Skip to main content
The competitive pressures facing brokers are unrelenting. In Zywave’s 2017 Broker Services Survey, conducted last summer with over 600 respondents, the results paint a stark picture of the competitive marketplace. Nearly 1 in 5 respondents changed brokers over the past three years. Approximately 70% indicate they would abandon their current broker for communication or service related issues. In fact, the top three stated reasons that would make respondents leave a broker were all communication related. In contrast, leaving for a broker who can lower premiums ranked a distant 6th place. Today’s broker has to compete on communication, or suffer the defection of clients to those who do.

Clients want more communication

The Zywave results underscore that clients are demanding much more frequent communication from their brokers. 42% want monthly communication with their broker, and an additional 30% would like it weekly. Clients want information pushed out to them instead of having to ask for it. This mirrors a consumer trend of increasing demand for 24/7 access to data and services. If communication is the new competitive battlefield for brokers, then frequency is the first weapon required.

Clients want better communication

While increasing the frequency of client communication is a necessary first step, it isn’t sufficient on its own. 98% of respondents say that their broker’s understanding of their business is somewhat or very important. Yet despite the importance of this factor to clients, only 65% feel that their broker actually understands their business. One third of clients are stuck in a communication gap, where brokers can’t convince clients that their business environment is truly understood.

Other sources further underscore this point. The 2016 JD Powers Large Commercial Insurance Study states, “The single most critical touch point between a customer and an insurance broker is the quality of advice/guidance provided.” Similarly, a recent Insurance Journal article indicates that “Smart firms are really pushing to focus on adding value to the transaction and finding ways to make their retail clients better, and ultimately delivering a better product to the insured.” It isn’t enough to have the industry expertise and critical advice that clients seek, that expertise also needs to be communicated effectively to them.

Origami Risk’s PowerPoint reporting -- the intersection of “more” and “better” (communication)

Trying to deliver tailored, actionable insights and information to an increasingly demanding client base can quickly become untenable. Stitching together spreadsheets exported from TPA systems is not only a resource draining prospect, it often fails to provide the context and insight that clients are expecting. Primarily this is because spreadsheets are the wrong tool for this exercise.

Your clients don’t just want numbers, they want context. As the PresentationPoint blog pointed out last month, “To put it simply, use Excel when performing calculations and use PowerPoint when presenting these calculations.” You need a way to take basic data, and present it in a manner that clients can actually use. With the Origami Risk PowerPoint functionality, you now have an easy way to deliver this high value insight at the frequency your clients demand, without having to present it yourself.

Set it and forget it -- the key to added-value scalability

Building customized, actionable PowerPoint templates with Origami Risk is simple. The template not only carries forward all of your custom branding, but also allows you to carefully shape the context and focus on critical areas that matter most to your clients.

Once a template is initially set, you can apply as many filters as needed for Origami Risk to generate individual PowerPoint reports that are tailored to whatever specific divisions, units, or departments each client requires. Instead of dedicating countless hours cobbling together client reports each quarter/month/week, Origami Risk automates the entire process by running the reports on the schedule you have selected, filtering the data so each recipient sees only their own information, and even taking care of emailing the reports to specific distribution lists as soon as the PowerPoint is generated. Close that 33% communication gap, and prove your worth to your clients… automatically.

Going above and beyond

Origami Risk PowerPoint reports provide additional ways to compete on another level. By integrating several sources of data, from employee and HR records, to revenue, to fleet data, you can provide valuable context to data. Instead of merely highlighting trends in incident reports by location, for example, you can also account for number of employees or fleet vehicles to offer a much more actionable measure.

As an example, incorporating Advisen data on policy information lets clients triage the renewal process and focus on the most critical areas. Should you elect to perform your own proprietary benchmarking among your client base, you can include this high-value data in reports too, answering the ever-present client question “How do we stack up?” Together, including these types of highly relevant and critical measures will make your reports highly sought after by your clients, providing you with a key differentiator in the broker environment.

It is clear that your clients want more communication and better information. Any broker that can figure out how to provide that, without draining critical resources, will have a distinct competitive advantage. Origami Risk can give you that edge with PowerPoint reports. Learn more by contacting us.