Elevating client experience in the insurance industry

By Resolve Editor Deb Eccleston

No matter who you are in the insurance pipeline and what you do, you need to how to meet your clients’ expectations and help them succeed.

To cover all bases of that pipeline, a Third-Party Administrator (TPA), broker and insurer took to the stage at the AILA 2024 National Conference to discuss how they meet – and endeavour to exceed – those expectations in their respective roles.

The Broker

Nicky Mason, National General Lines Claims Leader – Willis Towers Watson (WTW) said building relationships with clients was essential for brokers.

“We get to know what our client needs, what they want, how we can service that better and actually come up with the right solution for their needs,” she said.

“There's lots of things we do by way of bespoke policy endorsements, we can tailor policies to what the client actually wants, parametric solutions – there's lots of options out there.

“It's just a matter of getting to know them and finding out what works for them.”

Ms Mason said spending time in the client’s business to understand what they do and what they need, following up with regular servicing meetings and providing strong client advocacy were essential.

“We're just making sure we're keeping abreast of what's actually going on in their business – any changes, any challenges, anything that we need to look out for,” she said.

“We do claims advocacy for all of our clients for anything and everything. We go the extra mile.”

In the interests of transparency, it’s also important to have clear PDS’s to be able to provide clients with proper advice.

“The policy documents that we issue from the carriers to the insured are all branded our own way,” Ms Mason said.

“We also provide clients with an insurance report, so we tell the client what cover they have and what it means, on top of their PDS documents so they actually know what they’re covered for.” 

Caption: L-R Pete Diskin, AILA President Melanie Quixley, Nicky Mason and Dallas Campbell.

The TPA

Pete Diskin, Chief Client Officer and Deputy CEO of Gallagher Bassett said what TPA’s “wake up to do every day is handle claims”, whether its property, accident, motor and then underneath that emerging risks like cyber, aviation and marine.

“There’s probably not a class that we don’t touch. We don’t carry, we don’t price, and we don’t place risk, we simply wake up and do claims either for the client or as Gallagher Bassett," he said.

Pete said as the exclusive provider for the Australian Federal Government, creating value for money was key.

“The years gone by where you could turn up and say ‘we've got the best claims team in the world and you've got the complicated risk and we'll just manage your claims’ – that's not good enough anymore,” he said.

“They want to drive value for money – what are the value adds, innovations and insights we can provide – and is it a good use of taxpayer’s money?”

The Insurer

Dallas Campbell, Suncorp Manager Legal Injury, Strategic Partnerships Strategy and Performance said the organisation’s focus was on “delivering brilliant outcomes experiences at all stages of the insurance life cycle”.

Mr Campbell said a new platform called the “Digital Insurer” that uses AI technology to tailor premiums to individuals would be rolled out in the next year or two.

“It is using AI technology and other bells and whistles to tailor premiums around the individual rather than where you might live or a certain demographic or an age group which you might be issued a certain premium,” he said.

“It's focusing on better, quicker, cheaper outcomes – we really try and elevate the customer experience in getting to a claims resolution quickly, cheaply and as seamless as possible.”

In all his years of working with legal service providers, Mr Campbell has observed what separates “the best from the best”.

“It’s the firms that get curious about Suncorp’s purpose and invest the time to have a look to see what Suncorp’s purpose is, predicting what matters and linking that and embedding that into their everyday provision of legal services,” he said.

“They’re innovative and create more value.”

Photo credit: AILA 2024 Conference photos supplied warringtonphotography.com.