Digital Trading 2020 - what a year!
2020 has certainly been an eventful year that none of us will forget in a hurry. But what will stand out for me is, in a year when insurers and brokers have been more reliant on online trading than ever before, how we’ve pulled together as a team to ensure we’ve continued to be there for our customers. The ability to trade simply and efficiently online is more in focus in our industry than ever before as we ourselves adapt to new ways of working to ensure we’re there for our customers as they do the same.
Despite these challenging times we’ve continued to evolve and develop our digital offering. We’ve made improvements to our products, to the functionality of our systems and the overall service we offer, to ensure we continue to respond to your needs, and the needs of your clients.
As we’ve all adapted to a different way of working, it was of great importance to me to ensure this didn’t impact the high level of service support you experience and expect from us. Many brokers I’ve spoken to have greatly appreciated the uninterrupted level of support we’ve delivered throughout. The ability to log-in to Fast Trade even when using personal devices, whether that be a home desktop, a laptop or tablet has been recognised. We’ve also ensured our full suite of communication channels have remained open and have continued to provide a full service offering in order to offer flexible solutions that respond to individual needs, be that phone, Live Chat or email. And the introduction of co-browsing on Fast Trade Live Chat allowing our underwriters to see what you do, in real time has added a further dimension to the quality of support we’re able to provide.
In addition, the enhancements we’ve made to our quote functionality on Fast Trade means you can now save and access multiple versions of quotes for the same client. This has proved extremely useful during this period of increased uncertainty, as many clients have required quotes based on different scenarios and considerations. This has allowed you to present flexible solutions and choices for your customers to suit their individual circumstances.
We’ve also been focussed on improving our capability through Acturis eTrade, and have introduced a new, dedicated eTrade team that are able to support you with a depth of knowledge and expertise in trading via this channel. The ability to submit electronic referrals directly to our underwriters, and the addition of renewal premium flexibility has made it easier for many of you to do business with us. These changes have been driven in response to your needs, giving you more authority to make decisions without the need of referring to us, but also delivering a more efficient response when you do.
I’m pleased that the enhancements we’ve made to our online products in 2020 have also been met with positive reaction. We’ve refreshed our Office & Surgery offering and made several improvements including the widening of our eligibility criteria, an increase in the number of acceptable trades, new stock cover and an expansion of acceptance criteria on non-standard construction.
And we’ve also just delivered the eagerly anticipated single business vehicle capability under our Minifleet product which is specifically aimed at providing a flexible solution for businesses during this time of change. A great example of us recognising changing needs and delivering appropriate solutions for you, and your clients.
As I reflect on 2020, I’m proud of the way our team have continued to support our broker partners, whilst also delivering a wide range of improvements to both our service and propositions on Fast Trade and eTrade. I was delighted you awarded Fast Trade a 5* rating for the consecutive year in the Insurance Times eTrading Survey, and particularly the fact that we achieved this across all five of the rating categories. This year we’ve responded to the eTrade challenge and enhanced our capability through improvements we’ve made to our functionality and service offering. We remain committed to developing this channel alongside Fast Trade.
And as I look forward to 2021, I’m determined that we will continue to deliver a first-class service offering that you and your clients can depend on, no matter what. We will ensure we continue to listen to your feedback and take on ideas on how we can strive to improve and challenge ourselves to increase the amount of business you can trade with us digitally as we know this is becoming increasingly important to you, so watch this space. In 2021 we will also be enhancing our Aviva Broker site and extending the range of digital capabilities you can utilise.
I hope you have a fantastic festive period and I’m very much looking forward to rising to whatever challenges we face in 2021, here’s hoping it’s a smoother ride for us all!
Regards,
Maria Crockart, Director of SME Trading & Automation