Blog: Building a Community of Brokers

Since it was founded in 2018 to help bridge the data gap between brokers and insurers, Broker Insights has worked tirelessly to create a community around our core platform, investing time and energy in building a proposition that delivers wide-ranging benefits. 

Now, with more than £1billion commercial insurance GWP within the platform from hundreds of broker offices throughout the UK, here is a brief overview of the lessons we have learned along the way: 

Recognise shared values and a common cause:  

Building a community is about rallying behind a shared purpose.  

Broker Insights helps our broker and insurer partners to maximise the potential of data. This is one of our core value offerings and has been instrumental in attracting a community of like-minded brokers, all looking to benefit from data-driven processes and gain a strategic advantage. 

Brokers that adopt the platform do so because they want to optimise their processes, gain knowledge from their data, strengthen their oversight and develop their relationships with insurers. In helping brokers achieve these goals, we have built a community along the way, who all share common values. 

Don’t compete – compliment:  

Many brokers already have existing systems and processes in place, relationships, are members of existing communities, etc. Broker Insights’ role is to not compete with but to complement brokers’ existing capabilities.  

The platform’s technology is ‘system agnostic’ and can accept data from any back-office system, cleanse and enrich it, and present it back in a form that helps brokers to make data-driven decisions.  

For our community of brokers, this routinely features amongst the highest benefits they receive from the platform.  

Communication is key:  

Communication has been a driving force in building our broker community, helping to strengthen the connection between brokers and insurers and reduce the friction found in traditional processes. 

The platform’s ‘Notes of Interest’ feature along with the newly launched ‘Alerts & Notifications System’ provide a direct communication channel between insurers and brokers, which drives efficiencies for all parties. 

Both brokers and insurers are increasingly utilising the platform as a communications channel in their day-to-day processes, with around 10,000 Notes of Interest having been issued YTD and growing.  

“It’s tough maintaining insurer trading relationships and even more difficult to develop new insurer relationships in these times. Being visible to Broker Insights’ partner insurers is really helping us connect with insurers.”  

Fraser Daws, NR Daws Insurance Consultants

Add value: 

Watching a community grow is extremely exciting, taking a platform from an occasional use option to being amongst the first systems that a broker turns on each day. System analytics shows increases in use month-on-month as more brokers join the platform and are logging in more frequently and spending more time on site. The placement strategy page alone now receives two visits per week on average from brokers, showing that it has become a mainstream solution.  

Central to the value our community receive is the support provided to our partners. From having an allocated Broker Relationship Manager working alongside them, to the support of our Training Manager and in-platform training system, Broker Insights’ community is growing and excitingly, we are only getting started. 

Broker Insights EVP, Iain Crole, believes that a sense of community is key to success within the commercial insurance sector. 

“Brokers are incredibly busy, which presents a balancing act between working IN their business and working ON their business. Being part of a wider community and knowing that it is working for you, helps to redress the balance. 

“By providing strategic input, direct access to leading insurers, and increased capacity – brokers no longer have to solve every problem alone, as the platform can offer solutions. This is central to the value that brokers receive from our community. 

“With the support of our insurer partners, brokers across our community are increasingly turning to the platform as a mainstream solution for their business.”