Engage Solutions Group (ESG) has announced a further win in the insurance sector. Principal Insurance, one of the UK’s leading specialist brokers, is putting engagement at the heart of its growth strategy and will roll out both ESG’s customer and colleague apps during early 2021.
Principal, which focuses on motorcycle and vehicle insurance, has already built up a loyal following and strong reputation for its atypical approach to the market, as director Dave Bowcock explains:
“In one sense, we’re like every other broker – intent on acquiring and retaining policy holders, and maximising lifetime value and mining referrals. But we’re very different in how we go about things as we firmly believe our currency isn’t policies but people – insuring their stories, taking the time to take a personal interest while serving them professionally and efficiently, and being part of their community.
“Technology is a key enabler of that approach: rather than depersonalising relationships, it affords us more time to spend with customers, and to wrap that up with slick service delivery. Our new customer app is letting us move up another gear in terms of innovation and experience.
“Transforming the ease and speed of transacting and onboarding is one example; improving the at-scene First Notification of Loss process another; simplifying renewals and facilitating cross-sell and upsell; plus clever touches like instant breakdown assistance, where you can ping your GPS coordinates to the recovery service at the touch of a button. These are all positive outcomes for our customers, particularly younger customers who would only ever transact digitally rather than over the phone.
“But there’s a lot more besides. This might sound odd when you’ve got 50,000+ policies out there but we know a lot of our customers. We’ve met them at shows or on ride outs or we’ve talked to them in depth on the phone or via social channels – that personal connection is everything to us and the app gives us a direct route and ready-made community to do more at that individual level.
”For most people, taking out insurance is one of life’s necessary evils. While we probably can’t take the sting out of it completely, we’re certainly on a mission to make it as positive an experience as possible.”
The colleague app will be rolled out just ahead of the customer app, linking all staff across two sites. Dave Bowcock continues:
“It’s a similar rationale internally. Good technology can deliver so much in terms of ease and convenience, timely communication and the right information – that’s the practical everyday value. But the colleague app will also help us reinforce our values, ensure our people are proud of what they do and the service they provide, and above all understand why our distinctly personal approach is essential for sustained business success.”
Phil Wedgwood, ESG’s CEO, hailed Principal’s holistic take on engagement: “From the get-go, it has been a holistic engagement conversation. Yes, the technology may have been decoupled into colleague and customer apps but the strategy hasn’t distinguished, it’s just had engagement running like a seam right through the business.
And you reap the rewards of what is a virtuous circle - engaged colleagues deliver better products or services or experience to engaged customers, who stay engaged, stay loyal and stay spending, creating more success to sustain and grow those engaged workforces. The Principal team absolutely gets that, and they’re going full throttle – we’re delighted to be along for the ride.”
