There was a time when I enjoyed my job, dealing with clients, speaking with our appointed team at insurance companies, rebroking risks, obtaining quotations and generally doing my job. Oh but those days seem to be disappearing fast. While I still have regular contact with our clients, that's where it ends; why can't we contact the insurance companies like we used to?
Typical scenario: client rings us to report a new claim this is fine and we welcome the call, however, we have to hand them over to the insurer's claims helpline team and give them the appropriate number to ring, again this is fine and in most cases things progress to a satisfactory conclusion. However, it is when the client has a query and we get involved in trying to contact the claims team (you rarely get the same person twice) - that's if you can get through at all - once you've nearly fallen asleep listening to their loud boisterous classical music for the umpteenth time and eventually get through the file is either "out" or being "worked on" and they promise to call you back. No such luck, it is down to us to chase them again in a few days only to hear the same ding-dong music. The frustration lies with not being able to talk to a human, but press option this, that and the other. Some companies now give email addresses to save telephone calls. I've used this in the past in the hope of getting a response, but, hey, no way.
What is a broker to do, can anyone advise, is there something we should be doing that no one has told us about? Maybe we should all go to Tesco.
Ita Ward
JDP Insurance Brokers
Send letters to Insurance Times, 30 Cannon Street, London, EC4M 6YJ or email
letters@instimes.co.uk or fax 020 7618 3499
