Guardian
Key activities
• Ensured red tape was eradicated in the company.
• Asked customers, advisers and partners for feedback.
Upcoming plans
• Guardian says it is in the process of training and coaching all of its staff employees on an ongoing basis using call listening, regular one-to-ones and personal development plans.
• Developing its adviser and customer dashboards to make it easier for clients to get required information.
A spokesperson for Guardian says: “We’re really thrilled to be so highly recognised for our services so early into our journey. We set out to be a challenger brand and that wasn’t just with our proposition. We want to stand out from the crowd and offer truly personal service.”
The spokesperson adds: “Our brand promise is: ‘Life. Made better’. We want to make life better for everyone. For customers, that’s knowing that they’ve got the very best cover. For advisers, it’s being a company that’s effortless to work with.
“We’ve won many awards in our first year for our challenging proposition, but this is the best achievement yet. It shows that we’re doing things right. It’s just the start for us – we’ve got lots of big plans to develop our service proposition over the next year.”
Payment Shield
Key activities
• Advanced its platform Adviser Hub, to put advisers in control of their general insurance business.
• Increased the size of the team to more than 20 business development managers.
• Provided resources to advisers to help them in growing their general insurance business.
• Invested in consumer campaigns to promote the benefits of seeking professional advice.
Upcoming plans
• Delivering more connected technology to enable advisers to build stronger connections with their clients.
• Launching a new suite of leading-edge APIs to the Adviser Hub.
• Closely managing its panel to ensure it is delivering advisers and clients what they need.
• Developing an innovative new proposition for the lettings market to provide advisers with more opportunity to protect their landlord and clients.
A spokesperson for Payment Shield says: “Our mission is to maintain the right balance of technology, service, product and price and continually evolve our proposition to meet advisers’ changing needs.”
The spokesperson adds: “Our performance in this year’s Financial Adviser Service Awards is testament to this ongoing commitment to delivering advisers the best cover, tools and support we possibly can.”
Scottish Widows
Key activities
• Improved day-to-day servicing for its Retirement Account, leading to 70 per cent of actions being completed in one call.
•Enhanced its workplace proposition so it can now offer a range of solutions to suit any adviser’s clients’ needs.
• Delivered a new self-service protection adviser dashboard for Scottish Widows Protect to enable advisers and their support staff to obtain realtime updates on the progress of new business.
