Zurich seeks to take SME service learnings into mid-market space
05/22/2024
Zurich’s Harriet Conway, head of retail customer proposition, and Morgan Lyons head of mid-market told Insurance Age the insurer is targeting its teams “heavily” in terms of response times to brokers.
Published originally by Insurance Age| Written by Rosie Simms | 22 May 2024
At the British Insurance Brokers’ Association conference 2024, Morgan Lyons, Head of Mid-Market, said Zurich has internal KPIs to respond to brokers when they get an enquiry, with 24 hours the ambition. Lyons said: “We’re doing that 92-93% of the time within [that].”
Zurich is then aiming for anything under £40,000 in premium, customers will have a contract and quote within three days. At the moment the business is doing that 50-60% of the time, according to Lyons. “We have a target to do that 70% of the time.”
Lyons added: “When we respond quickly, we convert more which is no surprise. We’re really investing heavily in that regionally to make sure we are doing that, and we are monthly, weekly challenging our teams to do that.”
Model
Zurich is aiming to take its digital service model and apply it in traditionally more manual product environments too. Head of UK Retail David Nicolls told Insurance Age last year the insurer has invested in behind-the-scenes technology for its digital platform alongside a mid-market simplification exercise with a modularised product.
“Now we’ve got that digital capability in our regional branches, we’re looking at how we make it easier for our brokers to trade with us between SME and mid-market,” Lyons said.
Conway added: “We’ve taken all those things that people love about SME and tried to apply it to our mid-market regional space. To start with, that was mainly about enabling our underwriters. It was [focused on] taking away some of the processes that were so over the top. Irrespective of risk it was taking the same time to do each of them. Off the back of that now, we think we’re uniquely placed to almost go again in the market. We want to be sophisticated in how we match underwriters to risks and still deliver on that service proposition irrespective of size of risks.”
Risk
Giving confidence to a broker is important as they may get nervous when a risk hits a certain complexity, the pair said.
Conway said: “We need to enable our brokers to have confidence that in that risk capture, that we as insurers have understood that risk. There isn’t going to be one size fits all and it is never just a digital element that makes something a successful delivery. That’s why we want to take our brokers on a cultural journey with us because we are going to hopefully be the first mover in this space.”
Lyons believes it is currently is in a middle ground from where the proposition will be in five years time. “Going from underwriting £5000 risk digitally to a £50,000 one is a big step. If we bring the brokers along with us we’ll be trading digitally at much more higher levels of premium in five years.”
Both Conway and Lyons highlighted the progress of the proposition will be based on feedback from brokers. “There will always be that traditional way of trading that needs that human interaction,” Lyons suggested. “We just need to be able to create a journey that allows different brokers to interact with us in the way they want to rather than forcing them down one particular route.”
AI
Lyons noted Zurich uses artificial intelligence to improves its processes, but not to the “point where it is taking [customers away] from the broker journey”. Conway added: “It is being smart about how we use it. So much stuff goes on invisibly behind the scene.”
The insurer uses it in claims to detect potentially fraudulent activity, where it has high volumes and the AI can flag if something is wrong. Lyons sees the biggest risk to it maximising its use of AI, is making sure it has the right people with the right skills and knowledge. “We are evolving the types of roles and the people that we bring into the business to fill some of those gaps.”
Priority
Zurich recognises services delivery and the ease of trading with its brokers has to be the number one priority for the insurer to be able to maximise its ability to trade with them. “One of the things we’re keen to get across, prove and demonstrate to our brokers is what that service delivery looks like,” Lyons said.
Zurich now presents in service metrics in every quarter review with strategic brokers in an aim to stand aside from the current negative insurer service views.
Regional
Lyons added the insurer is trying to take the positive sentiment it has received from brokers in SME and make sure it is taken to the mid-market space. He noted the insurer is investing in its regional offices too. Last year Zurich opened branches in Bristol and Leeds as well as putting more resources into Southampton.
“It’s important that we’ve got a footprint that is local to the brokers we want to trade with." Lyons added: “We’re making sure that we regionally are covering the areas where we feel there are lots of opportunity and we’ll continue to do that as we see time move forward. We recently launched a new product in our P&C regional space, which has a lot more digital capability than we previously had.”
Project
Lyons expressed the next big project is taking its entire property and casualty book and putting it onto the digitised platform: “The real game changer will be when we can have all our existing products on one platform.”
For the last two years Conway noted Zurich has launched a new product every 12 months. “Now it’s about taking stock of what is there left to do and using our investment in the mid-market space to open that breadth across more trades,” she said.
Goals
In 12 months time, Lyons wants to be able to say broker sentiment about Zurich’s service delivery has converted into top line GWP and profit growth. He said: “All our large strategic brokers are saying to us we want to do more with Zurich. It’s about converting that sentiment into real numbers. We’re doing that, I would like to see us doing more of that and accelerate growth.”
