Balancing the digital landscape with core value of personal service

Balancing the digital landscape with core value of personal service | Insurance Business Canada

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Balancing the digital landscape with core value of personal service

Hugo Lamarre of OVC Assurance on the innovations shaking up the insurance market

Insurance News

By
Chris Davis

Hugo Lamarre, director of training and special projects at OVC Assurance, is keenly aware of the competitive landscape in the insurance industry. However, OVC’s approach isn’t about reinventing the wheel with flashy marketing campaigns; it’s about perfecting the basics, particularly leveraging customer feedback and creating a company culture that attracts top talent.

“What we do different… is we reinforce the work online [through] word of mouth,” said Lamarre (pictured).

While many companies request online reviews, OVC has refined this process, asking customers for feedback directly while still on the phone. This small but significant touch has helped the company amass more than 3,000 reviews across Google and Facebook, maintaining an average rating of 4.9.

“These are all real customers,” Lamarre added – whether they were satisfied with the price, received help during a claim, or have been loyal clients for years.

Interestingly, Lamarre downplayed the direct impact these reviews have on web traffic.

“I wouldn’t say it’s directly related to web traffic,” he told IB, framing the reviews more as a reassurance tool that enhances customer conversion rates rather than a primary traffic driver. In Lamarre’s view, OVC’s business still relies heavily on word of mouth—a tried-and-true method in the insurance world.

One of OVC’s more innovative marketing approaches, however, is how they use social platforms like Instagram—not so much to drive customer leads but to attract talent.

“We promote our culture online to recruit talents,” Lamarre said.

By sharing videos and photos of their modern and “gorgeous” work environment, OVC has been able to connect with potential employees in a way that showcases the perks of working there. This is a crucial move in a competitive industry where attracting and retaining talent is just as important as winning over customers.

“We offer a lot of small perks that make your life more fun in the work environment,” Lamarre said, underscoring how company culture is being used as a strategic advantage.

When it comes to technological advancements, Lamarre is upfront about OVC’s focus. The company isn’t prioritizing digital marketing to win over customers online. Instead, it’s about using technology to streamline operations internally, ensuring that brokers can spend more time with clients and less time buried in paperwork.

“We are in a business where there’s a lot of paperwork, there’s a lot of compliance,” he said. To tackle these administrative burdens, OVC developed an internal tool called Jarvis, which helps brokers complete tasks more efficiently by bridging the gap between different systems and workflows.

“It’s to help brokers’ life and keep them focussed on the important thing which is spending time with our customers” Lamarre said.

This operational efficiency is crucial, particularly when OVC looks to expand their footprint in the Ontario market.

“When it comes to Ontario, there’s also a lot of paperwork to complete, even though most of the brokerages are using digitalized systems,” Lamarre notes. The challenge and opportunity here lie in simplifying these workflows so that brokers can spend more time with clients—a familiar theme in Lamarre’s outlook. Essentially, it’s about making the process smoother so the human touch can remain central to the customer experience.

And, in a sector increasingly driven by digital transformation, Lamarre remains steadfast that OVC’s primary focus is on the people, both clients and employees.

“Everyone is saying, you know, human before insurance,” Lamarre said, echoing a sentiment often repeated in the industry. But for OVC, this isn’t just a tagline. The digital tools they implement are designed to empower their brokers to maintain that crucial human connection with clients.

“At the end of the day, there’s a lot of digital tools – but it’s a tool to help the broker,” he said.

The challenge, as Lamarre sees it, is balancing the evolving digital landscape with the core value of personal service. He’s confident that OVC is striking this balance by investing in both technology and people. On one hand, the company is leveraging platforms like Instagram to recruit the best talent, while on the other, they’re developing tools like Jarvis to simplify internal processes, all while ensuring that the personal touch in client interactions is never lost.

“We aim to basically use all those online platforms to get the talent, attract them, and have them trained quickly,” Lamarre said.