A new type of insurance marketplace appearing in the social media space might be just the tonic for Canadian insurance brokers in their fight against direct writers.
Online insurance marketplaces are currently available in which consumers anonymously post their health insurance and home loans preferences and needs on websites, and share these posting through social media such as Facebook and Twitter.
Brokers and sellers then post their product advice and offers online, competing for that customer’s business.
If customers see an offer they like, they can contact the seller or broker to buy the product. The customer can respond to an offer at any time.
For now, these sites deal only in home loans and health insurance. But Canadian brokers can envision building a similar online ‘social marketplace’ for personal lines insurance as well. For example, consumers might post information about their home online and ask for quotes for home insurance.
Such an online insurance marketplace, which currently does not exist in Canada, would allow brokers to engage their customers – and their competitors – in a way that they cannot with static broker webpages.
Scott Maskell, a broker at Glenny Insurance Broker Ltd. in Fort Erie, Ontario, thinks brokers should build a similar online marketplace. “I would think that as brokers we would be encouraged to create it, allow it to be an open forum, and even allow the directs.”
Leaving aside any potential regulatory issues around building such an online marketplace, one big question might be: Are brokers okay with seeing their quotes and advice appearing online next to those of a competitor, and shared with the customer’s friends across Facebook, Twitter and Google+ accounts?
Maskell said he would have no issues providing quotes in an open forum alongside competing direct writers, even though directs could potentially use the quoting information as intelligence against the brokers providing the competing quotes.
“I think this is something where a broker could use it to his or her advantage,” Maskell said. “The direct writers out there would really have to re-define their process.
“I think people on social media want to see some kind of interaction, and so directs would be pulled away from the canned advertising, the canned responses, and the corporate statements. They would have to have an individual there who knows their stuff, and can really come back into the conversation over and over again.
“Whereas, a broker could say: ‘Go ahead and post your quote, because we’ll come in with some advice, and we’ll be able to come back to this individual day in and day out, and interact with the person. Good luck on your end: You’ll have to come to the table with something outside your business model.’”
