Fried Chicken and Customer Loyalty

Customer loyalty, and thus retention and profitability, isn’t driven by cheap prices.

Last weekend I was perusing LinkedIn and I came across this post from Emily Glanz, a commercial insurance advisor at Cottingham & Butler in Iowa:

A few weeks ago, we had a death in our family. My husband’s 98-year-old grandpa passed away. We were sad, but we celebrated his long and happy life. Grandpa was a “creature of habit” and ate at KFC every day for the last ten years until he passed away.

One day after he passed, KFC in Dubuque, IA reached out to express their sadness. Taking it one step further, they updated their sign facing the busy street to pay tribute to Grandpa. Our family was so touched.

I’ve worked in a client-facing role since the age of 16. I like to think I understand the power of strong customer service, client empathy, and the resulting loyalty that comes with that… BUT this is a shining example of creating loyalty. This is powerful customer-service. Kudos to you, KFC. And thank you.

What a wonderful story and a lesson for the insurance industry, especially agents.

Growth comes from acquiring new business; profitability comes from retaining existing business.

Customer loyalty, and thus retention and profitability, isn’t driven by cheap prices, AI bots, big data, nor nifty phone apps. Loyalty springs as much (or more) from the heart as the mind.

One of the first blog posts I ever wrote 4 ½ years ago was about customer loyalty. I explained why I had been with the same insurance agency since 1973. Here is my story:

“How do You Create Customer Loyalty? Why Do Consumers Stay with a Particular Agent or Carrier for Years?”

Do you have a story of customer loyalty? If so, feel free to share in the Comments below.

Bill Wilson, CPCU, ARM, AIM, AAM

Founder at InsuranceCommentary.com

Mr. Wilson retired from the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America in December 2016 where he served as Assoc. VP of Education and Research and was the founder and director of the Big “I” Virtual University for over 17 years.

He is the former Director of Education & Technical Affairs for the Insurers of Tennessee and, prior to that time, he was employed by Insurance Services Office, Inc. He is a graduate of the Illinois Institute of Technology with a B.S. degree in Fire Protection & Safety Engineering.