THE SAFECO PLAYBOOK
BACKGROUND:
Independent insurance agents no longer knew what Safeco stood for. Some believed Safeco’s interests were at odds with theirs.
GOAL:
Build trust and understanding among Safeco—selling independent agents.
STRATEGY:
Communicate with a level of transparency never before considered at Safeco.
EXECUTION:
Joe literally changed the voice of Safeco when he authored a 60-page, industry award-winning book to help agents better understand Safeco. This was not a puff piece. Instead, Joe exposed the real Safeco — warts and all — and explained Safeco’s products, markets, and where Safeco was most competitive.
RESOLUTION:
The Sales force went through 12,000 books in three months, making it the most sought-after piece of collateral at the company. Since reprinted and many times downloaded, the book helped agents (and employees) understand each of Safecos 23 lines of insurance and finally gave a satisfactory answer to the agents question, Can you simply tell us what you want to write?
…
…
MOVING WITH SAFECO
BACKGROUND:
Auto policyholders are far more likely to change insurance carriers when they change addresses. Previous initiatives to keep these customers were relatively unsuccessful.
GOAL:
Lift retention among auto policyholders who move.
STRATEGY:
Identify movers, contact them, and motivate address updates with the lure of potential savings. Segment, and use variable printing technology to accommodate 10 different moving scenarios.
EXECUTION:
Within his first month at Safeco, Joe conceived a direct marketing strategy to find personal auto policyholders who moved in the past 30 days — but didn’t tell the agent or Safeco. He had to overcome agent resistance to previous programs that, in essence, denied agents ongoing commissions for business they had originated. Joe created a cross-functional team (IT, the call center, the publishing group, and others), won Policy Committee approval, designed and wrote the customer package, and tracked results.
RESOLUTION:
The effort generated more than 10,000 opportunities for agents to reconnect with their customers. The monthly mailing consistently generated a 20 percent response rate, and the call center retained many more with a new outbound-calling effort. Thousands of incremental policies were saved, and agents reported many new pieces of cross-sold business.
…
…
SAFECO DESK REFERENCES
BACKGROUND:
As insurance algorithms got more and more complicated, customer service representatives and agency producers were less and less able to explain how premiums were calculated.
GOAL:
Increase agents’ and representatives’ comfort about selling Safeco products.
STRATEGY:
Let stakeholders and customers see all the rating factors and understand how they work (without letting competitors reverse engineer the formulas).
EXECUTION:
Joe reasoned that customers really just want to know (a) what are the factors, (b) why did my premium go up, and (c) what can I do to lower my premium. With that insight, Joe worked with actuaries and product managers to create an easy-to-use matrix that even his mother-in-law could understand.
RESOLUTION:
Safeco printed 240,000 booklets and made them the central element for each major Safeco Personal Insurance launch during Joe’s tenure.
…
…
DEVELOPING THE STOCKPOT BRAND
BACKGROUND:
Perhaps the first thing an executive chef masters is soup, so there is a natural resistance to purchasing prepared soup instead of preparing from scratch. StockPot wanted to win business from major influencers in the collegiate foodservice market.
GOAL:
Land a major new customer among targeted universities.
STRATEGY:
Host an exclusive event that no foodservice director or executive chef would dare miss: an opportunity to cook alongside world-renowned Vietnamese chef Mai Pham. Honor guests with one of only a dozen all-expenses paid invitations to learn alongside executive chefs from Harvard, Stanford, Duke, The University of California at Berkeley, and The Culinary Institute of America.
EXECUTION:
The two-day event commenced with a private Chateau Ste. Michelle winery tour, topped with a gourmet dinner prepared with StockPot soups and sauces. At the StockPot Culinary Campus the next morning, Mai Pham spoke, gave attendees an aromatic and tactical tour through Far Eastern spices, and cooked with each of the participants.
RESOLUTION:
Everything about the event was amazing, and StockPot generated $100,000 to $400,000 in new business among the universities. The event garnered fantastic press in Foodservice Director magazine, and further established StockPot as the finest fresh-refrigerated soup in the country.