NU insists that its service is already improving
After being voted 15th out of 17 for service in Insurance Times’ Working with UK Commercial Insurance Brokers survey, Norwich Union is adamant that its ranking will be considerably improved next year.
The insurer says that last year it made changes to the way it serviced brokers – too late, it insists, to be reflected in Insurance Times’ survey – which saw the creation of dedicated service centres.
Service centre staff are focused solely on servicing brokers – producing documents, providing renewal terms etc - leaving its branches to concentrate on new business opportunities.
The transfer of broker servicing from the branches to the service centres was completed at the end of last year, so all brokers will now be trading under the new model, the insurer says.
NU insists that the changes have already been felt, saying that it no longer has the backlogs that it used to have and that its six week target for renewal terms is “broadly met”.
It has further developments planned this year, which it says will improve service further.
NU plans to expand its e-broking capabilities, adding small-end packages and developing the full-cycle functionality.
There are also plans to move the servicing aspect of NU’s Bonus underwriters, the underwriters who sit in brokers’ offices, into the service centre model. This will “free up” the Bonus underwriters to underwrite, says NU.
The insurer will also look at the servicing aspects of its specialist lines, such as marine and engineering, which do not yet fit into the service centre model.
NU is confident that its service has improved and will continue to do so in the coming year.
