According to the 13th annual survey by Suncorp’s primary intermediated brand, more than 80% of businesses reported that insurance gives them “peace of mind” compared to 67% a few years ago.
Insurance Business was struck by this uptick as evidence of satisfaction with brokers and a growing appreciation for the coverages they provide.
IB asked Anthony Pagano (pictured above), Vero’s head of distribution, if this year’s SME Insurance Index is the most positive report card for brokers he’s yet released? Or is that overstating the good news?
“No, I don’t think you are,” said Pagano.
He said there are several factors driving this positive change.
“Education and awareness have helped put insurers, brokers and customers closer together within the supply chain,” said Pagano.
He suggested that the increasing number of natural disasters and economic pressures have turned customers on to the importance of their insurance brokers and put the industry in a powerful position as providers of a safety net.
“We’ve seen an increase in the number of customers where brokers get to explain in detail the structure of the program, why the price is the price and what risk management strategies can be deployed to help reduce the cost of the program,” said Pagano.
He said this is also making SME businesses more involved in their insurance buying process.
“This is giving them greater peace of mind,” said Pagano. “They’re getting informed, where in the past they wouldn’t be getting informed.”
The Vero chief said this growing awareness is a two-way process. Brokers are also showing more interest in using the SME Insurance Index to help guide their work.
At Pagano’s recent webinar, where he explained the 2024 findings, he said a record 3,000 brokers attended.
“I was blown away!” he said. “Three thousand (3,000) people listening in to a report that they could read in their own time – that’s interest!”
Not just interest from insurance brokers. Pagano said when he recently Google searched the SME Insurance Index he could see that “so many” businesses and publications are sharing this research.
He said this is helping to demystify the insurance process.
“Insurance is far from simple because it’s a complex product - but our jobs and the broker’s job is to make the complex simple, and the simple compelling,” said Pagano.
IB suggested to the Vero leader that one broker challenge is deciding when to give advice to customers who are busy running businesses. Is renewal time the best moment?
“I think a broker should be engaging their clients at any opportunity,” said Pagano. “You need to take the opportunity at any point.”
He said the reality is that most clients don’t like thinking about insurance.
“But we, in the insurance industry, should be,” said Pagano. “I don’t think about making a beautiful rack of lamb like a chef would, or making a nice, tailored suit like a tailor, that’s their trade.
“My trade is the words on a page and a broker has to think about how his or her trade is going to resonate with clients.”
For example, he said when an unfortunate incident impacts someone who is insured they often wish, with the benefit of hindsight, that they’d done things differently.
“Fortunately for brokers, they have the benefit of hindsight like it’s happening in real time because they’ve got many clients in the same industry who have experienced the same issues as the client that they are speaking to at that particular moment,” said Pagano.
The broker, he suggested, should leverage this advantage.
“It then becomes a case of finding ways to talk through the issues like, ‘when was the last time you had an insurance evaluation?’ Or ‘what new machinery have you purchased?’” said Pagano.
He said renewal time is too long for brokers to wait – a lot can change for a business during those 12 months.
“Brokers really need to think about their engagement, whether that’s through virtual engagement or face to face,” said Pagano. “So not just through an invoice, it’s about asking questions and connecting the issues impacting the clients that they represent within those same industries.”
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