Although it’s a while since I left the insurance market, I’ve kept in touch, maintaining regular contact with friends and ex-colleagues and closely monitoring developments in the profession that I followed for over 40 years. 

Given current market concerns about disruption, I’m surprised by just how little things have changed. Soft markets, whiplash, fraud, aggregators and even Ogden were all issues when I left Groupama. But what of the reputation of insurance? Has this changed for the better? Or the way in which customers are served? Has the market stepped up? Has ‘UK insurance plc’ delivered anything truly game changing?

Well, research on consumer trust still makes very depressing reading and there is little to suggest that customer loyalty is rewarded with anything other than higher premiums. The regulator has intervened to improve renewal transparency and, as for the sale of unwanted add-ons, well, the least said the better.

On innovation, the market is doing what it always does when threatened. Throwing money at it. Refreshing as it is to see insurers and brokers backing start-ups or building tech-garages in Shoreditch, how many have been daring enough to bring them into their mainstream business? The brave new world still seems stuck on the periphery, having little impact on changing thinking and culture. 

Insurers still crusade to reduce claims costs and minimise fraud, (putting all customers under the microscope, instead of the small percentage of actual fraudsters) but the ‘new barbarians’ are arriving at their gates. These businesses see insurance from the other end of the telescope, developing shiny new propositions, recognising the value of customers and their desire to be respected and cherished.

Insurance customers still need a champion. Are tomorrow’s brokers up for the challenge?

Jamie Marchant

Claims

When Lemonade (the American virtual insurer) announced recently that they had validated and paid a claim in three seconds, it was no surprise that some UK insurers were more concerned about the fraud potential than celebrating the success of such impressive customer focus. 

Culturally, this business and others like it seem light years away from the insurance model here. Is competing on price really better than rewarding loyal policyholders and developing trusting, longer term customer relationships? Because consumers and businesses could not be less impressed by a market seemingly obsessed by new business, whinging about falling profits while boosting prices and counter-fraud initiatives.

And now (apparently) the robots are on the march, offering new opportunities to shed cost and boost margins, while policyholders face the prospect of a more automated maze. An earlier headlong rush to outsource customer service to overseas call centres comes to mind. How did that work out for everyone? 

Of course, none of this is big news to brokers. They’ve tolerated such issues and sheltered customers from the worst excesses for years. But, as retirement beckons for the current senior incumbents, the changing of the guard presents significant challenges for the next generation while also providing a unique opportunity to help break with the past and influence a brighter, fairer future.

Insurance customers still need a champion. Are tomorrow’s brokers up for the challenge?

Jamie Marchant was marketing and communications director at Groupama Insurances until 2012. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Insurance Institute and a Chartered Insurer.

 

ia debates

Jamie Marchant is in the perfect position to be a useful friend to the insurance sector. He cares passionately about its people, products and reputation. Having stepped away from the industry he can combine past experience with the sentiment of wider society. For some his column may make uncomfortable reading but the questions he poses certainly deserve answers. Do you believe that today’s – and tomorrow’s – brokers are up for the challenge? Leave a comment below or join the debate at www.twitter.com/#insagedebates