Stewardship meetings are an excellent way for brokers and carriers to assess their relationships and identify potential improvements. Stewardship meetings can benefit both parties by leveraging data insights to inform decision-making.
Here are some examples of using data insights during stewardship meetings to drive more substantial broker and carrier relationships.
Example 1: Service experience
Hearing how they’re performing relative to their peers is critical for carriers. A broker can capture this information by simply surveying their team. Sales and account management teams can rate each carrier on different aspects of their relationship that are otherwise hard to quantify. Think of things like implementation, claims, and responsiveness. Once data is compiled, it can be indexed into an overall score and discussed with the carrier during the stewardship meeting.
Example 2: Renewal trends
For carriers, data insights can help them understand how their renewal increases compare to their peers. Profitability and book of business growth are the ultimate indicators of relationship health, but they’re lagging. The real-time sentiment of rate competitiveness, including renewal rate increases, is a leading indicator enabling both broker and carrier to see where the relationship might be headed. Naturally, this information should be coupled with the overall service experience when deciding where to place or renew business.
Example 3: Revenue forecasting
For brokers, data insights can give them a clear view into their in-force book of business, which can help validate their expected revenue across their preferred carrier partners in the current calendar year.
But a book of business is just a snapshot in time. By tracking where business has been placed over a period of time, brokers can gain insight into where their revenue might be headed. Brokers should be tracking the total number of RFPs they've sent to market, which carriers they’re inviting, quote turnaround times, decline rates, and the amount of premium and lines of coverage placed by carrier. This information can help brokers engage in a healthy, open conversation with carrier partners they’re placing business with and identify opportunities to improve with preferred partners. With a firm grasp, they can proactively forecast revenue for the upcoming calendar year.
Check out our team's insights about the magic number of carriers to invite to an RFP.
Example 4: Claims analysis
Claims data is a crucial insight to review during stewardship meetings. By analyzing claims data, brokers and carriers can identify patterns and trends to help them make better decisions moving forward. For example, an account with a high loss ratio might warrant a renewal increase in the upcoming plan year. By communicating about this proactively, the broker can set appropriate expectations with the client. Ideally, all parties can work together to implement practical solutions that improve policy performance without sacrificing the employer’s benefits philosophy.
Leveraging ThreeFlow to understand data insights
ThreeFlow exists to enable the flow of information between brokers, carriers, and employers. This creates the unique opportunity to provide data insights that help strengthen relationships. For example, from a carrier's perspective, ThreeFlow provides access to renewal and RFP performance data, along with information of their book of business growth by brokerage. This information is critical for going into stewardship meetings with brokers.
For brokers, ThreeFlow provides two views directly in the platform: book of business and market insights. With this information, brokers can have an informed conversation about how much business they write with different carriers and track revenue targets and overrides for the year with their preferred carrier partners. Decline rates are also critically important, and ThreeFlow provides insights into this data.
Data insights are the main foundation for productive conversations during stewardship meetings. Using data during stewardship meetings gives brokers and carriers a benchmark of where they've been and where they want to go.
Interested in learning how ThreeFlow can help you uncover valuable data for your upcoming meetings? Talk to our team to get started.