Digital Perspective Blog

I have been with Progressive Insurance for a long time – about ten years, both my cars are insured with them.  I pay a pretty hefty premium, this is not due to my driving record or that I have been in accidents – actually, I have never had any type of incident to date (knock on wood).

This weekend I was watching TV and came across an Allstate ad (believe it or not I was watching a program live and not on my DVR).  Ad made me go to their site and get a quote – turns out I could be saving a lot of money if I made the switch – about $100 per month.

Before pulling the trigger I thought it would only be fair to let Progressive counter – so I called them.  I spoke with two representatives – both extremely pleasant and helpful.  They made a real effort to work with me and keep me as a customer.  And what would you know, Progressive was able to provide me with an even better policy (keeping my limits exactly the same) – total savings per month: $170.  The only thing I would say is that Progressive might want to proactively help their customers reduce their rates – especially those that have been with them for a long time.

I decided to tweet about my experience on Saturday – a lot of followers asked me how and with who I saved the money.  And this Monday morning I also got a tweet from Progressive: “progressive: @fleander Thanks for the shout out! Glad you’re satisfied with your experience – thanks for choosing Progressive!”

To recap my journey: competitor TV ad, competitor website (quote), Progressive website (compared quote + customer service info), telephone with HUMAN contact, Twitter, and now this blog post.  All of these different touch points influenced my final decision, which swayed from one to another for a while, to stay with Progressive – and the fact that I am saving a lot of money.  But by the time I was talking to Mike – I thought to myself that even if they could not match or beat the competitor I would still consider staying with them if they came close.

A few important things:

• Customer service is so so so so important – a human that is friendly and willing to help (honest about it) can make the difference

• Social media is a great compliment to an experience with the brand, before, during, and after a decision

• A purchase decision CAN be influenced while a person is making up his/her mind

• Communications (marketing & PR) and customer service need to work together – and digital needs to be a integrated part of the overall strategy

• Customers will talk about you