The north Dublin insurance brokerage QuickQuotes.ie is currently going through a period of change and expansion, testament to the growth of the company over the last number of years, as well as the esteem in which they hold customers and staff.
Having occupied a small unit in Port Tunnel Business Park in Coolock for several years, QuickQuotes.ie and Landmark Insurance, their business insurance arm, recently moved their HQ to a larger office in Santry. “The business has been growing, which is great, but we needed extra staff, and the office space got a bit tight,” says managing director Mark Pringle.
Mark adds that he felt an upgrade to the working environment would be beneficial to staff, as well as those customers who prefer to deal with them face-to-face.
“Customers don't come to us too often – 99% of them are happy to deal with us over the phone – but you get the odd occasion that there's someone who just wants to come up and have a chat,” he says. “And we want to be able to facilitate that.”
Mark, who bought the company in 2013 after entering the insurance industry at the age of 17, emphasises that although QuickQuotes.ie is very much an online business, that personal touch is crucial to what they do, and key to their ongoing success.
“People say everything is about the customer, and it's easy to say but for us, it is,” Mark insists. “We always ask the customer their name, never a policy number, an account number or a reference number. It's 'who are you?'.
“All we're doing is the old-school personal touch,” he adds. “We're not reinventing the wheel. I'm old school, I believe that people will stick with you.”
Mark is also quick to praise his staff – “[they] have gotten me where I am now,” he enthuses. As someone who came into the business straight from school, he understands the value of “grafters”, as he puts it.
“Most of us in this game are grafters who have come in at 17, 18, 19, 20, do their exams, get their qualifications and like the ability to work during the day, earn a wage and study at night or study on the weekend as opposed to that college thing,” he says.
“So it's a huge thing for us and we push it with the schools, we push it with the training colleges and any of the tech colleges.”
Mark was savvy enough to buy the business in 2013, during the recession, so covid was the first major crisis the business has faced in his time. Everyone needs insurance, so QuickQuotes.ie wasn’t as badly exposed as some other businesses, but it was tough and Mark credits his young workforce for getting the business through it.
“At least I was able to sit at a comfortable kitchen at home,” he admits. “The younger staff have parents my age who were working from home, so they were sent to the box room and it was difficult for them.
“When everything reopened, they came running back to the office as quick as they could. It was the staff got us through that, more than anything else.”
As hard as it was for the staff, though, it was much worse for some of Mark’s clients.
“I've known a lot of my clients for 20 years, and to see clients who were very comfortable in their business struggle was tough for us to see,” he says.
Mark and his team had to do enough business themselves to keep the lights on, but it was also time to repay some of the loyalty their customers had shown them, and ensure as best they could that everyone made it through in one piece.
“We took a long-term view on it, that we have to look after them,” he says. “There was a lot of work done to get insurance premiums pared down to the bone, and we're on a commission basis so you're losing money on that.
“The business stagnated, but we were able to pay all the wages, we were able to pay the bills and the clients were appreciative of it. And now the clients are now turning a corner themselves.
“We have nearly 95% retention, which means 95% of our clients stay with us for another year, and more. So that's great, and a lot of that was to do with what we did for them in covid.”
Currently, around 70% of QuickQuotes.ie’s business comes from Dublin and Leinster, so the plan now is to become established as a nationally recognised brand – even if it means they might have to come up with a dodgy jingle to make that leap…
“We're looking to get the QuickQuotes.ie brand out there, that it's a recognisable name,” says Mark. “You'll know the names from the TV and the radio, you're probably sick of the tunes – we want to be where someone goes, 'Okay, my car insurance is up, I want to ring QuickQuotes.ie’.”
But, of course, customer experience still has to come first.
“We never want to lose the customer-centric end of it,” Mark insists. “We've seen people our size grow, and then suddenly it's 'press one for this, press two for that, press three for that'. We don't want to do that.
“Our plan is to be nationwide, the name is known, and our customers still know in five years' time, 'Look, these guys are good and we can still get through to them, and they can still deal with us when something happens'.”
