Q&A: Markerstudy supports ‘broker partners by being responsive and agile’

Following the publication of Insurance Times’ Five Star Rating Report: MGA market 2022 in November this year, Markerstudy’s head of broker management and product governance, Amanda Fox, discusses what she believes are some of the key issues being faced by brokers today.

There has been a huge drive across the industry to ensure digital capabilities are in line with customer expectations. What changes have taken place at Markerstudy around digital innovation?

Our digital innovation strategy is at the core of a number of developments to improve our services for brokers and customers.

For example, as part of our claims transformation programme, we have launched a new customer claims portal. We are listening to our customers and have identified areas for improvement in our claims journey.

Our new claims portal empowers customers and lets them view the current status of their claim, providing the tools to track updates on a regular basis.

We have responded to feedback from our brokers about what they need from us - in addition to giving them full access to the new claims portal, we will be delivering a new broker hub too. This will provide frequently requested information, as well as performance management and claims information.

Why should brokers stick with MGAs in an ongoing hard market?

MGAs are more agile and have a greater appetite for niche, hard to place business.

Agility allows us to respond swiftly to changing market dynamics and new regulations. It also enables us to develop and deliver the products that our brokers and customers are asking for and ensures that these products provide good customer value and outcomes.

We drive innovation, assessing niche propositions and developing them from concept and through the test and learn process to ensure that they deliver for customers. This helps drive wider innovation and competition across the insurance market, which benefits us all.

There continues to be broker concern around the potential reduction or removal of capacity from MGAs. What is your view?

We have always worked extremely closely with our capacity partners - the strength, stability and transparency of our relationships gives us comfort in our propositions and their performance.

Our capacity is with us on the journey and they understand us, our culture and our aspirations, as well as our business plan. We believe this minimises the risk of reduced or lost capacity.

Based on the insights from last year’s Five Star Rating Report: MGA market, as well as other research, how has Markerstudy changed its service or product developments?

We have continued to develop and strengthen our operations teams. An example being the promotion of Vicky Whitehead to the role of head of broker services to manage all policy operational areas in one place. 

We support our broker partners by being responsive and agile. We are investing heavily in our data modelling and digital transformation programmes to improve the end-to-end journey for our customers. 

We’ve prioritised resourcing and upskilling our customer-facing colleagues too.