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How often should you be meeting with your clients?
Lorne Wiebe of Rhodes & Williams believes that brokers should be aiming to meet with their clients “at least a couple of times a year.” He added that his brokerage has a formal “Client Service Plan” that includes a six-month, mid-year client review.
The six-month client review is not the norm in the industry, said Randy Carroll, CEO of the Insurance Brokers Association of Ontario (IBAO), although client reviews are a regular part of what brokers do.
“Broker engagement with their customers in our opinion has improved over the past few years, and brokers are getting back to basics,” Carroll told Insurance Business.
Broker association research shows that clients want to hear from their brokers before policy renewal, not afterwards. “The review process needs to take place at least 45 to 60 days in advance, allowing the consumer and the broker to review what coverages are being offered and what, if anything, has changed,” Carroll said.
Wiebe said he likes to spell out the rules of engagement right at the outset of the business relationship.
“We don’t want to be overbearing,” he said. “When I have a new client, I will typically ask them how they would like to see the relationship roll out, because there are clients who don’t want to see me pop into their office every third month, and I understand that. However, it part of my job to be aware of any business changes, operational changes or revenue changes, or if they have discontinued certain arms of their business. “
For a new client, Wiebe said he will typically snoop around on the client’s website or link to their corporate LinkedIn profile. He will also sign up for any kind of client newsletters. “That’s an easy way to keep track of your clients,” he said.
Insurance brokers should be fully engaged with their clients in order to understand the full scope of their clients’ operations, Wiebe said.
He cited personal knowledge of situations in which he discovered a broker hadn’t been engaged enough with clients, with disastrous results. For example, a food manufacturer didn’t have insurance to cover the cost of recalling a defective product shipped to market. A contractor didn’t have coverage for welding it was doing at an airport. A wholesaler didn’t have insurance for exporting a good chunk of its products to the United States.
In all of these instances, Wiebe said, coverage could have been provided if the broker had been in touch with the client on a regular basis and had known that the client was engaged in these areas.
