Mark Blucher has steered the ship for the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia for the past year as interim CEO and president, and has finally and formally been handed the keys of office. The official President and CEO of the ICBC sat down with Insurance Business for an exclusive interview, reflecting on the past year, and sharing his vision for the future.
IB: What challenges do independent brokers face today?
Blucher: More and more customers want services online. We recognize this desire and are working with our broker partners to make some insurance services available online in the future. This will be done in partnership with and through brokers.
Our customer research tells us that people look online for information, but the majority of customers still prefer a face-to-face interaction when making a purchase. We will continue to recognize our network of 900 independent broker offices across the province as our sole distribution channel/business partner for Autoplan insurance.
IB: What technologies are available that brokers should take advantage of to survive and thrive?
Blucher: As part of our business transformation, we’ll be introducing a new point of sale system for our broker partners that will transform how we sell and service insurance to both our personal and commercial customers by improving brokers’ ease of doing business and ultimately improving customers’ insurance experience. It will be easier for brokers to explain insurance products and pricing and show customers the value and benefits of their insurance purchase.
The changes we are making across the company will give our brokers and employees better tools and less complicated procedures, allow us to make pricing changes more quickly and ultimately allow us to introduce new products faster. We will work closely with our broker partners to ensure their needs are met by these plans. (continued.)
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IB: You’ve been interim president and CEO since October of last year. How has your year been?
Blucher: Over the past year, we've really refocused the company on making improvements to our service to customers and on keeping rates as low as possible despite rising claims costs. Our bodily injury claims costs have been increasing dramatically over the last few years and are set to top $2 billion for the first time in 2013. While many external factors are beyond our control, we have begun to make changes to help stem the increase in injury costs. We believe the most effective way to address this issue is to focus on helping our customers get access to medical treatments and we are making several improvements to help achieve this.
At ICBC we know we have a responsibility to provide our customers with the best insurance coverage for the lowest possible cost. In order to do this, we have had to adapt to the changes that face many insurance companies. This includes continuing to respond to increasing bodily injury claims costs and the impacts to investment income from a low interest rate environment.
IB: Are there any new initiatives you are proud to have launched?
Blucher: Even with a challenging environment, we've launched a number of major new initiatives (such as our new claims handling system) and new competitive optional products (such as our New Vehicle Replacement Plus product), while continuing to make our roads safer for all British Columbians through our road safety campaigns and road improvement projects.
We also responded to a government review which found we had done a good job managing our investments and keeping rate increases low over the last 10 years. It made 24 recommendations that focused on issues around cost containment, compensation and operating costs, and the early part of our year included work to address these recommendations. (continued.)
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IB: Do you have a vision of where you want to take ICBC?
Blucher: As the environment changes, we have to work even harder to meet our customers evolving expectations, which include: low and predictable rates; access to online and mobility options; quality, consistent and timely customer service; fair, reliable and timely claims handling; safer roads; and that we operate in an efficient manner.
We are currently in the midst of a major business transformation program. We’re investing in much-needed system upgrades and improving our processes to make them more customer friendly as part of a business renewal. This work has been underway for a couple of years now and will take us through until the end of 2015. Some of these major projects include a new rating engine and a new point of sale system for our broker partners. We are also making major changes to improve the quality, consistency and timeliness of our claims handling
While we continue to address our increasing claims costs and do everything we can to keep rates as low as possible while moderating fluctuations, we will keep our focus on our customers by launching more online and mobile-based options and additional new competitive optional insurance products.
