Austbrokers CEO
Mark Searles has said that more maturity could be exhibited by the industry when it came to the issue of premium volatility.
While speaking to delegates at the
NIBA Convention earlier this week as part of an industry panel discussion, Searles reflected on the last quarter of the last financial year, saying there was some "really irrational" behaviour going on when it came to renewals.
He said that the "poor customers" of the broker channel were left wondering "what the hell is going on", with no certainty as to what may happen a couple of years down the track when it came to renewal time, and the premiums that would need to pay.
In
Insurance Business’ Brokers on Insurers Survey 2014, over 400 brokers surveyed rated premium volatility as the fourth most important concern when it came to choosing an insurer.
Anecdotal feedback was that some insurers were dropping premiums just to win business, that brokers were on the lookout for ‘cowboys’, and that brokers were concerned insurers were stinging customers at renewal.
Aon Risk Solutions’ CEO
Lambros Lambrou said the more volatility the industry brings to a customer – whether that be a broker or a carrier or another provider – “the less that customer is going to trust you”.
Lambrou said that trust was the basis from the beginning of the insurance industry, with the emphasis historically placed on the promise to pay a claim when a customer needed it.
However, he said that the emphasis is undergoing a shift from the back end towards the front end of the insurance industry propostion.
“It’s all going to be around the customer experience at the front end... that is going to define trust. Our role is to bring predictability to our customers,” he said.
