SYSTEMS SCENE
paying between £35 and £50 for
Barry Grainger Ltd
even more stringent validation to accidentally agree to limits and
each piece of business it
Based: Tunbridge Wells
make sure the right policies were excesses which they don’t really
converts.
Staff: 50
going to the right customers and want to take on when they look
In the past it worked out
Established: 1980
providing them with the right at them in a little more detail.
that the firm was paying
Business: 60% personal lines,
levels of cover. He says: “You do need to check
between £60 and £70 for each
40% commercial lines
everything and go through all of
piece of new business. Even
Managing director David
Nova Insurance the details with the client.”
when you add in all of the
Harvey gets straight to the point
Based: Ilford However, he says checking
associated costs of going
of the matter when he says: “The
Staff: 6 and editing the data that is
through the aggregator sites, IT
hardest part of the job is lead
Established: 1995 generated from the comparison
director Craig Astbury says it
generation. The big boys are
Business: 75% personal lines, sites is no more difficult or time
still makes economic sense. He
taking up all of the TV time and
25% commercial lines consuming than getting all of
says: “With all the costs included
there is little left for us unless
Hassan Soyer is under no the information from scratch
it works out well. Plus, once the
we join them.”
illusions about the strength of over the phone.
first aggregator was in place
In the past Barry Grainger
the internet as a distribution and Hassan simply sees
then it was very straightforward
Ltd was spending up to £15,000
sales channel in the personal comparison sites as another
to set the others up.”
a month on magazine
lines market and knows how channel to generate leads and
Indeed, once everything was
advertising and it has cut that
difficult it is as a small broker to says they are no different to
set up at NCI for the first
back to £2,000 on the back of
keep a high profile online Yellow Pages in days gone by. “I
aggregator, it has only required
the work it is doing with
presence. think there is a lot more
about two days work by the
comparison websites. Although
He explains: “Getting to the business to come from the
broker to get things up and
David says the margins are
top of the search engine listings internet and comparison sites”
running with other sites – with
tighter for the business
is difficult and it is very he says.
SSP taking care of everything
converted through comparison
expensive to stay there for a
else.
sites, the fact costs are set at
long time – you are talking The same, but
Craig says the firm coverts
between £35 and £50 a case
telephone numbers.” As such he different
about 35% of those customers
makes it easier to manage.
says it is easier to piggyback on Although there are a lot of
that click through from the
At the moment, Barry
the work done by comparison things to consider when working
aggregator’s site onto NCI’s site
Grainger does not offer a buy
sites and to try and fight for through the comparison sites, it
and about 10% of the cases
online facility, but does give
market share through the seems that brokers with a clear
where it appears top of the
customers an 0800 number to
customer enquiries they are idea of the business they want
listing on the aggregator site. At
call and follows up all of its
already generating from their and those with well worked
the moment about 400 leads a
leads with outbound calls of its
large marketing spend. validation and customer service
day result from NCI coming top
own. This has curtailed its ability
At the moment the firm is propositions in place, can do
of a customer’s search on the
to operate on some of the
working with a couple of the very well.
aggregator site or from a
comparison sites and although it
smaller sites to see how things There may be a cost of
customer clicking through to
is listed on four at the moment,
work and Hassan says getting up doing business in this market,
NCI’s site. The firm only comes
there are another four waiting to
and running was simply a matter but at least it is fixed and by
top in about 1% of all of the
go just as soon as the online
of speaking to their IT provider, only paying on completed cases
quotes submitted, but by
purchasing is put in place.
telling them which aggregator it also does away with the need
focusing on a very specific target
To ensure the quality of the
sites they wanted to connect to for heavy speculative spends in
market, Craig says NCI can
business going on to insurers’
and then leaving all of the the advertising market.
manage the volume it generates
books, David says it is important
background work to the IT The vast majority of
while remaining competitive in
to validate the information given
specialists. personal line business has always
the areas it wants to.
by customers and comments:
Currently Nova Insurance is been about lead generation and
He comments: “SSP was
“Once the lead comes in it is
also testing a real time pricing the comparison sites offer one of
very helpful in terms of the
about broking it properly and if
tool that will allow it to alter its the most effective ways of
various aggregator sites, how
you do that then there is not a
rates immediately, helping it to getting customers in through the
they work and which would work
problem.”
react quickly to changing needs. door. After that it is up to
best for us. They also helped in
Looking to the future, David
Hassan says it is important to brokers to convert them, but is
terms of how to display the add-
would welcome doing more
make sure customers are giving this all that different from when
ons we were selling and which
commercial lines business in this
the correct details online and the customer used to come in off
ones would work well.”
way, but knows this would take
also says that some can the street for a chat?
Insurance Brokers’ Monthly 21
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40