Insurance

Cars are pretty expensive, whether they are your hobby or just your preferred method of getting from A-B. Regardless, one thing that came up recently was my insurance renewal. Much like everything else these days, it was pretty expensive. Then again, it was roughly how much I expected to pay.

I picked up a leaflet and rang another insurer rather than just accepting the quote given. I was offered all manner of freebies (breakdown cover, a courtesy car etc) for a slightly lower price than given. After saying that the price this new firm had offered was more than my current one. I then rang back my current insurer telling them about the better deal. Fearing I was going to bugger off, they put me through to 'customer retention' - where something very special happened.

First, the special thing was that I was talking to someone in the UK. I have nothing against anybody anywhere, but when we're talking about my personal details I like to be sure that when someone tells me their name that it really is there name - unlike 'John' who was almost certainly not John at all but Chandra in La Hore, India.

The other special thing was that 'customer retention' had amazing powers to not only give me the same deal (after customer service couldn't) but they gave me a bit extra, and were fabulously nice. In fact, if I wasn't 100% sure their call centre is about 3 hours drive away I would have asked the lovely Amy out for a drink sometime. A diet coke of course, so I could drive her around in my car, protected by the insurance she had so wonderfully provided.

I guess the message here is that it pays to shop around, but more importantly firms shouldn't underestimate the value of good customer service. A top flight pro (the likes of which Amy most certainly is) is worth her weight in gold as such service is the best marketing tool of all. Not only that, but the price of the insurance certainly put a smile on my face.