How Banks & Insurers Can Strengthen Intermediary Loyalty

In the banking and insurance sector, digital transformation is bringing about two major changes.

The first concerns customer and user experience. Indeed, online, customers have access to a significant amount of information on banking and insurance products. Before contacting an advisor, they have completed between 50% and 70% of their purchasing process. Thus, the first interaction with your customers often happens online. That’s why it’s important to optimize your customer journey on the web.

The second concerns how to engage your network of intermediaries. Many banking and insurance companies rely on networks of brokers, agents, or representatives for the sale of their products. Often, these intermediaries are not employees of the company. Furthermore, some networks, such as brokers, do not have an exclusivity contract with a defined provider. That’s why the challenges of training and engaging the network are significant.

In parallel with these profound changes, the sector must face strong regulatory constraints, intensified competition, and constant innovations. This requires intermediaries to have sharp expertise in both the offerings and the regulatory and competitive environment.
What is paramount for intermediary networks is the support, such as the sales support tools you can provide them.

How to Effectively Engage a Network of Brokers, Agents, or Representatives?

Incenteev shares its tips for embedding your digital transformation to serve the experience of your intermediaries and, consequently, your customers.

1. Facilitate Sales

Notably by implementing sales support tools such as an intranet to simplify quote generation and information dissemination, a CRM to facilitate customer management for intermediaries who do not have one, or even electronic signatures. For example, CIMUT offers its brokers a 100% web-based software package entirely dedicated to managing health, provident, and brokerage contracts: starweb.

These tools, when effective, allow your intermediaries to be more responsive with their clients. By strengthening their responsiveness, they will thus be more efficient. According to a study by Salesforce, a CRM can increase sales by up to 29% and productivity by up to 34%. It goes without saying that by making sales easier for them, you build their loyalty.

2. Train

The training challenges for a network of intermediaries are significant. Indeed, they are often independent professionals who do not exclusively distribute your products. Thus, you have a strong challenge regarding visibility and training. Knowing that it takes an average of 27 repetitions to retain information, it is advisable to continuously support your network. Furthermore, an intermediary who receives comprehensive and continuous training will have excellent knowledge of your solutions and will be comfortable offering them to their clients.

3. Establish Field Representatives

When you have a large number of intermediaries spread across an extended territory, it is relevant to set up field representatives, i.e., sales representatives or inspectors in charge of a group of intermediaries. This is the case for the XL CATLIN insurance group, specializing in corporate risks, which recently communicated on the overhaul of its sales team to strengthen its presence with its network of brokers: “We now have sales representatives who are distributed across different zones to better serve them.” Their main mission is to create a lasting relationship with the network by engaging and training them daily. These managers, who are in most cases employees of your company, are your ambassadors. They will allow you to better understand your intermediaries, their daily challenges, and thus adapt your distribution strategy to meet sales challenges and customer expectations.

4. Communicate in Real Time

Adopt a social network to communicate directly with your intermediaries. It allows for easier information dissemination and presents all value-added information you wish to share with your network in a fun format (images, videos, GIFs, etc.). Complementary to field representatives, the social network promotes communication and proximity with your network. Setting up a social network requires prior in-depth consideration of communication challenges and the construction of a communication plan.

5. Create Engagement with Challenges

We must not forget that we are dealing with a sales population. They love challenges. Bring them along with you in pursuit of your objectives through fun and dynamic engagement operations. We recommend adapting your challenges based on the profile of your intermediaries to maximize their engagement. For example, you can segment your intermediaries by performance level: inactive, active, super-active. To do this, a coaching and engagement application is essential, particularly to foster emulation, strengthen your visibility, and the close relationship with your brokers.
Just like the social network, prior consideration must be given to make your engagement a success: intermediary satisfaction, customer satisfaction, and ROI.

For example, Incenteev, a coaching and engagement platform, daily engages networks of intermediaries in banking and insurance.

Banks and insurance companies are investing heavily in the digital transformation of their organizations to offer a better experience to both their intermediary networks and their customers. Moreover, brokers have made digital a strategic priority. In addition to the development of online brokers such as AssurOne Groupe and Santiane, large groups are showing creativity in their digitalization efforts. This is the case for Verspieren, which announced in 2016 the creation of Verspieren Smart Up, aimed at supporting startups in the insurance sector.

However, one must remain vigilant, digital developments must not lose sight of the main objective: to serve people.

To learn more about engaging a distribution network, download our White Paper: The Complete Guide to B2B Loyalty Programs