As yet another survey has ranked financial services as the least trusted professional sector, brokers have called on insurers to do more to boost the image of the industry.
The report, from Australia-based risk management firm SAI Global, found that just 47% of consumers deem the financial services industry, including insurance, trustworthy.
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Such an image is nothing new for the industry, with a host of similar surveys ranking broking, insurance and financial services at a similar low level – so what can the industry do to improve its image?
Gurnaik Tiyur, director of Guard Insurance Brokers and co-founder of CPD Anytime, said that while the problem of trustworthiness and professionalism in the insurance industry requires effort from all parties, insurers could do more to show the value of a broker.
“Insurance companies themselves don’t know enough to promote brokers,” Tiyur told Insurance Business. “The bulk of their business is done through brokers and not once do they publically have advertising campaigns, newspaper campaigns promoting the use of a broker. They are all too busy trying to promote their direct arms.”
Dale Hansen, CEO of
Austbrokers Coast to Coast, agreed that insurers have a role to play in boosting the image of the industry.
“They have their role to play in lifting confidence, in the way they market and advertise and I think a lot of that is questionable,” Hansen told Insurance Business. “It is passing on the message that insurance is easy, simple, quick and cheap. It isn’t. It requires care, consideration, guidance, experience and qualifications.”
For brokers, Hansen said that they need to focus on educating clients and the wider community on their role as an adviser rather than being seen as a human aggregator.
“We are not getting our message out there and that is the problem,” Hansen continued. “If we do that well then all of the other problems I think take care of themselves.”
Tiyur said that if individual brokers focus on their own interactions with clients, and make client experience as positive as possible, the whole industry can benefit.
“It is harder to build a relationship but that is what I believe brokers need to continue to do to get themselves away from this negative image that is there,” Tiyur concluded.
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