Customer-focused culture gives USAA edge, chief says. (Companies).

If insurers hope to achieve the customer-retention and loyalty levels achieved by USAA group, job No. 1 had better be focusing on who their customers are, what they want and how to get it to them--then worry about other areas of the business.

USAA, based in San Antonio, serves 95% of active duty military officers, with a 99% retention rate. Since opening its services to enlisted military members in 1997, USAA now has about one-third of that market; about 75% of insureds' children remain with USAA after leaving their parents' homes, Robert G. Davis, president, chief executive officer and chairman of USAA told attendees at A.M. Best's Ninth Annual Review & Preview Conference, held in Scottsdale, Ariz.

"We never want to sell a member anything they don't need," Davis said. "In fact, we never want to 'sell' anything at all."

As evidence of his company's deep customer relationships, Davis played a recording of a woman who called USAA after she safely left the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, but was unable to reach her parents because of phone difficulties. She called USAA, which connected her with her mother.