PB Week: Staying close to the client
It has been a busy week in insurance journalism writes Andrew Tjaardstra, editor, of Professional Broking. Well it is meant to be the grimmest year for ages but we are still being wined and dined by the great and the good of the profession.
I have had a busy week of ten pin bowling, football matches, and editors' dinners to keep me out of trouble and have thoroughly enjoyed talking to those in the market who are as passionate about broking as ever. Insurance is a resilient sector and I know that although many businesses are hurting, brokers' client relationships are strong and will become even stronger as brokers concentrate on the basics. After all, holding onto the clients you already have has become the new growth play for 2009. In Jelf's results this week, its chairman described these as "strange economic times". Perhaps, this is the best description as we seem to be in the middle of a drama in which we have no idea when the finish is, and I think we are still attempting to work out how we got here.
Ace's ten pin bowling trip, hooking up underwriters and journalists was a great idea to take everybody's mind off the doom and gloom. And we can report that we hope Pat Drinan's underwriting is considerably better than his bowling, or perhaps he was letting the journalists win as part of his new PR strategy?
A trip to Manchester with fellow Evertonian Phil Barton and Man U fan Jon Manson, was thoroughly enjoyable, except from the result. Everton atoned for the defeat by beating Liverpool last night in the FA Cup; shame ITV missed the goal after almost 120 minutes of football which many would have gladly missed. Indeed Stuart Reid walked off saying he had no interest in the game, we can't blame you Stuart. However, I'm sure if I had been a client he would have stayed quiet and watched the game; there you go, a broker's number one priority in a nutshell.
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