Playbook, insurance broker
Two different prices, and the assistant may quote only one
Somebody asking what this costs is asking about two sums that arrive from two places. The premium is set by an insurer after underwriting and no page on the site knows it. The broker's own charges are a published list with fixed figures on it, and in most markets they have to be disclosed before anybody is committed. An assistant that treats both as unquotable has thrown away the half it could have answered.
Why this is not the general answer
The handling pattern for pricing questions holds across every trade. What follows is the part that does not.
- The number the customer means is not the business's own number: an insurer sets the premium, the broker's charge sits on top of it, and the two appear on the same paperwork while being owed to different people.
- The broker's charges are the one part of the total that is fixed and written down, so a fee schedule can be quoted line by line while a premium cannot be indicated at all.
- Disclosure of what the firm charges and how it is remunerated by insurers is an obligation in most markets rather than a courtesy, which makes publishing it the cautious move rather than the bold one.
- Charges here attach to events instead of to a billing cycle: a mid term adjustment carries its own fee, so does a duplicate document at some firms, and a customer charged twice in a year has usually asked for a change.
How it arrives
- how much do you charge for arranging the policy
- is your fee the same for every policy
- do you charge for changing my address mid term
- does the price on the schedule include your fee
- do you get commission from the insurer as well
- is there a charge for issuing a duplicate certificate
What has to be indexed for this to work
| The fee schedule, with a figure against every event | New business, mid term adjustment, renewal, duplicate documents, cancellation. A single sentence saying that fees may apply is not answerable, because the question is always which fee, how much, and for the thing I am about to ask for. |
|---|---|
| How the firm is remunerated by insurers | Whether you are paid commission, whether it varies between insurers, and how a customer asks for the detail. Somebody who discovers this later reads every earlier answer as concealment, so it belongs in the material rather than in a reply improvised on the spot. |
| Where each charge appears on the customer's paperwork | Whether your fee is shown separately on the schedule, on your own invoice, or inside a total collected by a finance provider. Most fee disputes are somebody comparing two documents that add up differently. |
| What is published about premium and what is not | Any indicative material you stand behind, marked as indicative, and a plain statement that a figure for a named risk comes out of underwriting. Write that boundary down, or the assistant will find a number somewhere on the site and use it. |
The reply
Two separate amounts go into what you pay. The premium is set by the insurer once the risk has been looked at, so I cannot give you a figure or a range for that part. Our own charges are fixed and published: the fee schedule lists what we charge for arranging a policy, for a mid term change and on cancellation [1], and it also sets out that insurers pay us commission [2]. For the premium side, leave me your name, an email and the cover you are after, and a broker will come back to you.
It answers the half that has a published answer rather than refusing the whole question, which is the only reason this page is worth having. Naming the insurer as the source of the premium removes any suspicion that a figure is being withheld. The commission point is volunteered rather than waited for, because it costs nothing said first and a great deal said second.
Where it stops
The trigger. The visitor describes their own risk, gives a trade or a sum insured, or asks what the total would come to for them.
I can quote our charges but not a premium, because that comes out of underwriting on your particular risk. Leave me your name, an email and the cover you need, and a broker will price it and set our fee out alongside it.
It stops answering before it guesses, says who will pick it up, and asks for the one thing that makes a reply possible. Nothing about it reads as a dead end.
Never say this here
Out of bounds
- Never give a premium, a range or a starting from figure, because the insurer sets that after underwriting and any number said here is remembered as a quote.
- Never say the fee is small, standard or in line with the market, since a comparison is a claim about other firms that nobody here can support.
- Never describe the fee as part of the premium, because they are owed to different people and only one of them is returnable on the terms in your schedule.
- Never tell somebody a charge will be waived, as that is a concession only a broker can make and it will be quoted back at renewal.
Questions
- Should we really publish our fees where anybody can read them?
- Disclosure obligations in most markets already push you there, and the alternative is somebody reading the same figures down the phone several times a day. The awkward part is saying them out loud the first time, not having them on a page.
- Can it work out the total including our fee?
- No. It cannot calculate anything against a premium it does not have, and a total assembled in a chat window would be treated as a quote. It can state the fee and say where on the paperwork it will appear.
- Customers ask why our price differs from a comparison site. What should it say?
- Nothing at all about the other price. It can explain what your fee covers and how the firm is paid, both out of your own material, and hand over the moment it turns into a discussion about the cover behind the two numbers.
Keep reading
- Everything for a insurance brokerProduct information is safe ground. A personal recommendation is regulated, and no assistant may confirm whether a loss is covered.
- Handling pricing questions in generalPublished price versus the price for this buyer. Bands, ranges and from pricing, and why a firm number for unscoped work is the damaging failure.
- Two complaint routes, and the assistant does not pick between themService by the broker and a decision by the insurer are two complaints with two routes. The assistant must not choose between them.
- Getting a meeting with a broker, and whether the caller needs oneA review is scheduled backwards from a renewal date, and half the people asking for a meeting only need a document today.
- A deletion request, and the three records it lands onMarketing contact, client record and claims file are deleted on different terms, and the insurer holds a copy the broker cannot touch.
Try it on your own material
Upload a document or point it at your site, paste one line of HTML, then ask it something only your business could answer.