Markel to further improve response time following four-star e-trade rating

Markel is continuing to work on furthering the improvement of its response times following some reorganisation in Q1 this year.

It received a four-star rating from brokers in the 2019 e-Trading survey in what is the first year the firm has been included in the survey.

Joe Considine, business strategy manager at Markel, told Insurance Times that as it is the firm’s first time being included in the survey that it was pleasing to have achieved four stars, but he was disappointed that Markel did not obtain five stars.

He continued: “I really like the way you [Insurance Times] break it down as it shows us what we have to do to become a five. We are getting direct feedback from the right sort of customer about how they view us across a number of headings.”

Improving response times

He explained the firm underwent a reorganisation around Q1, which gave brokers greater access to underwriters off the back of the e-trade system. Considine said it should impact response times, with the hope it will improve in the latter part of the year.

It has moved the majority of its e-trade business in Q1 to the broker connecting office in Birmingham to achieve this. From this base Markel is trying to improve how clearly brokers are talked through the e-trade system.

The average response time is half a day and Considine said he is encouraging brokers to pick up the phone and have a meaningful interaction.

It has also restructured things in Leeds in terms of renewals. It has put the majority of its e-trade business within one team.

As renewals are more complex it aims to respond within 24 hours.

Challenges

Considine said the challenge that insurers face with their extranet platform is how brokers want to minimise the amount of multi-keying they do.

Considine highlighted the time pressure on brokers, and said that brokers are far more tech savvy than people think.

Markel moved to Acturis three years ago and Considine said the data from the software house had steered the firm’s e-trade strategy.

“We know that extranets have a finite life, but really e-trade capability is that much more important. Whilst we appreciate that brokers would rather not use multiple extranets, we have rebuilt so we will continue to invest in our extranet capability,” he said.

Considine said the firm is growing its portfolio. This year Markel launched a legal expense product and it will soon put two more new products on Acturis.

Targets

“We have three products live and eleven more to go in the coming months so that is the initial target. Looking slightly forward, we want to build for our brokers better extranet capability to reflect the products that Markel offers,” Considine said.

The target is to have this completed by 2020.