Diary of an Insurer: RSA’s Katie Balme
Katie Balme, head of partnerships for customer and strategy in RSA’s delegated business, works a flexible week, help partners achieve specific objectives and enjoys Freddie Fridays.
Monday
I wake-up to “Mum”. It’s time for school. Freddie, my funny and charming six-year-old, is an early bird and full of beans.
Mondays are busy days for us both. Freddie has swimming at school and again after school with his Papa – which he loves.
On Mondays I focus on delivering our partner advocacy strategy, which essentially means, working with our delegated authority partners to understand their business and customers to shape what support we can offer to help them thrive.
Although no two days are the same, each week starts with an advocacy call with the leadership team to agree actions and priorities for partners.
This includes discussing new opportunities and ideas to help partners achieve specific objectives and overcome emerging challenges. It’s my favourite day of the week. I love rolling my sleeves up and really getting under the skin of our partners businesses.
Tuesday
It’s our fun day. Jenny, our fabulous marketing manager, and I meet weekly to plan how we can bring some gold dust and added value to our partners.
This week, for example, we ran an exclusive webinar for our partners on “prepping their Consumer Duty board reports”.
After 15 years of leading our commercial schemes (more than 20 at RSA), I’m blessed to work for a company who listens and supports ideas.
Recently allowing me to recently refocus my role and help us push on our ambition to be the best for service in a fast-evolving delegated market.
We’ve had some amazing recent highlights: running regular webinars for partners on hot topics, collaborating with our partners and we were shortlisted for not one but two British Insurance Awards this year (RSA won the Industry Impact Award at Post’s 2024 ceremony in July).
We’ve recently increased our partner advocacy score by 10% and won several new schemes. It is nice to see the hard work is paying off.
Wednesday
Keys, phone, Freddie! Yes, we’ve got them all and off we go. Mornings are fun and a bit crazy when I’m on the road.
I love that I still get to visit our partners and chat to them about our plans (yes both for business and their weekend – it’s not all about work).
Many of our partners have been with us for 20 years, so we’re like family and extensions of one another’s team.
I listen to ideas, answer questions, and offer guidance on how we can help. We’ve worked really hard to develop a range of bespoke added value services for our partners. Whether they’re struggling with recurring claims, an aggressive competitor, how to remove friction in customer journeys or how to capitalise on new opportunities – I have a task force of experts within our business that can be drafted in to help.
One of my favourite events of the year for meeting partners is British Insurance Brokers’ Association Conference, which was rather interesting this year, trying to hobble round with a cast, after breaking my ankle a few weeks prior.
Many who know me know that unusual things happen to me regularly. It was no surprise when I got stuck in a lift on my crutches at the RSA evening event. I was rescued by colleagues who thankfully heard my screams. Another Katieism to add to the list.
Thursday
Last day of the working week for me. Yes, I’m lucky enough to work a flexible week and have my Freddie Fridays.
Before I enjoy the weekend though, my focus is working with our delegated business leaders and partner task force to review all partner experiences and most importantly our customers experiences.
Our priority is to bring value and show customers why what they buy from us, helps to keep them safe. We are so lucky to work with incredible partners who know their sectors inside and out and what their customers truly need.
We’ve got partners who I’ve been working with since I was 21. It means so much to hear the stories first hand from our partners and our customers on how we have genuinely helped them.
Friday
Wow what a week again and happy to crack on with my other favourite job… Mum time and catching up with family and friends.
After the school drop-off, I meet my Mum, who also worked for RSA for 30 years.
Our family runs purple through and through. The usual supermarket shop and then I’m off to my neighbours later to let the boys enjoy a playday whilst the mums enjoy some Friday fizz. Hello weekend.
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