Average carrier performance 7.31
Given how rapidly the industry can change, it’s crucial for carriers to provide training and marketing support on new products. Even so, this category ranks last in terms of brokers’ priorities – only 8% named it as a top factor when they assess carriers. Although carriers’ average score in this area was just 7.31, 13 carriers received five-star ratings.
Feedback from brokers included praise for current online training options and manuals, requests for instruction by a person rather than a program, and a desire for more and better communication and training sessions. “Sometimes more has to be done to illustrate wording changes and use descriptions that actually let the insured know what it is. For example, ‘Responsible Driver Guarantee’ is actually an accident forgive-ness feature, but no insured knows that,” one broker said. Another suggested their carrier “go back to having a trainer help – the purely online [training] doesn’t work as well because you can’t ask any ques-tions as you are going over the information.”
Several brokers who gave their carriers top marks in this category didn’t provide additional comments, but the few who offered praise commended their carriers’ “good field people,” “strong people always ready to help us” and “good use of e-learning options.”
