Insurance Times Awards: 2015 Personal Lines Insurer of the Year Covea on what it took to win

With only a few days left to enter the awards, we speak to inspiring past Insurance Times Awards winners about their win, top tips for entering the Awards and industry experiences.

Here Covea personal lines director Carol Gerald talks about winning Personal Lines Insurer of the Year in 2015.

The deadline for entering the Insurance Times Awards is 6 September. Click here to enter find out more information on the Awards, sponsor a category or secure your ticket for the night.

What does it take to win an Insurance Times Award?

You’ve got to be front of mind for brokers for all the right reasons. The key is being consistent, being responsive and being reliable.

You have to be consistent in the market so brokers know what they can expect from you. You have to be responsive which can mean saying yes as well as no, but saying it quickly. And you have to be reliable which means you have to do the things you say you will do.

What did it mean to win?

It was really special. Wining one of the big categories of the Insurance Times Awards was on our ambition list when we created Covea Insurance in 2012. And at the time of the win, it was extra special because it was our first one of these. It also came at a time when there was loads of change going on.

And because it was based on external recognition for brokers it validated that we were doing the right things.

It is fantastic for all of us here, not only those talking to brokers, to have something where the market is saying ‘you are the best’.

What is important to you as a business?

Service is and remains high on our agenda. Delivering a great customer experience, which we believe makes the difference, will continue to be the main focus.

Our focus is, and will always be, sustainable, profitable growth. Pricing discipline is the cornerstone of what we do.

How do you respond to rapidly changing market conditions?

It would be difficult for anyone to say that they stand out with new technologies. Everybody is second-guessing what is going to happen when and where.

There is loads of new software data. We got some data that allows us to spot trends and respond to which I think is a key strength.