Social Listening

 

My wife, toddler, and I snuck away this weekend to try to escape the chaos for a little while and clear our heads. Holed up in a lovely hotel room in Newport, Oregon, we had the pleasure of catching up on cable television. Normally, we just stream the things we want to watch, so we miss out on commercials (if you can call that "missing out"). Liberty Mutual insurance is well known for their commercials and especially for their jingle. They are an insurance company that offers car, homeowner's, and renter's policies. They offer discounts and unique add-ons as their main selling points. I decided to dig in and see what their social media accounts were like and how they interact with their customers and followers. 

Wow, I was really in for a surprise! Both their Instagram and Facebook pages are flooded with comments on nearly every post with customer complaints. One of the main complaints that I saw over and over again was a lack of communication and customer service from the company. Liberty Mutual claim adjusters not returning calls, letting claims sit untended for months, billing issues that take months to resolve if they get resolved at all. Many customers claimed they were cheated out of money or were denied their legitimate claims. So, I went looking for their value proposition.

This made me laugh out loud considering everything I had just spent so much time reading. The only good comments I read were about their commercials. Almost everything else had to do with poor customer service. The company's interactions with these commenters were minimal and clearly scripted. It seems like they have some "canned" responses that they use and just sort of fill-in-the-blanks where appropriate. 

For the most part, Liberty Mutual posts their television ads, holiday posts (MLK, Jr. day, Thanksgiving, Household Plant Appreciation Day, etc.), and the occasional educational or tips post. They rely heavily on their commercials for their marketing strategy. They definitely attempt to use humor and being "catchy" to attract buyers to their products and services. The "LiMu Emu" is their mascot. The biggest marketing challenge facing Liberty Mutual has got to be their lack of good rapport with customers. They appear to be unavailable with very little follow-through, and they don't appear to be trying to fix it. If I were the brand manager, I would focus on my customer service team first. New training and protocols to make customers feel heard and give them genuine care and concern on behalf of the company. Second, I would launch a new campaign specifically addressing their new focus on customer service. Since they usually use humor in their marketing, I would try to incorporate that, as well as come up with a campaign slogan. To quote our textbook, "When customers are happy, they keep their product longer, they spend more money over time, and they share their happiness with others, either in person or on social networks," (p. 70)