Markel awarded five stars and first place in commercial lines

Markel has been awarded a five-star rating in the Insurance Times’s Commercial Lines 2019/2020 report, in the second consecutive year that a five-star system has been implemented.

This year the insurer beat its competitors, as the only insurer to achieve a maximum star rating in all service factors leading it to be ranked number one.

These service factors include – claims: fairness of settlement and speed; policy documentation: accuracy and transparency; quality of cover; relationship handling and management; and underwriting: expertise, flexibility and support.

Markel revealed this to an audience of staff and media at a breakfast briefing in is head offices in London last week on Wednesday, as well as holding the same for staff in all eight of its regional offices.

It has re-emphasised its commitment to its broking partners rethinking how it does business as it looks to increase its UK footprint significantly.

Meanwhile the year before the firm gained four stars, in four of the five service sectors, it said at the time that it hoped that reorganisation will further help improve broker response times.

Nic Brown, Markel’s UK sales and marketing director said that 2020 will be a continuation of what the insurer has been doing in previous years, it will be launching a new sector solution in due course. 

Strategy

He told Insurance Times that the firm is delighted about the recognition, and the positive feedback from the broker community as it gives the firm a greater voice.

Compared to three years ago when Markel did not have enough brokers voting for them. Brown puts the firm’s win down to it engaging with more brokers, as well as its awareness activity, its commitment to its regional broker model and the strategic development of core brokers.

“For now, we are enjoying the outcome and celebrating this as a team across the UK. We have about 450 staff across the UK in about eight different offices and we did the same set up in every single one of those offices at the same time,” he added.

The firm celebrated its achievement with its staff in its breakfast briefing that deliver on its strategy as well as supporting customers and brokers, Brown said that staff should be “incredibly proud”.

He said that broker feedback and the elevation from second to first is a testimony to how its executing its strategy.

Edge

When asked what Markel this year has done differently, Brown said: “Firstly our evolution of bringing the brand together under one Markel brand, continuing to invest in our frontline staff, managing brokers on a day-to-day basis, making sure that decision makers are available to them. I think we are seeing more brokers; we are engaging with more of them, more of them understand our value proposition and more of them see that as market leading.”

Brown highlighted that brokers of different sizes have various ways of doing business.

“One of the very difficult arts is that to ensure that all of our capabilities are up to scratch so that you can engage and work with brokers and their customers, as they wanted to. We don’t force people down an e-trade strategy, we are putting decision makers in the field, and our claims solution is geared around communication around the customer and the broker. Depending on how a broker wants to engage we are able to give them a high-quality value proposition,” he said.

Hard market, soft market

On top of this he said that Markel aims to help brokers navigate the hard market, which he says is an ongoing challenge.

He puts this down to a shift between the price of a product and the claim for risk off the back of that.

This has therefore caused a downward pressure on prices with the soft market, Brown said that Markel aims to match its pricing sustainability with quality of service.

Markel also has its own broker NPS (net promoter score) survey that measures its effectiveness at doing this.

Brown concluded that its strategy focusses on growth and that all of its markers are where they intend them to be.