Gym membership and Insurance aren’t purchases that fit comfortably into the pleasure principle but are more often described as ‘grudge buys’ that promise peace of mind or, if you’re lucky, a return sometime in the future. Catherine Tubbs answers a question we’re often asked about the Charity’s choice of dot2dot as its own insurer and partner.
- why day nurseries choose dot2dot
When we began what was an extensive selection process of insurers almost three years ago we were looking for a partnership that would complement the charity’s primary function: “to support Montessori across the UK in every way it can”, and to strive to “ensure that all schools using the Montessori name in the UK offer the same high quality of education and care to children.” One of the charity’s concerns was that the nursery sector as a whole did not value insurance properly. We found that insurance can be complicated and most importantly learnt that cheap insurance isn’t always best. We explained to the shortlisted companies that the ‘typical’ Montessori nursery owner was female and educated.
“Their readinesses to discuss our needs and opinions were just two of the reasons why we chose them as the charity’s insurers.”
She’s an independent sole business owner looking to provide quality education not just childcare, all backed up by a sound philosophy that has been tried and tested over many years. We were looking for a company that could support this type of business owner and felt the insurance partner needed to be one we could all identify with. The partner would effectively become a business advisor for our members on all things insurance related. We needed a company that would listen to our members, offer years of experience, uncompromising standards and an eye for detail, yet be small enough to offer a genuinely personal touch. A tall order?
Some of the selection criteria included:
- A shared vision and goal
- Open communication
- Industry expert
- Mutual respect
- Effective conflict resolution
- Best practice
dot2dot is also a woman run business that has exacting standards and are absolute sticklers for detail. They are uniquely qualified in the specialised area of nursery insurance and their policies are underwritten by leading insurance company Zurich.
dot2dot offer the Croner-i early years management software free of charge to all their clients; this software helps with the daily management of the business but is also an extra pair of hands and eyes particularly for the smaller business. It offers a 24 hour
support service, lawyers, HR specialists, and so on. We believe dot2dot’s values are aligned with our own and their products will help to protect the best interest of all our businesses. Their readinesses to discuss our needs and opinions were just two of the reasons why we chose them as the charity’s insurers.
Jackie Hyde, the company’s director, writes regular insurance columns for the insurance industry press and is much respected in the insurance arena.
dot2dot strive for best practice in all they do, and we would go so far as to say that they aim for excellence in their quality of service. In the long run we wanted a company that would help us to measure, protect and enhance the things that matter most to us. We felt that this would add value to our business (and hopefully yours) and ultimately save the charity money, time, offer us peace of mind and the opportunity to learn something along the way.
The Charity is delighted to be partnered in this way with dot2dot and hope that you will find that our choice is also of great benefit to your nursery.