Mike Bottle: Hello, and welcome to the latest in a series of updates from Arch Insurance UK Regional Division. My name is Mike Bottle, senior vice president responsible for strategy and distribution. It’s been a great 12 months for Arch in terms of recognition from our broker partners. We really appreciate our brokers voting us 5 stars in the Insurance Times Commercial Lines insurer survey for the 2nd year in a row. We’re also delighted to be awarded the Grace Church Service Quality Award, testament to our underwriters.
Today, I’m delighted to welcome Neil Peters, vice president and director of our branches, to talk about his strategy for our branch network. Neil, what is the essence of good broker service?
Neil Peters: I think it’s about being responsive. It’s about being responsive, being available, making sure that calls are missed or returned immediately, and allowing the broker to set the time scales. So sometimes they need a quote tomorrow. Sometimes they need it in 3- or 4-weeks’ time. We need to be able to adjust how we respond to their requirements.
Mike Bottle: So that interaction with our offices, how important is it then that we get our branches out to meet brokers face to face?
Neil Peters: Really important. A lot of organizations have got development underwriters. We don’t have that kind of title. Everybody’s expected to get out if required. So, we, again, we want to respond to the brokers’ needs. If they want to meet us and talk through a large case or a difficult renewal, we’ll do that. And if they want to get us on a joint visit with their clients, we can accommodate that as well. So, again, it’s working to their requirements and understanding what their requirements are from the outset.
Mike Bottle: And that’s a national footprint. So, can you just give us a bit more about that branch network and what we can look forward to in the future?
Neil Peters: Yeah. So, we’ve got 9 branches across the country, which I think is pretty good. That gives us national coverage in all of the main geographies and all the big insurance centres. It’s about as close as we can get to most of our brokers. We do travel if we have to. We do roadshows in places like Norwich, down in Cornwall, up in Scotland when we’re out and about so that we can make sure that we meet as many brokers as possible. But fundamentally, we want our people to know the people that they’re dealing with on a face-to-face basis, and if required, meet their clients as well.
Mike Bottle: So, the message very much is we’re open for business. We’re happy to travel to the brokers, but we’re really happy for the brokers to come and visit us in our office.
Neil Peters: Yeah. We’ve got 9 really nice offices now. We’ve gone through a complete renewal of our office stock if you like. We are even prepared to share office facilities with them, let them use our boardrooms for meetings, that sort of stuff. The more contact we have with brokers, the happier we are, really.
Mike Bottle: Fantastic. Thank you.