, text, phone call, whatever your agency does. And in this case, hopefully whatever your customer wants. And we are delivering on a promise that is we are going to curate and consult on the best policy possible for your policies.

So they get a 20% rate increase, you have a call with them, you go through whatever carriers you have and you say, you know what, 20% in this market, if you live in, let's say Florida, on your homeowners is actually really good. And they're like, oh, well, thank you for doing the work. Thank you for reaching out. Thank you for caring about the relationship to which you get to say, what? You're welcome. Again, making that transition from a default of I'm sorry to the expectation you're going to get a thank you and saying you're welcome and it is a journey and you don't get, you don't get, you know, it's not like you're entitled to that. You have to earn it. You have to have a knowledge of your business and an understanding. Like I said, this agency I talked to, they were adamantly going to communicate with everybody that was having the right or having a rate increase and they were going to say these things to them. And they were going to get a thank you and they were going to say, you're welcome. So I love that. I love that mindset. Um, I think that if you were being consultative, meaning it isn't a transaction. And if you've listened to any of the recent rants, we're talking a lot about selling on price and if you're not prospecting the right way, et cetera, et cetera. But if you're not consulting, then why wouldn't they just go buy from Geico where they don't need, if they don't need it. You know, they do, but are you doing it?

And if you are consulting, if you're saying, hey, you know what? I know you just bought that second property. Really think we should take a look at your limits going up and maybe an umbrella. Wow. Thank you, Rick. I'm, I want to protect my assets and you just consulted with me and gave me your knowledge and the confidence that you know, you're going to do right by me. Thank you. You're welcome. Again.

We don't get it just, we're not entitled to it, but we're going to strive for it. We're going to strive for your, your welcome mentality. And again, not in, in a, like an aggressive sort of cocky, you're welcome. Like that's not what I'm saying. But when somebody says, thank you to you, that's a much different response that you get to give them when they say you messed up on this. So this is on, it's on us. It's on everyone. I, like I said, I'm dealing with, like I deal with this with my employees.

I deal with this with, um, the agents that, that are part of the bright way community, part of the family. And we're making progress and that's all it is. It's I am nowhere near being able to say thank you every time an agent calls me. Or, I mean, you're welcome to their thank you. And there are real problems, but there are also things, again, no one has said there's a cloud in the sky and it's your fault, but you know what I mean. So think about.

Think about it from that lens on the you're welcome side. Am I confident? Do I have great relationships? Do I have the kind of knowledge so I can be consultative? And if I do, where am I on my you're welcome journey? And how far have I moved the needle to getting over to getting a thank you and being able to say you're welcome.

Sorry, I needed a quick drink of water there. And it just, it, so how do we do it? Cause it doesn't happen overnight. It doesn't happen like you just get to do it. So we're talking about your journey, how you're moving the needle. Let me give you some ways to do it. Part of it's time. You have to build it and it has to become muscle memory. If you go to the gym the first day, I remember like, you know, a couple, many times in my life when I've taken a break from the gym and gone back and way overdid it on the first day and my arms or whatever muscle I lifted weights with, the next day are not happy about it. They're just not. But over time, get a little more used to that. I still can kind of feel the burn and then it becomes a good thing. That's what you have to do here. You can't jump from, again, I'll keep using the same example. There is a cloud in the sky and that's your fault. You're welcome. That's not the answer. It is training behavior, it is executing on your vision and mission to be a really, really good, whatever it is you are, whatever you do. And I think time, it does take time and you can move down that journey. But if, if the end of the journey is a thank you from whoever you're working with, which it should be, and your ability to say you're welcome and feel pride about it, feel proud that you were able to say it.

Man, that's a win. So time, consistency. This is hard. Being consistent at anything is, it takes work. But in this case, if your mentality for the longest time or your office culture is, I'm sorry, let me see if I can fix that for you, it will take consistency to move that needle to your welcome and get that thank you.

The third thing I'm going to say, so I said time, I said consistency. The other was attitude. And that comes from that confidence that I talked about. It comes from being able to feel like you were delivering on the promise you made to your customer. You're delivering on the promise you made to whoever, your employee, your vendor, your spouse, like whatever that thing is, your attitude around your confidence that you have delivered is part of this because I'm sorry is an attitude and it is a, like a more meek shoulders in every time you say something, my first gut reaction is I'm sorry versus shoulders back, chest forward, confident in what we do, delivering on our promise, you're welcome. Hopefully that makes sense because again, nothing aggressive about this, but it is just absolutely a mindset that I want you to start thinking about putting into your daily life putting into your company, putting into your job, whatever you do, fill in the blank and be really good and look for thank yous. And don't just instantly default to, I'm sorry.

And this is another one I want to add because how do we do it? Time, consistency, your attitude, and this fourth one, which is hard, which is a willingness to push back if necessary. Hold on a minute. Hold on a minute, Bill. Why are you yelling at me? Because your auto rates went up by 27% and you just got two speeding tickets last year. Now I'm going to look around for you.

And I'm going to see what I can do, but man, two speeding tickets changes the dynamic. I'm just making that up as an example. Or you know that the company you're with, it has just had two rate increases because I told you that. And now you're mad at me because you just got your homeowners renewal and it went up 27%. Again, I'm going to work with you. This might actually be the best deal you could possibly imagine. You're welcome. Again not aggressive, not negative, not cocky, but you're going to have to learn and be willing to, and for some of you it'll be very uncomfortable, but to push back when necessary. That's how you flip the script. That's how you change the dynamic. That's how you get to a point where they go, whoa, okay, hey, I apologize. They say, I'm sorry to you, and then thank you. If done right, it's not that easy. Again, not just saying, oh, this is gonna happen overnight.

But then they thank you because you cleared it up, you level set, you built an expectation and then you delivered on the expectation. It seems simple. It's not. It's really hard. And especially if you've created, whether it's a whole personal culture or an organizational culture around, you know, customer's always right. Okay. One cloud in the sky, totally my fault. Can't do it. Not going to let, you're not going to let that happen anymore, are you?

You're going to change the dynamic. Now you have to deliver or you don't have the right to hope for thank you. But if you're delivering and you feel good about that, man, that's where you want to be going in whatever it is you're doing and especially in this market. And you know, every time we bring up the market, but it's real, it's volatile. You're welcome. I'm doing my thing for you. I'm consultatively looking at your risk. I am curating the best bundle of policies for you and I'm finding you what makes sense for the coverage you need, the rate that we can get you, you're welcome. So think about it in those terms.

This is something that, so here's what we're striving for. This is a long journey. This is a long-term mentality and mindset that we're going for. And this is a podcast that if you're vibing with this, I would save it. And I would listen to it again in four weeks. And I would hold yourself to see if you have answered and checked the boxes of some of the things that we're talking about here, because I believe that there's so much value in just a simple mind shift from, I'm not going to say I'm sorry, to everything. Now if we messed up, I'm sorry all day. Every day, we mess that up, I am so sorry. Let me fix it and still turn that into a thank you.

Make sense?

And I think there, again, just to kind of reiterate what I said at the beginning or near the beginning, not the Justin Bieber part, we're done with that. And I don't want to get any notes in my direct messages that say, so you're a big Justin Bieber fan, Rick? Yeah, not having it.

But earn your welcome, earn it. You're not entitled to it. It's an attitude, it's a mindset and you can go get it. And if you do, it changes everything. So I'm not saying that any of you out there are already over on the I'm sorry side, like stuck in every call is the cloud is my fault, but I'm also probably going to comfortably say none of you are all the way over to the other side of knowing that everything you're doing is right and you should be, you know, earning the thank you. Wherever you are on that journey, we can get a little better with that today. We can get a little bit better with it tomorrow. But the key word to all of that was consistency and attitude. If you do those two things, whoo, it could be a game changer for you. Anyway, so just to kind of keep pulling the thread that we're talking about of how we should be thinking about this, how we should be looking at our relationship-based business and our consultative approach and the responsibilities we have, if you're taking care of your business, if you're doing your thing, you should be expecting a thank you. And you should be able to say you're welcome. All right. That's it. That's my rant for today. I hope that helps because I kind of am using that myself right now, uh, in many different ways, but, and I'm not all the way over on the, I'm sorry, but I haven't gotten myself to feel comfortable being all the way at the you're welcome either and earning the thank you. So I hope that makes sense. As always, I am so appreciative of the community that we've created in a really short amount of time with this podcast. Keep the messages coming in LinkedIn, because we do use the questions you ask in some of our mail bags. Give me guests that you think would be great, or rant topics that you'd love for me to kind of give my two cents on, or a cent and a half. We'll see, we'll see what it's on.

And make sure that you're always subscribed to whatever we do here at ITB. In this case, wherever you get your podcasts, hit the subscribe button there. And give us a review if you like what you're hearing. Once again, thank you so much for tuning in. That was the Insure Rant. No more I'm sorry. Earn the thank you so you can say you're welcome. Let's go. See you next time everybody.