When BizCover for Brokers was launched five years ago, founder and CEO Michael Gottlieb laid out his vision in an interview with Insurance & Risk Magazine: “to work with [brokers] to streamline their business.” Michael’s solution was an online contestable platform which made SME broking “as simple as possible for the broker without compromising the underwriting process”.
It was a novel concept, but one which was met with both support and trepidation. Some worried that BizCover for Brokers was a threat to broking’s future. However, the past five years have shown that the platform is anything but.
Broking Streamlined.
The seed was planted for BizCover for Brokers (B4B) when Michael started his insurance career. As a broker, he came to understand the difficulty in making any profit on SME business. Providing a high level of service to SME clients still required obtaining multiple quotes by undertaking repetitive data entry, often for multiple classes of insurance. Many times, the return on investment was negative, with brokers often earning just $100 to $300 per client.
Michael saw a problem that needed to be solved. What if you could enter data once into a single, easy-to-use platform and get multiple quotes in seconds?
The B4B platform does just that, by offering single data entry to receive multiple quotes for multiple products from multiple insurers, online and in minutes. From there, you can bind a policy and receive the policy documents instantly. You can also manage the full lifecycle of the policy, including amendments and renewals.
BizCover for Brokers streamlines the broking process by making it more efficient, allowing you to focus on growing your brokerage instead.
Building Broking Partnerships
As for BizCover for Brokers’ success, the numbers speak for themselves. In 2019 we insured 40,000 small businesses through the support of our partners. Our insurance partners now include six of Australia’s leading insurers, and further expansion is in the pipeline. The product offering has expanded to include the most essential products for SMEs — Professional Indemnity, Public Liability, Business Pack, Management Liability, Cyber Liability and Personal Accident — with more to come.
When asked to what he attributes the success of the B4B platform, Michael states “From day one, BizCover for Brokers was conceived as a tool to help brokers work more efficiently. We would not be where we are today if brokers did not see the value in what we are offering. Ultimately our success is intrinsically linked to the operational needs of brokers, we are always working to respond to those needs and we rely on the feedback of our brokers to do this”.
In 2019, B4B quoted 88.5% of all submissions received, an extremely high quote rate illustrating how acutely the platform responds to market demands. Our broad offering provides cover for over 6,000 occupations. So whether your client is an accountant, a consultant, a florist, a tradie, a health service provider, a zumba instructor or even a squid jigger, BizCover for Brokers is your home for SME insurance.
Michael has always been quick to dispel any notion that the platform is competition for brokers and states “we view it as a partnership with the broking community.” As of today, BizCover for Brokers has 1,800 active brokers using the platform, which is testimonial to this flourishing partnership. The B4B platform boasts one of the simplest questions set in the market with no need for proposal forms or numerous data entries. With the B4B platform you receive quotes for multiple products from multiple insurers with a single data entry. Because of this, we regularly receive positive feedback on how the B4B platform has transformed the SME broking experience.
One of our key learnings over the years is the importance of maintaining a personal touch despite offering an online service. Our dedicated service team is available by phone, email or webchat to assist with everything from quoting to submitting claims. In fact, in 2019, we assisted brokers 20,181 times.
The blend of online innovation and a human touch is also a key driver of our success, a view that is supported by the broking community:
“Personal service can be lost when transactions are processed via online platforms,” says Michelle Vickery of MVB Insurance. “I’m happy to say this is not the case with BizCover for Brokers. The team will happily pick up the phone, have a chat and provide that personal service.”
Moving into the future
“Commercial insurance is one of the more complex products so there is good reason why it hasn’t moved online at the same rate other industries have,” said Michael in 2015, an observation that is still largely true today. The B4B platform is unmatched in the market, making it almost a secret weapon for the brokers using it.
And though we are proud of the success BizCover for Brokers has already achieved, we’re not ones to rest. We’re continually seeking feedback on how we can improve our platform and services to make binding even easier and more profitable for SME brokers.
“We are very proud of what we have achieved to date,” says Michael “However, we’re also committed to continued innovation in this space and have some exciting developments for 2021”.
Contact us today to find out how BizCover for Brokers could help streamline your business processes.