Here at businessinsure, we are entering our 11th year of trading. From the very start we have set our stall out that we will sell business in a very particular way.
We operate what is, in essence, a call centre. We have an office base here in sunny (?) Perth. We run our website and have a local rate telephone number. Business customers can either email us or call us to discuss any business insurance requirements that you have.
We make a point of speaking to each and every customer. Even if you send us a form over the weekend, we believe that by speaking to you we can find out exactly what you need.
Even if it is a quick five minute call, we can get so much more information, quicker, than if you had to sit on the net and fill in a long form.
But, we have been hearing in the press recently that the comparison sites are making inroads into the commercial insurance arena. Now, we have long held the belief that the comparison sites do absolutely nothing to help the end customer buy the right product. What they do, is to help the customer find the cheapest price.
Now, there is nothing wrong with getting a good deal. If you look for a pair of trainers that are £45 in the shops and you find them for £35 delivered on the net, you have a good deal. You know this because, unless the product is fake, then you are getting what you want.
But, with business insurance, if you save money how do you really know if you are getting the same excess, the same warranties, the same levels of cover, the same limits of indemnity etc etc? What the sites will have is a click through link for you to go to. You will then have the chance of going through either a full policy or a summary of cover. But this is not your job. After a few pages you may start to wish you had not started this task.
This is where you are better off speaking to a human being. When we speak to you, we explain what it means when you say you have a 15 year old flat roof or you do not have a NACOSS approved intruder alarm, or your locks are not quite what the insurers say.
Going on the net, you get a price and that is it. Until you have a loss, you are saving money, but when you have that loss, you may find the £50 you saved is very small in comparison to the uninsured loss you have just had.