What the majority of people think of a Broker Consultant’s position in the insurance industry is dramatically untrue. While we do enjoy a flexible day and the odd lunch or golf day out of the office, our work lives are largely dictated by our partners and brokers needs. This makes for an interesting dynamic as we are constantly trying to make all parties happy, namely our brokers, our mutual clients and our underwriting, claims and credit control staff.
Fundamentally, a BC is the tip of the sword for our business and it’s our job to portray iTOO’s interests to our various markets. Brokers are the lifeblood of our existence and without them we wouldn’t write a stitch of business. Essentially I see what we do as BC’s as relationship building and management while enhancing the broker’s service experience and delivering the professional image of our business.
As we all know, any office environment has its pitfalls and difficulties that need to be massaged and nurtured in order to provide a professional and world class service. I’ve always believed that a happy and energised work environment and staff contingent is always a winning formula. Managing broker expectations and underwriters capacity will always have its complexities. However when done correctly it makes for a productive and believe it or not a fun-to-be-around work space. At iTOO it’s easy to see that we have achieved that, our BC’s and underwriters work well together in a systematic way which is constantly evolving and improving our service to our clients and brokers.
Within the past year, we as a marketing and sales team have put in place some very interesting and exciting new ways of promoting our name and products to our various brokers- multi-nationals and independent brokers alike. The likes of our Boardroom Takeovers, Food-truck site visits and technical product training programmes have all yielded great responses and a feeling of trust and mutual ongoing respect between us and our partners. The feedback has been brilliant from everyone as it’s catapulted us into the broker’s front of mind. It’s these out-of-the-box ideas and thinking that I believe will soon see iTOO as the preferred specialist casualty UMA within our South African market and hopefully soon, the entire African continent.
We know there is room for improvement and we’re always looking at new ways to innovate in order to provide the best service and experiences for our brokers. It’s essential that we move with the times. New products along with wider treaties coupled with the latest tech are ways in which we wish to widen our scope of business and product offering to our clients and brokers. It all falls within our strategic mantra of Raising the bar. We want to be the best and in order to do that we need the best technical underwriters and staff so that we, the Broker Consultants are able to provide an amazing experience for our brokers.
In closing, let me sum up my feeling on being a BC at the best casualty UMA in SA. I have the amazing opportunity to do what I love, which is interacting with people and looking after relationships, not many people are able to say the same. I have to walk a very tight rope in order to maintain these intricate and sometimes fledgling relations but it gives me great pleasure and satisfaction when we try something new or out of the ordinary and pays dividends in the form of new business, renewals and lasting relationships. I find it easy to interact and be social with our brokers which I believe leads to more opportunities for us as iTOO.
However, and I need to stress his next part, my achievements and job would not be possible without the incredible team of people who do all the technical work. From the technical underwriters, team leaders, filing clerks, managing partners, administrative staff to the tea server, everyone and I mean everyone plays their part. Without all of them, I wouldn’t have the freedom to do what I do and would probably not be in the amazing position I find myself, delivering quality products at an outstanding level of service to our brokers.
So I guess a massive thank you to everyone at iTOO for making it all possible, your efforts are hugely appreciated. You are the backbone of this family and business and I look forward to working closely with you all going forward.
