Client surveys – an essential tool for insurance brokers

Client surveys are an essential tool for insurance brokers to gather feedback from their clients and improve their services. You might think that surveys are unnecessary and time-intensive but surveys can provide brokers with valuable insights into their client’s needs and preferences, identify areas for improvement, and ultimately help them provide better client service.

Let’s explore why client surveys are important for insurance brokers and how to produce an effective survey.

Why client surveys are important

1. Measure client satisfaction

By asking clients to rate their experiences a broker can gauge how satisfied they are with their services. This can help identify areas where they are excelling and areas where they need to improve.

2. Identify areas for improvement

Identifying pain points and areas for improvement can assist brokers in making informed decisions about how to better serve their clients. It saves time and money as it takes the guesswork out of implementing improvements.

3. Improve Retention

Client service surveys not only identify the reasons why clients may be dissatisfied or thinking about switching to another broker but it demonstrates a willingness to improve on areas of dissatisfaction. Ultimately by better meeting client expectations, retention rates should improve.

4. Generate new business

Finally, by demonstrating a commitment to client satisfaction and using client feedback to improve services, brokers can differentiate themselves from their competitors and attract new clients.

How to produce an effective online survey

1. Define your goals

The first step in producing an effective client survey is to decide what you want to gain from your survey. Do you want to identify areas for improvement, measure client satisfaction, or simply gain more insight into your client base? By defining the goal, you can ensure the correct outcome.

2. Identify your Audience

Whom are you targeting with the survey? What are their interests and needs? By understanding your audience, you can develop questions that are relevant and engaging. Set up a database in the format required by the survey tool you will be using.

There are numerous survey tools available on the internet and for free, such as Survey Monkey. If you run on Microsoft then MS Forms is a good option and, if you run a Google environment, then Google Survey is a good option.

3. Develop your survey questions

With your goal and audience in mind, you can now develop your survey questions. This should include open-ended questions that allow clients to provide detailed feedback, as well as close-ended questions that allow clients to rate their experiences on a numerical scale or via a star system. Most survey tools provide a range of options and even provide format suggestions per question.

The general survey structure should include an introduction and relevant questions. demographic questions, a thank you, and further contact information.

4. Include the following useful information in your introduction

Your name and brokerage name, the goal of the survey, how you’ll be using the responses to make a difference, and state whether the responses are anonymous, confidential, or tracked. Also, include a POPI disclaimer where you ask them to confirm that you may use the data from the survey.

5. Design your survey

With your survey questions ready, you can now design your survey. This should include selecting a design template and formatting your questions on your survey tool.

Importantly, you can also decide to rather do in-person interviews or telephonic interviews, in which case you will not be utilising a survey tool.

6. Test your survey

Before sending your survey to clients, it's important to test it. This includes checking for typos and grammatical errors, ensuring that the survey is optimised for different devices, and testing the survey to ensure that it works properly. Your survey tool should be able to assist you with many of these features.

7. Distribute your survey

Once you have tested your survey, you can distribute it to your audience. This can be done via email, or by including a link to the survey on your website or social media. Remember to include a personal note, which will help improve the response rate, and an incentive can improve the response rate more.

8. Analyse Results

This includes reviewing responses and identifying patterns and trends. By analysing the results, you can identify areas for improvement and make informed decisions about how better to serve your clients.

In conclusion, client surveys are an essential tool for insurance brokers to leverage in order to gather feedback from their clients, improve their services and differentiate their offerings from that of their competitors.