A customer phoned in for a quote for a small office. They had been with their existing insurance broker for a number of years and although the price had remained relatively static, they had decided to test the market.
The problem we had is that they asked us for two things which do not always go hand in had. The statement from the customer was “I just need a good, cheap office insurance quote“. That is the important sentence. There is nothing wrong with wanting a bargain, but we had to explain to the customer that, as with most things in life, you get what you pay for.
Before they thought that this was a precursor to us selling them some very expensive product, we did explain that the margins between a very cheap policy that has basic cover to a cheap policy with suitable cover were quite tight.
It is almost like the George Osborne speech at the Conservative conference, honesty in advance is always the best policy. The good thing about saying this to the customer, which was the truth, is that they were in business as well and know that we were being truthful. There is a certain amount of respect in business, whether it is visible or not is another story. If one business is realistic in what they say, the potential purchaser is more likely to go for them.
As it happens we saved the customer just under 10% and gave them interest free instalments, so all in all, a good deal for them. Not a massive saving but not one to be sniffed at.
If you look at some of the sites that offer to compare business insurance quotes, you need to be very careful. If they are guaranteeing to offer you a saving, whatever your business and whatever you claims experience, does this not sound a bit off? You are much better off getting your commercial insurance direct from a broker that is a bit more honest. Remember the other adage, if it sounds too good to be true, then it is!