SMEs have different expectations between insurers and intermediaries

Business clients select their insurers and intermediaries based on various criteria.

After looking at retail clients in 2021, in 2023 EY’s Insurance Barometer, focuses on businesses: self-employed and companies up to 250 employees. The aim is to gain insights into their preferences and their intent when purchasing insurance.

This article delves into the findings specifically related to companies with 11 to 250 employees. The findings pertaining to self-employed and small companies up to 10 employees can be found here and perspectives on sustainability matters are available here.
 

Intermediaries and insurers are not selected on the same criteria

EY’s 2023 Insurance Barometer distinguishes between two categories of business clients in terms of how they underwrite their insurances:

• the business clients who underwrite their insurance policies through an intermediary – around 70% – , such as an independent broker, bank or insurance agent, and
• those who deal directly with the insurance company, for instance with the support of an account manager.

Three selection criteria play a key role in influencing the choice of an intermediary over an insurer: 

1. Assistance provided when a claim occurs,
2. Perceived professionalism of the intermediary,
3. Coaching in risk prevention.
    

We observe differences in the most important criteria amongst the largest sectors. For example,  within the Wholesale and Retail Trade sector, the primary criterion to select an intermediary is the availability of additional services and advice.

For business clients working directly with an insurer, the top three selection criteria are:

1. Pricing,
2. Availability of self-servicing tools,
3. Proper claim handling and follow-up.

When we  zoom in on the largest sectors working with insurers, we see that the top criterion varies among different industries, mirroring what is observed for the intermediaries. In the construction sector, the availability of self-servicing digital tools is deemed to be the most important criterion for selecting an insurer.

Contact with intermediaries and insurers occurs through different communication channels

Some major differences characterize the way these business clients communicate with their intermediaries or insurers. To get in touch with intermediaries, in-person conversations and e-mail are most used by SMEs with more than 10 employees. Whereby smaller SMEs tend to use in-person conversation more compared to larger SMEs. Business clients directly with insurers communicate mainly via e-mail, phone and websites or mobile applications.

It’s worth noting that, while websites or mobile applications are commonly used by business clients working directly with insurers, they are much less common among business clients working with intermediaries.

We also asked about the preferred communication channels. For businesses with 11 to 250 employees, in-person conversation and email are the preferred ways to get in touch with their intermediaries and insurers. It's interesting to observe the parallel with small business clients and the self-employed, where in-person conversation is also the preferred channel. 

Intermediaries and insurers achieve comparable scores

Overall, the satisfaction levels for both groups, those working with an intermediary and those dealing directly with insurers, are at a similar level. The assistance and the follow-up of claims receive high scores in both groups - 47% responded “extremely satisfied” or “somewhat satisfied” -, as does the advice related to new insurance contracts (47% for insurers and 45% for intermediaries).

However, when it comes to risk prevention advice, only 38% of businesses resorting to an intermediary are extremely or somewhat satisfied, while those working with insurers attain a score of 43%. It's noteworthy that risk prevention advice was identified as one of the key selection criteria for selecting an intermediary.

The satisfaction levels among SMEs with 11 to 250 employees are significantly lower compared to those observed among the self-employed and small business clients. This discrepancy could potentially indicate that intermediaries and insurers have room for improvement to better service and advise their medium and large business clients.