Natasha Matanle - International Property team

Within the Australian property team, which forms part of the wider International Property team, we have found the following positives from working from home.

Due to the time difference between the UK and Australia, we have a small window in the morning in which to speak to our clients directly. We arrive to the office as early as possible, around 8/8:30am, however this is not always easy as most members of the team have long commutes. This only gives us approximately a 1-2 hour window to speak to clients. As we are now working from home and not having to commute, we have the flexibility to speak to our clients earlier in the morning. We have been able to make calls around 7am, enabling clients to speak directly with us without having to work later. Furthermore, it has facilitated more immediate discussions for anything urgent and enabled clients to contact their local broker and provide us with a same day response. This has in turn enabled quicker turnaround times and ensured service levels are maintained. 

During this period we have solidified our relationships with clients and received positive feedback around service levels, predominantly regarding our response times and our availability to clients. We have also experienced a positive response from our markets who we have been able to schedule appointments with (online or via phone) to broke risks to underwriters. This has strengthened our existing market connections, with clients seeing the benefit. 

Adopting new ways of communication, such as video calls to see and speak with clients has sped up transactions further by facilitating group conference calls for easier communication and ensuring regular contact is maintained.

Overall, whilst Covid-19 has presented itself with some challenges, we have seen some positives changes in the workplace which we hope to continue forward.

Arnold Pulle - International Wholesale Property team

Even before lockdown, Covid-19 enforced travel restrictions stopped our clients coming to London, or us to them, to discuss solutions first hand for the changing global insurance market that is seeing even larger average rate increases than the previous two years.

Given the market environment, tripartite relationships between underwriter, broker and insured are more important than ever. Adopting the technology available, we have continued to share client stories with markets so that their risks can be better understood, including a number of video presentations between CFOs and key underwriters ahead of major renewals. The format has worked well and I see this is as a cost and time-effective tool to keep using post-lockdown. 

We have been lucky at Miller to have an integrated IT team that has been working round the clock to make sure that working from home for 500+ employees could be as seamless as possible. The overall reliability of our systems has meant that we can work irregular hours to service our clients in different time zones better, be it an early morning discussions with Australia or a late night call to Canada. 

The biggest takeaway from the pandemic is that a lot of businesses are hurting. There are serious budget constraints that companies globally are having to work with, and as brokers there is a greater pressure to find comprehensive coverage that offers value for money to our customers.

Mar Salom - Latam Property team

Working from home for such an extended period (over two months now!) has been a new experience for us all.  As a relatively newly established team, travel featured heavy on our agenda as we continue to build on new and existing relationships. In the second week of lockdown, Juliana and I were supposed to be jumping on a plane to visit clients in Santiago, Chile and Lima, Peru. Of course this trip was cancelled, and we expect likely not to happen now until next year. However, we are making the most of the technology and have hosted ‘virtual’ team meetings with those people with whom we were planning on visiting, and have found these to be extremely successful! Not only were we able to connect with all those we were due to meet in person, but it allowed the whole team from London to participate and enabled us to quickly bring in other team members from across Miller to help find solutions to any problems. Excitingly, new opportunities are already developing as a result.

While we do not expect video conferencing to replace the need to travel going forward, and still value the opportunity to meet with our clients face to face, this has shown us a new effective way of working to engage  with those we would otherwise only see once or maybe twice a year.  

Other benefits of working from home seen across our teams, clients and markets include greater flexibility with our timings. Given the six-hour time difference between us and most of Latin America, time previously spent commuting has been replaced with more opportunities for video calls, and at times much better suited to our clients. In many cases this has led to much more detailed discussions, allowing us to identify more quickly what exactly we need to do to help resolve their problems. The same applies to our markets. We are no longer constrained to ‘market hours’ and have been able to arrange calls and meetings at times previously not possible.

We are in no doubt that face-to-face interaction will resume and continue to form an important part of what we do; however we have seen that with the help of technology, we are able to embrace new ways of working and building rapport with our clients without always needing to jump on a plane.

If you have any concerns or questions regarding your coverage, please contact your regular Miller contact as we remain as ever at your service, albeit in slightly different surroundings for the time being.