If you haven’t read the 2026 Vero SME Insurance Index yet, set aside 20 minutes – because the findings will either confirm you’re doing the right things, or give you a very clear picture of where you’re leaving value on the table.
The headline numbers look reassuring: 80% of businesses used a broker in the past year, and 69% describe themselves as satisfied. But there’s a lot more going on under the surface.
Eight in Ten Businesses Used a Broker, But Most Aren’t Managing Risk Properly
Here’s the uncomfortable one: 75% of small businesses only have an ad hoc approach to risk management. They’re worried about risk they’re just not doing anything systematic about it.
That’s not a gap that closes itself. Three quarters of your clients are relying on you for an insurance product while the advisory relationship that would actually make a difference to their business resilience sits largely untapped. The brokers who build long-term loyalty are the ones who close that gap, not by selling more products, but by helping clients move from reactive to structured. That kind of conversation is hard to replace with a comparison platform.
Loyalty Is Earned, and It Sticks
Forty-two percent of businesses have used the same broker for more than three years. And among heavy broker users, 95% are satisfied with their claims experience.
That second number is the one that matters most. Claims are the moment of truth – the point where years of placement decisions become real. When you’ve done the groundwork right, clients feel it. When you haven’t, no amount of relationship management fixes a bad outcome. The decisions you make at placement have a disproportionate impact on long-term retention. Heavy users who have good claims experiences stay. Building the conditions for that starts well before a claim is ever lodged.
Clients Are Comfortable With AI – Up to a Point
Fifty-five percent of businesses are comfortable with their broker using AI to support insurance processes, with appetite even higher for specific tasks like product comparison and faster quoting. That’s a real shift.
What the index doesn’t say is that clients want AI to replace the advice relationship. The tasks they’re comfortable automating are largely transactional. The things that drive satisfaction and loyalty – expertise, understanding of their specific business, quality of advice when something goes wrong – are still deeply human. Use the technology to free up more time for that work, not as a reason to do less of it.
Brokers who consistently deliver that kind of value don’t happen by accident – they’re supported by networks that take expertise and service standards seriously. That’s what Better Broker Network is built around.