Brokers offer King Price an advantage

01 October 2013 FAnews

After spending a year establishing itself as one of South Africa’s fastest growing direct short-term insurers, King Price made a decision on 1 September to enhance its insurance model by expanding it to now also include the broker market. The main motivation behind this change is that the company saw significant value in what a broker can bring to the business and the constant demand from numerous brokers could no longer be ignored.

"Brokers will add a lot to our business model as we can now enter a market that we previously didn’t have access to. We want to make insurance affordable for everybody. And let’s face it, some clients just prefer to work through their brokers,” says CEO Gideon Galloway.

Since the company’s launch around 14 months ago, they have gained more than 35 000 policyholders; covering everything from car, buildings and all other short-term insurance items; and they are still growing at a steady pace of more than 4 000 new policies per month.

No change in price

Diversifying into a broker and direct business model may lead some to assume that there will be a price difference between going direct and going through a broker.

However, Galloway points out that the client will pay the same rate when he goes direct. "King Price is on the client’s side and we’re all for loyalty and sticking with the people and companies that have been good to you. So if a client’s financial affairs have been handled by a trusted broker for many years, why should he or she deal with anyone else? For us, it makes no difference whether we are paying for advertising or paying brokers’ commission. As long as our clients get the best premium possible,” says Galloway.

No cross pollination

Brokers can feel secure in the fact that once their clients are signed up through the broker channel, there will be no direct threat.

"Our brokers and clients will have our commitment, that the insurance premium will remain the same, regardless of whether the client deals with the broker or with us directly. We don’t foresee issues with this at all and it is totally up to the client to choose how they would like to purchase their insurance” says Galloway.

We asked Galloway to give two good reasons why a broker should consider moving his/her clients to King Price.

- It’s simple really… Price is king! People buy insurance based on price. So why not offer your clients the exact same insurance cover as anywhere else but just at a cheaper price? In return, you will benefit from a higher closing ratio and what we believe to be the best retention rate in the industry.

- It’s the right thing to do. Clients shouldn’t be paying increased premiums on an asset that depreciates in value monthly.

We also asked Galloway what brokers can expect when talking about great service.

Great service is not only to act immediately, or to have a quick turnaround time on requests or claims. This is sort of ‘not negotiable’ and our norm. We strive to deliver the type of service that we all deserve with a personal touch which lets the client feel that he/she is not just a policy number, but actually a valued member of our royal family.