Brokers need to be engaging with clients more than once a year and virtual meetings services like Teams are proving a potent way of maximising this engagement.
This is according to Chloe Pullan, broker manager at Sovereign Insurance Services, who was participating in a panel debate at Health & Protection’s IPMI Summit at Easthampstead Park Hotel in Wokingham last week.
Pullan maintained that communicating regularly with clients was a key part of an intermediary’s role, but her experience while working directly at an insurer was that clients only heard from their broker at policy renewal time.
“So the first thing that I implemented when I took on the role as intermediary, was to make sure I could reach out to my clients once a year,” Pullan said.
“My value isn’t just to find you the right product at the right time,” she continued.
“It’s to make sure that you know how to use that product, your employees know how to use that product if it’s a group scheme. That is the key part of it. And it should not be overlooked and quite often it can be.”
Turning to Teams
In terms of engaging those clients, Pullan revealed that she often turns to Teams.
“We have group schemes where you have lots of employees in lots of jurisdictions and it can be on Teams,” she said.
“And I I say that I’ve recorded the session and you can save it on your HR networks, so when you do a big onboarding with a few new people, they can watch this back, or if you want a refresher, you can come in and do it again.”
Driving engagement
Pullan added that sessions drive engagement and behavioural change and awareness.
“We deal with large corporates with hundreds of employees where it is highly attritional, so they don’t always know what they’re joining and getting especially if they have had their benefits provided locally in the UK and now they’re in a global scheme,” she added.
“They don’t know the processes, the differences, the extras.
“It’s important that we do highlight that and make sure that they know what they’re paying for. They have bought the product and it’s for there to them to use and they need to know how to use it and how best to use it.
“It’s part of the strategy because if you don’t use it correctly now, then we’re going to be facing issues and this is how you take control of your own policy. It’s yours.”