An Australian insurance broker, whose nearly six-decade career includes 35 years spent in broking, is saying that the current “performance of insurance companies to us brokers is the worst” he’s ever seen.
From “stupid” shock market exits that he believes insurers will eventually regret, to what he considers as inefficient processes, as well as insurance policy changes that supposedly did not undergo consultation with broking partners – the Insurance Business source has example after example of the poor service levels he said brokers are presently struggling with when dealing with insurers.
“If you rang an insurance company today and someone picked up the phone, that would be an absolute bonus,” asserted the Victoria-based insurance veteran. “And then they’ll tell you that you’ve got to go online to file a claim. Then when you look online and there’s no action, you send them an email and you’re lucky if you get a reply.”
Even premium queries, he revealed, could take three months to get a response.
The industry source stated: “No-one seems to have the ability to turn around and say, ‘Let’s override the computer and do something manually’. We have to talk to machines because they don’t want to do any manual work. And when it needs a referral, the time it takes is quite unbelievable.
“When someone refers something, that person has got to put up a business case as to why, what he can do, and how. Then they have to go and get someone else to sign off on it, and you might do that three or four times and never get an answer. Now, as soon as it’s got to be referred, they say ‘no’, they can’t do it, because that’s easier than going through all the work. That’s how the industry is working today.”
So whatever happened to companies’ streamlining initiatives and efficiency-driven undertakings? For the broking boss, such promises by insurance providers have all been just words.
“From a purely service level perspective – being able to get things done, providing service, etc. – it’s dreadful,” he said. “And I can hear the insurance company saying that with COVID they weren’t able to go anywhere and stuff, but to me hiding behind COVID can be a bit of an excuse.”
The business development manager he liaises with at a major insurer, for instance, has not seen him for two years. Additionally, said the frustrated broker, the BDM would have to put up a business case to justify coming into his office.
“BDMs are under a huge amount of pressure, and they haven’t got any authority,” the source told Insurance Business. “I worked for the insurance companies before I became a broker, and my role was to look after the intermediaries we had and you provided them a service. You would listen to what they had to say and go about insuring them. Now, if a client asked me to insure a motor wrecker in Australia, we can’t insure it.
“I can go back in history when we had people that had that underwriting authority that you could talk to as the first person. They were the dedicated person looking after you. Now it just becomes harder and harder to get an answer, whereas you used to be able to speak to someone. It seems the only thing we do have now are trouble-shooters.”
He went on to lament that relationships “used to mean something,” saying that if insurers now decide to pull out, how good of a partner you’ve been to them no longer carries weight.
The industry stalwart declared: “If you’re providing this business and your loss ratio is really good, then you should be able to be treated much better than the person who is chopping and changing and has a high loss ratio. Today that doesn’t matter. They’ll tell you that it matters but it doesn’t.
“The people that are in charge will tell you that they’re answering to their shareholders, etc., and got to make money. And they might be right, by the way, but the way they’re treating the people that are giving them the business is the worst I’ve seen.”
For the broker, though, not all hope is lost. “While I’m unhappy with what the service is, I would be disappointed if it doesn’t improve.”
