Last week I looked at the websites of 9 local brokers to see what they had to say. If you haven’t seen the post; check it out here.

As they were all so similar, I thought it would be interesting to see how they compare as a whole to a national broker.

Enter Towergate. They also have an office in my area, and this is what they have to say:

  • “iNDIVIDUAL. THAT’S OUR POLICY”
  • “Experts in insurance, we’re also teeming with knowledge about everything we cover, allowing us to understand your needs – exactly”
  • “An award winning and a leading insurance intermediary”
  • “A passion to meet our customers’ insurance needs”
  •  “We employ experts in each and every field of insurance that we offer”
  •  “Security from a trusted team with years of experience”
  • “with Towergate you can be assured that you are dealing with an organisation that offers real security, while being dedicated to our customers and to making a difference in the community.”
  • “Furthermore, Towergate is a growing business. Having made over 150 very carefully selected business acquisitions in just 15 years”
  • “to understand your needs and to innovate, creating flexible policies that meet your requirements now and into the future.”

Notice that the words ‘personal service’ are not used once, and although they do talk about customer service, they do not mention price AT ALL! (If you haven’t read the original post – the vast majority of my 9 local brokers majored on these two points)

One message which didn’t come up so strongly with the independent brokers is this: – Security through expertise, for now and “into the future”.

Towergate are appealing to their size; and an old saying I often hear around the office springs to mind– “no one ever got fired for hiring IBM” – and in doing so they are taking on the likes of Aon and Willis.

The key and presumed point here is that people buy insurance for security – well this certainly makes sense, in the final stages of any buying cycle we are nearly always concerned most about the security of our purchase, and of course insurance is a product with security at its core!

No surprise then that 5 of my 9 local independent brokers did aim to evoke the feeling of security as well. This was almost universally presented as a declaration of experience as a value of years (all but one on the home page).

Here are those comments:

  •           “a young company but [with] over 50 years experience in the insurance world”
  •           “We have over 25 years experience in both private client and corporate insurance broking”
  •           “We have been committed to providing our clients with competitive insurance policies for over 25 years.”
  •           “Our senior staff have over 25 years experience in dealing with the differing requirments of our UK and International Corporate clients.” – (Not my spelling!)
  •           “Established in 1984, [Company Name] is well experienced in providing independent advice and competitive insurance premiums”

I realise that this is not an apples v apples comparison. It does seem though, that at the very least, Towergate are saying something different.

The key 2 Growth are a specialist sales & marketing agency with a focus on providing organic growth consultancy and solutions to the customer centred insurance broker working within the commercial mid-market space.

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