Your article criticising the quality of service among insurers - "Insurers' service standards nosedive" (News, 19 October) - addresses an issue that just won't go away.

Dealing with poor service providers has a direct bearing on brokers' costs both in terms of bottom-line profit and missed opportunities, so it is little wonder that they are concerned.

Furthermore, the brokers' own image and reputation suffer by association if they are unable to deliver a good quality service to their clients as a result of insurers' failings.

However, there is a solution. Brokers can force the larger players to raise the bar by factoring service into their thinking as a core requirement of a supplier's offering, by supporting those markets that adequately 'tick the boxes' on service, responsiveness, expertise, IT, contract certainty and so on.

Decisions around business placement should factor in all of these criteria to protect the interests of brokers as well as policyholders.

In this way brokers can differentiate themselves in front of their clients and, hopefully, force the poor performers to raise their respective games.

Paul Upton, Chief underwriting officer, Evolution Underwriting

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