Great story. Thanks for sharing. It comes down to brand – BMW brands themselves on a certain experience. Companies with strong brands tend to not just provide a differentiated product, they also provide a differentiated service around that product.

This became painfully clear to me last year when I had a series of problems with my iPhone (data stopped working). I could barely get AT&T to answer a phone call, much less invest any time or money in helping me resolve the problem. Apple happily swapped out my phone TWICE, saying “I don’t think the problem is on our side, but just to be sure, let’s go ahead and give you a new phone.” After several hours on the phone, mostly on hold, it turned out the problem was squarely with AT&T.

Insurance companies have perhaps an even greater opportunity here than BMW or Apple. There’s no tangible product, so the experiences of customer service – handling a claim, dealing with a billing issue, making a policy change – become the insurers brand. If an insurer continually provides a bad customer experience, no multi-million dollar ad campaign will fix the damage. Provide a great experience and your customers will do your marketing for you.

Aaron