Aviva shakes up approach to mid-market clients

Aviva has redesigned its approach for clients with between £5m and £100m annual turnover.

The insurer has revealed it is investing in its technology and specialist partner network and plans to make services at the corporate level available to these mid-market clients for the first time.

Customer-level underwriting services and risk management expertise will also be made available to these clients.

Gareth Hemming, director of SME commercial lines at Aviva, said mid-market businesses struggled to access the right risk management expertise and insight to manage growth in the sector.

“Too large for government initiatives and too small to employ full-time risk managers, mid-market businesses are often left stuck in the middle,” Hemming said.

“To address these issues, we are taking a big business approach to mid-market, offering personalised advice, business insights based on sophisticated data analytics and access to innovative technology. Traditionally these sorts of services have only been available to large companies.”

Details

The new strategy will target eight industry sectors and deliver with an integrated insurance and risk prevention product.

These sectors are professional and business services; industrial and manufacturing; real estate and construction; arts and culture; technology; retail and wholesale; health and public sector; and the motor industry.

The insurer will use data analytics to tell what risks a customer might be particularly vulnerable to.

Other products and services to be made available through its network of more than 40 specialist partners include tools for online reputational monitoring, aerial inspections using drones, leak detection technology, health and safety training and connected technology for manual handling.

Many of these had previously only been available to larger corporations.

David Carey, who joined Aviva last year as the new head of mid-market, is leading the delivery of the new strategy, which includes a dedicated mid-market client relationship management team working closely with Aviva’s regional teams.

David Carey said: “Mid-market businesses want peace of mind, customisation, superior service, forward thinking and partnership.

“Aviva has the footprint to bring this proposition to every corner of the country and offer added value and expertise in our eight industry segments.”