Brokers Views on General Insurers Service

Hundreds of personal and commercial brokers will shortly be asked for their views on the quality of service delivered to them by major UK general insurance companies. Established in 2001, the BEST (Broker Evaluated Syndicated Tracker) survey provides a tracking study for a syndicate of the UK's leading insurance companies.

The BEST survey is commissioned on behalf of the syndicate members by GIMRA (General Insurance Market Research Association) which has appointed Nunwood Consulting to undertake the ongoing tracking activity.

The BEST survey is undertaken quarterly with a view to tracking brokers' relationships with specific insurers with whom they deal. The survey is designed to help insurers understand the brokers' business needs, as well as to measure the quality of the insurer/broker relationship management.

The survey also tests the perceptions of brokers about the knowledge and efficiency levels of insurers' staff, with further questions relating to the issuing of policies, the ease of access for brokers to their insurers, and the speed of response and accuracy of issued documentation.

With results available to the participating insurers via a dedicated Nunwood Consulting website within 24 hours of completion of the field work, all of the syndicate member companies are committed to using the results of the BEST study to ensure that any service problems are addressed and to continually improve the level of service which they offer to brokers.

'One of the founding principles of BEST', says Andy Cumming, Chair of GIMRA, 'is to optimise the value of research results and for general insurers to collaborate on market research projects, avoiding unnecessary and expensive duplication. The BEST study is an excellent example of how a group of insurers are working together on an established and valued piece of tracking research'.

Brokers participating in the survey are provided with broad feedback on the overall results, in particular highlighting how survey syndicate members will respond to any criticisms or failure of their service levels.

All articles 2006-22 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.