Members of the judging panel for the British Claims Awards give their thoughts on claims as a service, and why and how the policyholder must be front and centre
Peter Staddon, Managing General Agents’ Association
Claims is a service: the clue is in the title. We are in a service industry and, as the saying goes, claims is our shop window.
The customer journey is paramount–and as such, it should be hassle-free. That means avoiding the ‘discount claims payments, because paying cash gets you a cheaper quote’ bunkum. It should not just be about financial considerations but about putting the policyholder back in the same position they would have been had the incident not occurred.
Today, we have access to the technology to clean and restore even before we consider replacement of any damaged items. We have to ensure the policyholder is onside and if it means spending slightly more in cleaning and repair, then we should. That goes some way to building the industry’s reputation. A happy policyholder can mean a renewal so a happy broker—a win, win, win situation for all concerned.
So how do we achieve this? One way is to make sure that any procurement officer looking at a claims service provider understands they should be putting the customer first. The role is not to stack it high to sell it cheap, thus saving money. Yes, we understand the importance of economics and critical mass of purchases, but the policyholder wants to know they are valued as a customer, not just a figure on the balance sheet.
I know this first-hand from my own experience of making a claim for burglary. All the loss adjuster wanted to do was to reduce the cost of the claim by 20%. It got so bad that I phoned the claims director of the insurance company and complained about how the claim was being run. My claim was resolved after the claims director took control. I was lucky as I understood the situation, but imagine how the everyday policyholder, who does have the advantage of such knowledge, must feel in this situation? Let’s treat our customers how we would like to be treated so when they have a claim, their journey is as painless as possible, otherwise we run the risk of losing them.