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PEMCO, insurance 2.0

companies have realized the importance of social media in their relationships with their customers, present or future. An article of "Insurance & Technology" gives us the example of PEMCO Insurance, a small insurance companies in the northwestern United States who has embarked on an initiative "intelligent" to remain faithful to its strategy based on customer relations.

Before acting, the insurer began with " listen" to what was said about its brand. Unlike other sectors, including banking, customers of insurance products have only very rarely contact with their company, only for contract changes or claims. More "serious" yet, they do not want to talk about insurance, would never have to take out a policy and prefer never to "use" those they have ... The context is rather difficult to start a conversation ...

PEMCO started his project with the opening of a micro-site, PEMCO Wally ("We're a Lot Like You, a Little Different"), which are presented on the "profile types" ( somewhat caricatured) by area residents. The idea was to attract the public on a subject likely to interest them: their neighbors and local stereotypes. Visitors can also submit their own models and are invited to share these profiles on Facebook or Twitter. According to the director of marketing, it was enough to initiate discussions around the brand on social networks.

Various tools have been implemented to analyze interactions thus generated, including those of Radian6 to measure the "feeling" on social networks or Omniture to determine the cause of visits to the site of insurer. These tests will allow progressively refine its strategy and improve its image. After all, data processing and statistics are just the core business of insurance ...

In the opening exchanges with others, PEMCO does not limit itself to social networks. Another of his initiatives was the establishment of a rating system and rating (with the Bazaarvoice solution ) on his site, open to all customers or not. The initial fear of seeing an excess of negative views were quickly swept away. Not only the majority of comments it is positive but the content is generated and also invaluable in identifying the difficulties faced by consumers and can best meet them.

Companies Insurance may legitimately question the relevance of a presence in social media. But the example shows that PEMCO some original approaches may make sense and provide significant value in the customer relationship. And, anyway, openness and transparency are good value for all companies in the "web 2.0" ...