CIA win again at FIA Awards

~ If you are persistent you will get it. If you are consistent, you will keep it. ~

Despite the cliché of company introductions in PR communications, CIA (Commercial and Industrial Acceptances (Pty) Ltd) proves they really are the Leading Building Insurance specialists, thanks to their fourth award win for Underwriting Manager of the Year at the FIA awards held last night 4 June 2015, at the Sandton Convention Centre in Gauteng.

Last year, CIA won the award for their innovative new policy wordings that complied with both the CPA (Consumer Protection Act) and TCF (Treating Customers Fairly). The new wordings saw a slight ‘translation’ from the legal, or formal product descriptions to an easily understandable, ‘layman term’ breakdown that includes a Key Information Document which gives the client a summary of the significant product benefits and features by referencing specific page numbers within the lengthy wording document. The introduction of these policy amendments is an industry first.

From the obvious company and product innovation success from last year, how would, or could a company manage to stand out from its competitors yet again? “By remaining consistent with our three business focusses – Product, Service and Price and keeping our brokers top of mind at every development, amendment, industry or product change,” says Andre de Waal, Managing Director for CIA. “It’s one thing to introduce these industry firsts but quite another to follow through.” de Waal continued, “In this case, we’ve ‘followed through’ with an impactful training roadshow to help adequately prepare the broker to be able to sell our products onto their clients.”

CIA has over the last eight months, trained over 3000 brokers nationwide. The training, which is also CPD accredited (Continuing Professional Development), has been modified for each session to suit the broker’s needs or business circumstances and has been conducted by the CIA team. Using interactive presentation and training techniques that engage and involve the brokers, information retention and understanding has proven to be incredibly successful.

Coupled with their training investment, CIA has also launched a series of modular newsletters they service to their 10,000 strong database on a monthly basis, from which they are receiving fantastic results and insightful broker feedback. “Sharné van Schoor, CIA’s Marketing Manager said, “Understanding the content needs of our audience plus the times or means by which they are consuming this content, is critical to this initiative’s success. We have invested time and resources to gain insight into the needs of our brokers and have used this opportunity to help, educate and train them via our online communication channels.”