Drewberry shortlisted for two leading insurance awards

Chamber members Drewberry Insurance talk being shortlisted for two top industry awards, and how they deliver such a notable service.

For the second year running, Brighton’s Drewberry Insurance has been shortlisted for two top industry awards at this year’s prestigious Cover magazine awards at London’s Hilton Bankside.

We were delighted to learn recently that Drewberry Insurance has once again been shortlisted for two of the life insurance industry’s top annual awards. For the second year running, we’ve been shortlisted for the Best Protection Intermediary Firm in the UK as well as for the much-coveted Customer Service Award at the 2017 Cover Excellence Awards.

As you might expect, there’s quite a crowded field of finalists at this year’s gala event, so we won’t be getting our hopes up just yet. But, whether we win or lose, like all industry awards (and ours has more than its fair share) Cover’s Excellence Awards have already done most of their work.

While being the ultimate winner would, no doubt, help to secure a little extra business and a little more profile within our industry, it’s the recognition for our team of more than 20 dedicated advisers and customer service staff in Brighton that’s really of most value.

Combining expertise with a common touch
Drewberry Insurance began its journey as a small Brighton-based protection adviser with big ambitions back in 2009. Since then, by emphasising the importance of expert product knowledge and just being ‘fanatical’ about customer service we’ve succeeded in doubling in size almost every year.

Between the staff at our London and Brighton offices, we now employ almost 40 people, each of whom is in some way dedicated to delivering the very best information to our clients so that they can make informed decisions about their financial futures.

Cultural revolution
Of course, these days it’s difficult to find a company that doesn’t say it’s ‘client-centric’, ‘outcome-focused’ or just ‘fanatical’ about customer service. But, the average Brit has become more than a little wary of such promises as, in many cases, it’s the companies that make the most noise about such things that do the least about them. 

The real challenge is designing business processes that put such ideals at the centre of everything you do so that, as your business grows and extends into new areas, these traits persist.

To us, this means making education, engagement and innovation central to how we interact with all our clients. By putting so much freshly updated content on our website and building a host of easy to use money tools and calculators for all aspects of protection and financial planning, we aim to engage and inform our clients long before they reach the stage of buying the insurances they need.

These days, our reflex action is to look up whatever information we need online, whatever the topic might be. By positioning ourselves as the first port of call to answer the questions that arise as soon as people start to consider life insurance, private medical cover or pension and estate planning we engender a great deal of trust with the more than a quarter of a million annual visitors that our site receives every year.

Making customer service count
To put our money where our mouth is, we’ve set out clear metrics around customer service and genuinely holistic advice that ensure the ‘best’ advisers are not only rewarded but promoted within our business. We think this is crucial to ingraining such qualities in our culture as we grow.

And, because it’s a combination of superb customer service and customer education that drives our revenue, we’ve been able to successfully move the emphasis away from sales as the ultimate driver of our business. Our adviser teams have already proved the efficacy of this approach this year with first quarter sales that set a new record for our business.

And, once we sign a new client, we don’t go quiet. Quite the reverse, in fact. We’ve developed numerous email streams that help to keep clients engaged with their purchase and with us. These emails are tailored to each client’s age, occupation and circumstances and can include anything from useful pointers on things like making a claim or the latest pay-out rates from their chosen insurer to those big moments in life when it pays to update the cover they have in place.

Only time will tell if the judges of this year’s Cover Excellence Awards decide that we’ve done enough to lift the laurels. And, while it’s always flattering to sit at the ‘top table’ in your field, we’ll be keeping the focus on delivering the same levels of customer satisfaction that got us there in the first place!

Thank you to Bronja Whitlock from Dewberry Insurance for providing this blog. 

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