When an insurer’s business model is founded upon intermediation – its policies are sold through brokers – then its relationships with its brokers are pivotal to its success, and to creating happy, loyal customers.
This is why Hollard Insure, the short-term insurance arm of the Hollard Insurance Company Ltd, South Africa’s largest independent insurer, has appointed company veteran Pierre Geyer as its new Managing Executive: Regions and Trucking. He knows brokers, and they know him.
For 17 of the 27 years, he has worked in the insurance industry, Geyer has been a Hollardite. His non-life insurance experience in that time includes claims, procurement and supply chain management, claims cost control, general operations management, operating model transformation programme management, sales and distribution, business development and executive leadership.
Geyer has held several executive positions at Hollard, among them MD of Hollard Select Brokers and Underwriting Managers, Group Executive, Divisional MD, Director and Business Unit Executive. Most recently he was Managing Executive: Operations, responsible for modernising Hollard Insure’s operational capacity.
“Brokers are our partners, our lifeblood,” says Geyer. “Apart from distributing our insurance products, they perform two vital functions in the insurance value chain: they provide our collective customers with expert advice at the policy-buying stage, and they represent customers at the claims stage, ensuring the best possible outcome.”
Geyer’s new position has him heading up the critical interface between Hollard and its 1 300 broker partners through the insurer’s 18 “local is lekker” sales offices in its five regions. “We are very fortunate to have excellent, seasoned leadership in our regions and trucking division who have built our footprint across the country, I am fortunate to partner with these leaders,” says Geyer
For him, his new role largely comes down to living out Hollard’s passions for people, innovation, and relationships.
“Our broker partners – be they national or international brands, independent brokerages, or small operations – are our distribution channels. Without them, we wouldn’t sell many insurance policies or build deep, long-lasting relationships with our collective customers, or be there for them when they need us most,” says Geyer.
It is therefore in Hollard’s interests to support brokers in every way it can, through strong administrative and claims support; smart, fit-for-purpose insurance product development; providing continuous professional development resources; and promoting the benefits of intermediated insurance to the public.
“Only by supporting our broker partners and working with them to produce the best possible solutions and products for our customers, and by being accessible – tangible – to brokers, will we be able to fulfil the Hollard group’s business purpose, called #BetterFutures.
“It drives every Hollardite to create and secure better futures for more people in everything we do, and how we do it. That includes our broker partners as well as our customers, and my message to them is clear and simple: we’re there for you.”
