Levelling up means adapting to changing times
The specialist underwriting environment has a reputation for possessing a certain degree of mystique, with the impression that many of the available liability products - in particular - are far too complicated for ordinary people to understand.
While technology can play an important role in bridging the gap between underwriters, brokers and clients, it is important for the industry to learn how to use technology to its advantage.
Empowering brokers
In light of rapidly evolving technological developments, the focus has turned to empowering brokers to not only be able to obtain quotations and policy documents instantaneously, but to also give them real-time access to assistance if needs be.
Nowadays, with the right cloud-based Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools, brokers can have instant access to plain language information and risk assessment tools 24/7.
Firstly, it is critical to understand why instant access is becoming increasingly important. This is largely dependent on the fact that the current idea of an office is shifting. Whilst there is still a need for a physical office presence, more and more brokers in South Africa are operating remotely.
This means that at any given time, virtual offices may be running in many different parts of the country. Most brokers are now operating with smartphones, tablets and laptops, enabling them to transact with their clients wherever they are. This is why it is vital for underwriters to have the same connection with brokers, even during the sales process.
Embracing social media
One of the new tools available to the industry, as a result of technological advancements, is social media. As social media guru, Ryan Hogarth says, “social media means businesses need to be always on, always available, always different and always changing.”
However, as a whole, the local industry has been relatively slow in harnessing the power of tools such as Twitter and LinkedIn. The social media space provides an excellent communication channel for underwriting teams, interaction and information exchange with brokers is already a reality. This method of communication with customers will become more prevalent in the future, so it is a good idea for industry players to incorporate this into their communication strategies.
Painting the picture
In our environment, SHA has a relatively small team of specialists dealing with thousands of brokers around the world. As we grow our small to medium sized enterprises portfolio, even more quotes and policies are generated. In order to deliver quality service in record times we have had to invest in cloud-based services that facilitate a certain degree of self-administration for brokers, without jeopardising any binder functions.
In line with these technological trends, a system was developed whereby brokers can view client policies, renew policies, get quotes, check how many quotes they have done by user, among many other functions. This technology enables the servicing of larger groups of clients without exponentially increasing the workforce. It also gives us access to customer information in real time, helping us focus our marketing campaigns in specific areas. This also gives brokers a much greater degree of control over critical turnaround times.
We firmly believe that insurance will always be a people’s game and that relationships and integrity of individuals will still count for a lot in the future. However, we also accept that to give a customer the best premium, we must be more efficient. Building bureaucratically heavy operations does not create any value for the modern day customer. Technology enables us to deliver better service to more customers, freeing up our expert underwriters and claims staff to handle the more unique, one-on-one queries more effectively.
