80% of survey respondents say DUAL stands out for customer service...

But how do we get it to 100%? Customer service is like driving. Everyone thinks they’re above average. Nobody deliberately sets out to be bad, and everyone who does it has an opinion on how other people do it.

Brokers are connoisseurs of customer service. They understand the importance of the overall client experience for client retention. Most brokers tend to work hard at it. Which means they know great customer service when they experience it themselves.

We are very proud to say that in our latest broker satisfaction survey, when we asked “How do you rate DUAL’s service levels in comparison to our competitors?” 80% of our brokers responded by saying we were “excellent” or “very good.”

We’re delighted that so many of you told us that our service stands out. We will continue listening to the feedback you give us, good and bad, and strive to improve further.

Why do our brokers rate us so highly?

As well as cost effective premiums, broad coverage and a prompt claims service, our survey confirmed something we already knew: most brokers are in a hurry, and many of you are counting the minutes in between a submission and a response.

55% of clients rated our quote turnaround time as excellent or very good, with another 35% saying it is ‘good.’ So in all, 90% of brokers that responded to the survey are happy with our turnaround time.

Part of this is doing our best to respond to requests in a timely fashion. Again, we scored very well in this area: 98% of you rated us as very responsive, or responsive.

Friendliness counts

We are particularly proud of one area of the survey, because it really underpins how we stand out from our competition. 8 out of 10 of survey respondents said one of the best things about working with DUAL is how friendly we are.

Fortunately for us, a happy working environment is something that a company either has or doesn’t have. You can’t fake good culture. Throughout the DUAL Group, we have a strong ‘People First’ approach that not only provides employees with opportunities to grow in the business, but also actively promotes a great work-life balance. This shines through in our service ethic. We’re friendly, because we’re happy.

It’s not all good news. What could we improve on?

This might be surprising, as most brokers rated it as a big strength of ours, but the areas where brokers suggest more improvement are turnaround time (34%) and response time (28%).

We get it. Some clients will always wait until the last minute to speak to their broker, which obviously puts you under pressure from the get-go. In these instances, we understand that speed is of the essence, and can sometimes be the difference between retaining or losing a client. We always want to do our best to help you retain clients or win new ones. In 2022, we’re going to be looking at some of our processes, and seeing if we can expedite our service even further.

Something for us all to work together on

It is getting more and more important to be thinking ahead on insurance renewals because of the new CICA legislation, which requires all proposal forms to be fully completed before a quote can be issued.

People are still getting used to this legislation; every third email we’re getting refers to CICA in some way, often because a proposal form hasn’t been filled out in full, or sometimes, we’re not even offered one, we’re just asked to quote from an email with only scant information provided.

In the past, we’ve always been very flexible in how we accept submissions. But with CICA, there are strict processes to follow. To help you, we’ve created quote forms that enable the process to be as slick as possible. If you do have an urgent requirement, please fill out the form and then call us, so that we understand the urgency and can prioritise your quotation.

The situation reminds me of that old Napoleon Bonaparte quote, “Dress me slowly, I’m in a hurry.”

Under the new system, investing a little more time upfront will help us get the job done much quicker for you, giving you a better chance of securing or retaining your important business.

*Survey analysis conducted from 40 responses to our 2021 DUAL Ireland customer satisfaction survey.

Helen Furlong is Business Development Executive at DUAL underwriting Ireland DAC. DUAL specialise, amongst other areas, in high net worth personal insurance in Ireland and are backed by Aviva. t: 01 6640001 / e: enquiry@dualgroup.ie

This article was first published in the February edition of Irish Broker Magazine.