ThinkNick

Interesting insights yesterday from a conversation with a lady who has just moved her home insurance policy after more than 25 years. Why now, I wondered?

Well, she has been thinking about it for a few years, because the price keeps going up, but each time she got round to looking at the policy, it had already passed its renewal date. This time, some friends told her how much money they had saved by changing.

She read the policy, decided that there were a lot of things that she didn’t need (for example £5,000 cover for home entertainment equipment), made some comparisons, and switched to another insurer for half the price. When she called to cancel her original policy, the company told her that they had a range of offers which could save her a lot of money. This simply confirmed her decision to move, since, as she pointed out, they had never bothered to tell her about these money-saving offers before.

What can I learn from this:

1. Inertia, and the comparative difficulty of making a change, continue to be strong influences on decision-making (has any insurance company tried a two-year policy, or 18 months, to take advantage of this?).
2. The influence of friends is so powerful, especially when it is spontaneous and where the friend is just being friendly, with no axe to grind or product to sell (and of course it’s pure coincidence that the company this lady now insures with, is the same one that her friends first mentioned)
3. Beware the product features that you turn into benefits – the cover for ‘home entertainment’ might be a benefit for some customers, but others can see it as something they are paying for that they don’t need
4. Amazingly, companies are still putting existing customers at a disadvantage compared to new ones. In a world where so much information is available so quickly (in the UK financial world, look at information exchanges like http://www.moneysavingexpert.com, or to the consumer champion Which? http://www.which.co.uk), it’s just bizarre that we still think this is sustainable.
5. Isn’t it interesting how much you can learn by listening to people?

Oh, and the company that used to insure this lady’s house? Northern Rock.

Why 100? Why not 76? Or 83? 100 is a nice round number, that’s why. If history had decided on a different global numbering system, then maybe it would be the first 100001 days (which in fairness, is quite round too, although – I think – it’s 65 in binary).

Anyway, the first hundred days. It’s often mentioned in the context of new presidents or prime ministers, or to focus attention on the crucial early stages of an acquisition, a relaunch, a merger, or a turnaround. The implication is that whatever this new thing is, it’s going to make a big impact quickly, and generate sufficient inertia to drive through the rest of its implementation.

Impact and inertia, says Newton, are functions of mass and energy. Those first hundred days often fizzle with the enthusiasm and drive of the new team, the new idea. Then reality and detail bite (look at Gordon Brown’s regime, hit by flood, bombing and disease in very short order), and the energy dissipates.

Just think what you could achieve if you could retain the passion of the first however-many days.

Well of course you can. Those first days were just a convenient construct. You’ve chosen to believe that those three months are the key ones and that everything gets harder thereafter. So, as NLP will tell you, you will prove yourself right.

So here’s a thought. Pick a different number. After your first new number of days, decide that you will now have a second set, where you will have just as much energy and enthusiasm. Then a third. Change the number and have a fourth. Of course you need to look after the reality and the detail, that’s not going to change. The bit you probably can change, is to keep making an impact, and maintain the energy that led you to start the thing in the first place.

Note added 14th February: see the inestimable Seth Godin’s thoughts on what happens to new organisations and new projects: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/02/soggy.html