Fruit Bat

Trying different things isn’t always easy.   “New” is not everyone’s cup of tea and this “blog” is one of those things.

I happened to be browsing on another insurance website (as you do) and there was a forum discussing this blog, a bloggers blog so to speak, bit odd but there you go, the wonders of the web.  They called me “a fruit bat” and a web Harry Hill look-alike.  Talk about not pleasing everyone all of the time!“Don’t worry,” says my media lady, “a fruit bat is cute”,  “yes” said I, “and hangs down, only eats fruit, and comes out at night.  No, not the image I was aiming for really (on second thoughts).  And certainly not a Senior Insurance executive image – whatever that is!

Anyway, when “one” puts oneself up for a blog like this, “one” must be prepared for brickbats (as well as an occasional fruit bat).  That’s the risk.

It’s not much of a risk really.  Not compared to the risks we take every day in this industry (see the segue how neat) and the risks of changing our name.

Well, we’ve analysed the risks, cogitated them, managed them and here we are. Changing our name after 8 years of contemplation.

And we’ve had lots of media attention, lots of calls, lots of letters (nice to get so keep them coming) – some complimentary, some asking questions about whether their policy changes (it doesn’t), some complaining about a problem they had 3 years ago (we will sort it), some saying “why?”

They all get answered and in the context of the 23 million+ calls we get a year and
5 million+ letters we get a year, it’s not been that many.

Each letter/e-mail is logged and answered individually and as we move towards 1 June hopefully all our customers/partners/prospective customers will have heard about the change.  And as we listen to customers and brokers comments/issues/concerns, we are also in the midst (in the lead-up to 1 June) of engaging all our staff around the UK in the opportunities that are there for us;  as we change our name and we change our business philosophy (gosh, changing your business philosophy sounds hard, and a bit risky but more on that next week).

I’ve got to go hang upside down for a few minutes!

John