Marcus Oyelaran on Turning Broker Service Into a Growth Engine
The COO of a fast-growing specialty MGA on why answering brokers in minutes, not days, became his team's biggest competitive advantage.
Marcus Oyelaran is the COO of a specialty MGA writing professional and management liability through more than 400 retail and wholesale brokers. When he joined, the team's average response time to a broker question was just under two days.
Why focus on broker service? "In specialty lines, brokers have options. The market that answers first, with a clear answer, usually gets the next submission too. We were winning on product and losing on responsiveness."
What did you automate first? "The questions that came up hundreds of times a week. Where is my quote, can you send the policy, I need a certificate, can you add this location. Clarix now answers most of those directly and routes the rest to the right underwriter with everything they need."
What changed? "Our median response time is now 14 minutes. Our submission count from existing brokers is up 31 percent year on year, and our underwriters tell me they finally have time to call brokers about the interesting risks."
