Paymentshield reveals strong year-on-year growth in performance of referral services

Paymentshield data has revealed notable growth for the annual performance of its Refer and Protect proposition, with total new business volumes up by 219% year-on-year.

Following the launch of its referral solution in summer 2023, sharp growth was anticipated, however, comparing July-December 2024 to July-December 2023, the GI platform provider says expectations have been exceeded with data showing the total quotes delivered has increased by 289%, new business sales via telephone have increased by 193% and overall quote to sale conversion rates from the telephone referral team have climbed from 42% to 44%.

The referral proposition was created to enable advisers to refer customers to Paymentshield’s own team of in-house experts to discuss their general insurance needs. It supports advisers who want to offer clients a home insurance quote even if they don’t have time to offer advice themselves, and support’s Paymentshield’s mission to ensure every home is properly protected by quality insurance.

Since launch Paymentshield’s referral offering has evolved to offer Landlord’s Insurance and an automated digital solution, which enables advisers to provide an instant automated quote to clients by email or text.  

In addition, Paymentshield’s sophisticated lead-tracking software ensures that advisers can retain oversight of where their clients are in the journey.

These tech developments are supported by Paymentshield’s business development team who proactively support firms who might benefit from embedding a referral approach within their business.

Emma Green, Distribution Director at Paymentshield, comments:

"These results are a testament to the faith that advisers have placed in Paymentshield, and to the hard work and expertise of our telephone referral team. The fact that almost one third of our total referral quotes are converting, and almost half are converting where customers are speaking to our team, is fantastic and far surpasses typical conversion rates for GI.

“It’s clear that even in a tough market, there will remain buoyant consumer demand for proper protection of their most valuable possessions and we’re in a really strong place to support this following the recent additions to our Home Insurance panel. As 2025 plays out, we will remain on hand to support advisers in adopting new quote and integration capabilities into their GI business so that they can seamlessly benefit from the significant general insurance opportunity that exists for them.”

To support advisers wanting to understand more about the financial benefits of its Refer and Protect proposition, Paymentshield is updating its commission calculator on its unique Adviser Hub platform. The new update allows advisers to use the calculator predict what their likely earnings would be from business submitted through referral. Furthermore, the tool helps to demonstrate that although advisers may receive less commission per case than if they were arranging the insurance themselves, since the quote to sale conversion rate is currently almost double when referring to Paymentshield's telephone team, rather than handling the business themselves, advisers have the opportunity to increase their overall income through adopting a referral approach.