Buying vs. being sold to

One of my fundamental frustrations with the insurance industry is that insurance companies make products they want to sell, but they don’t often make products people want to buy. On its worst days insurance is sold with jingles and “comedy”. On its best days insurance is sold listing out features of coverage written in the policies, on promising an ease of doing business, and on triggering your reaction to price sensitivities. Either way, it’s still about them coming at you with things they like about themselves. That doesn’t feel much different to me than those inflatable dancing men placed in front of mattress stores and car dealerships.

But what do you want to buy? Do you want to buy bundling? Do you want to buy discounts? Do you want to buy a “name your price” tool? Do you want to buy 15 minutes and 15%? Good grief. What if instead you shopped for things you’d actually want?

• Would you buy their claims service handling?
• Would you buy their reasonableness in reaching an agreed cost of repair with a contractor or body shop?
• Would you buy their access to help on billing questions?
• Would you buy their claim settlement options?
• Would you buy their objective to stop paying for your loss at $X?
• Would you buy their transparency on how they arrived at your premium rate?
• Would you buy their forthrightness on policy coverage education?
• Would you buy their investment in helping you prevent a loss?
• Would you buy their loyalty in times of difficulty?
• Would you buy their priority ranking of the policyholder?