Hiscox’s Ross Dingwall on delivering service excellence to brokers

Hiscox received a Five Star rating for its quality of cover

Why do you think you stood out in this area?

Being a specialist insurer means that with the areas we play in we want to ensure we have the best offering in the market. As a result of that, we are always putting the customer at the heart of our overall proposition.

In the high net worth space we have a heritage of operating for 25 years in this area, and we believe that we clearly understand the customer need. That ensures that we are constantly reviewing our proposition, and ensuring that it is a leading one in the market.

When people rate cover, they don’t just think of the wording, they think of the whole package of the service that comes from the insurer, and that is where we excel.

What makes for a good claims service?

A fast and fair claims settlement is important, particularly in the private clients space where a lot of claims are not that complex and customers want to have those settled quickly. To help this, we always look at the intent of the policy so that we are looking at ways of paying the claim, rather than ways of avoiding claims.

The final area we focus on is the use of technology. We have a strategy that says digital where it counts, but human where it matters.

What we mean by that is customers and brokers are becoming more used to using technology solutions, but at their time of need, such as when making a claim, they want to be able to pick up the phone and speak to people, and that human interaction is very important and we spend a lot of time and effort working on that.

We do a lot of what we call TNT, Tiny Noticeable Things. Claims handlers can do anything over and above to recognise the distress someone is going through, whether that be sending a hamper or bottle of champagne or a box of chocolates.

Going above and beyond in that way is very important to us.

Find out how other insurers did in the Insurance Times Five Star Personal Lines report

How do you manage your relationship with brokers, and why is it important to have a strong partnership?

We don’t try and be all things to all brokers. There are 3,500 brokers in the UK at the moment and we only deal with 500 of those. And even within that 500 we have a very clear distribution strategy. We have local offices and believe that we have local relationships, and that allows us to spend a lot of time facing our brokers and ensuring the relationship is meaningful.

If you look at the heritage of our business, more than 75% is conducted with brokers and that has been the case for the last five years. For high net worth individuals the requirements are fairly complex, so they need advice on what they are buying

That means that specialist brokers who are good and understand the high net worth market are perfect partners to work with in that space.

What do you look for in a broker partner?

We want to ensure that our brokers see our relationship as a true partnership. In the chosen sectors we play in, we want to be one of their top three providers. The other thing we look for is for our brokers to recognise value in terms of what we are offering for their customers – this is not a price-driven play.

With Hiscox being a premium specialist broker, we are never looking to have the cheapest product. We want our overall package to be competitive, so we need a broker that recognises that value.

What is Hiscox doing to improve its service for brokers?

We have just launched our new 2025 strategy for the UK, and the strapline for that is specialist insurance that is honest, easy and worry-free.

Easy is the core part of that, and we have to find ways to make it easier for brokers to transact business with us, and that means technology has got to be a main driver for Hiscox as well as our brokers.