A great example of #custserv that lives up to its name . . . Always Care

#857 in the Purple Goldfish Project was submitted by e-mail from Rene Milligan from Always Care:

Thanks for the Tweet mention today. I was doing some research for our company’s current ad campaign, and stumbled across your Purple Goldfish blog. I am shocked I didn’t see it sooner.

Please see our current ad, attached, for some of the “lagniappe” we offer our customers. And please follow the link to our Lagniappe landing page: http://www.alwayscare.biz/lagniappe/

Our lagniappe is not exactly “little” things (a FREE Health Advocacy Program that helps insurance clients steer through medical claims, referrals, coordination of benefits, etc. is pretty significant), but compared to the actual product purchased (critical illness insurance policy), you can see that our lagniappe really is an add-on, the relative equivalent of a thirteenth donut.

Anyway, we offer lagniappe with each of our products:

• Dental and Vision insurance customers get FREE personalized ID cards with a list of the participating network providers closest to their home.
• Life and Disability insurance customers get a FREE employee assistance program with face-to-face counseling sessions (financial, legal, or just social), to help deal with loss of a loved one or ability.
• Critical Illness and Accident insurance customers get the health advocacy program mentioned above FREE.
• And EVERY customer gets FREE access to our Hearing Savings Plan, which offers significant discounts on hearing equipment, hearing aid batteries, and phone counseling with hearing professionals.

We also do an “initial bill review” (trial bill) for each of our group customers when they set up a new product with us. It helps catch errors in insurance plan enrollment, eligibility, dependent status, and beneficiary BEFORE a group’s first bill is sent. Saves so many headaches for benefit plan administrators! Seems simple, but none of our competitors, that we know of, do this.

Sort of like Zappo’s free two-way shipping or Doubletree’s chocolate chip cookies, these features are add-ons that add satisfaction to our clients’ benefit experience, and help keep them as our clients (sticky!).

Marketing Lagniappe Takeaway - Stand out from your competition by offering the little extras.  I love the IBR – initial bill review.  An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Today’s Lagniappe (a little something extra thrown in for good measure): In honor of Halloween, here’s a little local flavor from the home of Always Care  . . . Baton Rouge:

Where is the lagniappe in your marketing? What’s Your Purple Goldfish?

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