We’re delighted to announce that Coversure Poole Group’s founder and Managing Director John Palmer has been shortlisted as a ‘Finalist’ in the British Franchise Award in the ‘Resilient Riser’ category.
To mark this achievement, John reflects on why he’s been selected for this prestigious award, and how his team refused to be beaten by Covid.
If I’m honest, I was surprised to hear I’d been shortlisted as a Finalist in the ‘Business Resilience Award’ at the British Franchise Awards. While my team are no strangers to award wins – we’ve been fortunate enough to win four National Brokers Awards since 2015 – this one is extra special as it acknowledges our commitment to our customers and to each other during the recent crisis.
When I founded Coversure Poole, I did so as I wanted to offer people a one-stop insurance shop, to provide employment to local people and to take control of my destiny. I worked hard, networked like crazy and began assembling a great team and before I knew where we were, I had a flourishing business and I was ready for the next step on my business owner’s journey: a second Coversure office in Weymouth.
I acquired Coversure Weymouth in late 2018 and by the end of 2019 it was flourishing. Between our hospitality, taxi, landlord and liability insurance clients, we had a broad mix of clients, and everything was looking great. I began thinking of a third office and of taking on more staff. Things could hardly have been better. Then the pandemic hit, and I began to fear that I would not only have to shelve my growth plans, but I thatI might lose my entire business.
Ours is a service business, one that operates from high street offices. It’s been built on face-to-face networking, personalised service and through the building of long-term relationships. That’s the way insurance broking has always worked and yet almost overnight our working practices were made impossible. My team couldn’t come into the office, my clients couldn’t come and talk to me and as the economy plunged so I lost significant amounts of existing business and the prospect of new business never seemed less likely. The outlook was bleak.
We weren’t about to give in though. I came into this business to serve the community’s insurance needs and with many clients suffering as much if not more than we were, I was determined to be there for them.
To facilitate this, I equipped the team with laptops and the tools to work remotely. To maintain our levels of customer care I eschewed furlough and instead kept as many of the team working on full pay as I could. This, it turned out, was a wise decision. Once lockdown was announced we were inundated with calls from clients asking about business interruption cover, unoccupied property insurance and other policy issues. They were grateful for the advice the team gave them and appreciated our help in getting cover pared back while the crisis lasted.
The team were understandably fearful for their jobs, so I did my best to assure them that they were secure. I applied for grants, took no salary for myself for several months and used every trick in the book to keep costs down so that I could keep them safe. It was hard, but I never doubted we’d come through as I knew the business was strong, the team committed, and I certainly hadn’t come this far to fail now.
As things began to ease I was overwhelmed by the gratitude we received from our clients. We’d been there for them when they needed us most which was the point of opening the business in the first place. I felt like we’d achieved something significant simply by surviving and that reinvigorated my belief in what we’re doing.
The positives that Covid brought were to remind me of why I was doing this, of how great my team are and how much our clients value what we do for them. It was inspiring, and it made me determined to continue to grow my business organically and through acquisitions. That’s why as soon as lockdown lifted I decided to buy another office, Coversure Maidstone. It was a classic case of, ‘Go big or go home’ and I’m certainly not going home!