Many organisations actively collect feedback through satisfaction measurements, surveys and customer conversations, but make insufficient use of the insights that emerge from them. Often, the process is slow, one-off and ad hoc. Baloise, which works with an extensive network of independent brokers spread across Belgium, knew this problem all too well. Together with Möbius, the company built BrokerBase: a permanent, representative community of brokers that delivers insights quickly, in days instead of weeks.
The challenge
Baloise has a clear mission: to create an exceptional experience for its brokers. But the way it listened to them was in need of renewal. Every research question, coming from internal teams such as sales, marketing or IT, started from scratch: compiling a list of brokers, contacting the right people, and only then starting the actual research. Even for a simple question, this could take up to one and a half to two months. In addition, the traditional annual NPS satisfaction survey provided a snapshot only once a year, which was too limited as a basis for decision-making. Baloise needed an agile tool to listen continuously and provide rapid feedback.
“What we particularly value in our collaboration with Möbius is that they look beyond simply collecting feedback. We are genuinely building Broker Base together with them. The combination of expertise, commitment and pragmatism makes all the difference for us."
- Gert Vanuytsel, Broker Satisfaction Lead
The approach
Together, we opted for a permanent, representative community. The key question: how do you make the selection? In a workshop with various internal stakeholders, we put sixteen possible selection criteria on the table and kept things workable by using target figures rather than strict quotas for three parameters: segment, region and type of office. We did not recruit through an anonymous mailing, but personally: account managers invited their brokers themselves. And that approach paid off quickly. Within a few weeks, we had already achieved 80% of our target.
The real strength lies in what such a community unlocks: one permanent group of brokers that you know and with whom you can engage in dialogue in many different ways.
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Polls: 1 to 2 questions, answered within two days. Ideal for making a quick decision and keeping the community active.
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Surveys, from short to extensive: quantitative, with room for open questions and comparisons between target groups.
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In-depth interviews and concept tests: for example, validate a new portal with prototypes before you build it.
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Focus groups and customer arenas: shaping solutions together. During a customer arena, employees listen in to customers live, immediately making it a form of change management.
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The strength lay in the collaboration: Möbius brought the structure, rigorous research methodology and a critical external perspective, while Baloise brought the practical knowledge and ownership. In this way, we gradually transferred our expertise: we scaled back our support step by step, until Baloise had taken full ownership of managing the community.
The result
The community quickly began to bear fruit. Baloise now not only gathers insights faster and more precisely, it also turns them into concrete action.
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From weeks to days. What used to take one and a half months can now be done in days, at a lower cost per insight.
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Response that speaks volumes. We consistently record more positive response rates than before, with very positive peaks on a regular basis. Meanwhile, surveys are running on average every week.
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Sharper insights. Because Möbius contributes to the research design and Baloise brings its sector and business knowledge, the surveys do not produce isolated figures, but insights that Baloise can act on immediately.
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From listening to steering. At live events, Baloise puts internal employees directly in contact with brokers. This allows them to hear first-hand what is going on and immediately incorporate it into the development of new solutions.
What you can take away from this
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Dare to start. Waiting for the perfect tool can cost you months. Baloise started with a simple overview in Excel; the community was already fully operational while the portal was still being built. Start small, learn quickly, then scale.
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Invest in the live moment. A digital community can quickly become transactional, with reactions such as “another email, another survey”. Physical proximity demonstrably increases online response rates. And surprisingly, your target audience cares less about material rewards than about genuinely being heard.
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Turn listening into steering. Impact only emerges when you visibly do something with the input. Closing the feedback loop builds trust, turns customers into ambassadors and gives you the internal leverage to make decisions.
BrokerBase proves that customer experience is not a project, but a continuous system. Do you work with a valuable B2B target audience that you want to engage continuously, such as brokers, accountants, partners or local authorities? Then a community could be the next step for you too. Let’s explore it together.
