One broker agrees that the effective use of technology can allow a brokerage to succeed – but feels there is no sense of urgency in the channel to do so.
“I still don't see the sense of urgency in brokers about the change in the industry,” says Bruce Rabik, the chief operation officer at Rogers Insurance Ltd. in Calgary, Alta. “The biggest threats facing brokers was never ever banks getting into the business - it was always the internet and it has been insurers destroying the brokerage channel by buying it up and trying to control it (and removing the opportunity to perpetuate brokerages).”
Rabik was commenting on the article ‘
Brokers: the sky isn’t falling,’ which reported from the recent Insurance-Canada Technology Conference in Toronto, Ont. that despite the doom and gloom preached by some about the entry of Google into the market, there remains a bright future for brokers.
But Rabik points to statistics as evidence that the odds appear to remain stacked against the channel, and that most of those who do own brokerages – the baby boomers – are content to either let sleeping dogs lie or retire.
“The number of brokerages in Canada is falling fast and the number of truly independent brokerages if falling even faster,” Rabik told
Insurance Business. “Yes we can succeed by changing but the pace of change has to be much faster. There are threats but also incredible opportunities – both in the internet and the desire by insurers to carve up the channel. Most brokers though are simply waiting to retire or sell.”
Wendy Watson, one of those onstage for the ‘Brokers Winning Customers’ panel, stressed the need for brokers to be proactive in maintaining customer loyalty, and using technology to that end.
“We need to keep winning the customer over and over again,” said Watson. “We have a ton of idle information, and we can use that through analytics.”
