Independent broker blog: Good chance for a moan

I was recently invited by one of our insurer partners, along with for or five other local brokers, to a meeting at their regional office to discuss one of their latest commercial offerings.

Whilst we have had dealings with this insurer for many years we have never really been close to them and it is only in recent months - following a visit from their newly appointed representative in the area and one or two 'new' initiatives - that we have put them on our preferred list of suppliers.

So the opportunity to meet one or two key personal at the regional office and the possibility of influencing the approach and opinions of an insurer (brokers are only ever at their happiest when having a moan!) seemed too good to miss.

Many of my broking colleagues had trading history with this insurer and their commercial facilities and did have some moans about recent changes in the personal and handling of package products. To the credit of the insurer they made no attempt to hide the fact that they had made mistakes and that they were looking for our feedback on recent improvements and any further suggestions that we might have.

Having only just begun to use the facility, I was not in a position to compare both before and after, however it was interesting to note that my thoughts and suggestions mirrored that of other brokers in the room who had previous trading history and at the risk of stating the obvious, whilst we have all carved out our own niches the staple diet of the independent regional broker is the client looking for help, guidance and advice and whose enquiry doesn’t quite “tick all the boxes”.

Without exception every broker present remarked on the need for a speedy turnaround, particularly on matters of referral. The vast majority of new client enquiries are distressed; they don’t give us two weeks notice of renewal, furnish us with a legible schedule or give us the finer points relevant to their business.

Typically we’ll get a call saying renewal is due today or tomorrow. Speed of service is therefore paramount and a long winded or complicated referral process will irritate staff and result in them switching-off, we also don’t want to have to trawl through a dozen insurer intranets.

For the more complex requests the biggest source of frustration is the insurer that says “let’s see what the rest of the market sets for a price and then come back to us”.

Whilst I can understand the need for a guide to pricing, try explaining to a local contractor that he should give me his best price and then I’ll try and beat it! What he wants is my best price and evidence that I’ve done some work to get it. What he doesn’t want is to see a broker make no effort and just chop £25 or £50 off the rate!

The small business will expect each insurer to a have a rate for each risk and is extremely suspicious of any underwriter who places too much emphasis on their best price, particularly in the current climate when so many are looking to reduce costs.

Does an insurer really think that we are going to tell our potential customer to go away and get the best price elsewhere before we are prepared to put a price on his risk? How many new customers do they think that innovative strategy will create?

One final bit of feedback would be; don’t be afraid to lead. If during a market exercise we approach four or five different markets and insurer ‘A’ puts a price down on day one - which the others follow - we will always support the leading insurer.

Peter Smits is managing director of The Ashbourne Insurance Group.