The survey, which polled over 400 intermediaries, highlighted 57 per cent routinely wait over four minutes to speak to a general insurance provider, while 14 per cent generally wait longer than seven minutes to have their calls answered. Only 13 per cent of intermediaries said their calls are usually answered within the first minute of calling.
When asked about the longest they’ve ever spent hanging on the phone, a 29 per cent have experienced waiting times of over 20 minutes.
Richard Dixon, customer services director at Paymentshield, said: “It’s worrying to see that providers are taking so long to answer intermediaries’ calls. Most of the time intermediaries need a quick answer to an urgent question on behalf of their clients and waiting for over seven minutes for a provider to pick up is neither acceptable nor time efficient.”
As part of its commitment to intermediary service, Paymentshield set itself ‘call waiting’ targets earlier this year and launched a call-handling system, including restructuring the team overall and introducing a dedicated broker call handling unit.
Dixon commented: “Technology can only do so much. It’s also about making the issue a business priority. We have worked hard to ensure that intermediaries calling our team are dealt with in the quickest way and we are currently well on target, with 87 per cent of calls being answered within the first 20 seconds and over 99.5 per cent answered within the first two minutes of calling.
“We continuously try to improve the help we offer intermediaries and implementing an efficient call handling system is key. We think it’s in every provider’s interest to ensure they assist intermediaries in every aspect of the advice process.”
