What techniques help brokers serve customers?

Know your customer.

For five years running, that simple technique, and the effort behind it, has been consistently ranked as effective by 80-plus per cent of Canadian Underwriter’s National Broker Survey respondents.

When asked which practices have benefitted brokers’ ability to serve clients over the past 24 months, 82% of respondents to 2024’s survey chose ‘educating yourself more about the customer’s particular situation,’ as the top technique among five rank-ordered options.

That percentage is a bit below 2023’s 85% and 2022’s 87% but on par with earlier years in the 2020s.

Men are more likely to choose the research route (84%) than women (78%), but length of service doesn’t appear to be a factor. 2024 respondents from small, medium, and large firms all ranked knowing the client’s specifics above 80%. Brokers at medium-sized firms with between 20 and 99 employees are most likely to prioritize learning more about their clients at 89%.

In a verbatim survey response, a veteran commercial broker at a large firm praises the value of specifics. She adds brokers must have “dialogue[s] with clients about how their business is trending and making recommendations on that basis.”

Another newer broker at a medium-sized firm stresses ensuring client conversations cover the details. Brokers need to be “showing expertise and helping them understand risks they are not addressing,” he says.

In this year’s survey, which was conducted in January and February 2024, more than 200 brokers nationwide shared their views about challenges and opportunities for the broker distribution channel. The CU survey is sponsored by Sovereign Insurance.

Personal touch

Meanwhile, 68% of 2024 respondents saying personally assisting in the claims process boosts customer service outcomes. That’s a six percentage-point dip from 2023’s survey but consistent with responses given in the 2022 and 2021 surveys.

Connecting clients with information resources is also less popular in 2024’s survey, at 55%, than it was with brokers answering the question at the start of the decade (63% in 2020).

“Sometimes it feels like we need to be an encyclopedia,” notes a woman respondent with fewer than 16 years of service at a large brokerage.

“It helps, and our clients appreciate that, but at the same time it causes mental fatigue and burnout. Spreading knowledge across the team works great, but if we lose that person with that knowledge, it can be difficult.”

Offering after-hours customer service also falls in popularity to 44% in 2024 from 56% in 2023. Men are more likely to welcome after hours calls (51%) than women (35%).

And those with 30-plus years in brokerage are more likely to let customers call late (53%), compared to those with 16 to 30 years in the business (37%) or those who’ve clocked fewer than 16 years (39%).

Feature image courtesy of iStock/alexsl