Unsurprisingly for an industry centred around protecting people from risks, the insurance sector faces an ever-changing variety of challenges. It is not enough for brokers to sell a product that claims to offer protection; they also need to understand how risks evolve, and how they can better serve their clients while keeping up with the latest trends and updates.
Del Blondin (pictured) is a personal lines team lead with Westland Insurance Group, and she had plenty to tell Insurance Business about how she and her team are keeping up with industry challenges – and why technology should not be feared as a disruptor but rather utilized as a key tool in a broker’s arsenal.
I originally worked for Bragg Creek Insurance from 1997 to 2000 as support staff for the brokerage and also Alberta Registries. I moved to Red Deer in 2000 and was hired by All Service Insurance in January of 2002 and have been in the same firm since. All Service was purchased by Westland Insurance in 2018. I took the immersive courses for level one and two and from then on was a broker in personal lines.
I have always felt a vested interest in our brokerage having been in at the very beginning when there were only three staff and have continued to see the growth of staff to a high of 19 in 2017. I became the personal lines manager in 2011. I have always enjoyed working with staff, mentoring and teaching for incoming staff within our office. The part I find most enjoyable about being a personal lines broker is the relationships built with clients over the years. Many become friends and land up staying with the brokerage due to that bond with the broker.
My background working as an Information technologist at the Calgary Herald for ten years has been helpful in that it taught me how to mentor and support many staff, public and clients. The work was very detail-oriented and used a broad amount of technology.
All my years of my career, I have had to be flexible to learn new uses of technology, whether it was internet research (newspaper days), portals for insurers, taking webinars to upgrade education each year, quoting tools, and just day to day use of computers. The only constant in life is, indeed change, and the insurance industry gives us all lots of change and challenge every day.
My role with Westland Insurance is personal lines (PL) team lead. Our PL team in our Red Deer office has seven people including myself. I am responsible for making the group run smoothly with balanced workloads. I support the less experienced staff when they need help on policies and procedures. I mentor staff to become great sales people and productive brokers.
I have always strived to lead by example within our office, from how to close sales to keeping retentions numbers as high as possible within our books. There are so many aspects of being a broker that have changed over the years. We are very technology-driven and it can be a challenge for staff to keep up.
I would say the competition of online insurers is a huge challenge as the clients generally are focused on premium more than service. Until they have a claim and then they wish they had a broker on their side!
Another challenge our team is taking on is making Westland Insurance a known face within our community. Westland is growing all across Canada and is exceptionally well known in BC but not as well known in Alberta going east in Canada. As a team, we will be supporting different initiatives within our communities so people will recognize our brand with the goal of being the most well-known brokerage in Canada. It is going to be a challenge but our team are ready for it!
