People, processes and partnerships are the three key planks of emerging stronger from the global pandemic.
That was the verdict of ARC360’s webinARC 3.5: A New Start, which brought together panellists Waseem Malik, executive managing director – claims, AXA Insurance, and Graham Roberts, commercial director, ABL 1Touch.
Both agreed that while the reopening of schools on Monday 8 March had already produced an uptick of work volumes, which they expect to continue, only those businesses that are prepared for a new working environment with new priorities will be in a position to make the most of what is hoped will be the final recovery.
People
Lockdown fatigue is a term that didn’t exist before Covid-19, but businesses in all industries are now having to manage employees who are either overworked by filling in for furloughed colleagues or disengaged after months at home.
Graham said, ‘This has been a once-in-a-lifetime experience and one of the key aspects we’re focussing on now is our people. If we don’t have a good understanding of how our people are feeling then we’re not going to be able come out of this strongly.’
He explained how ABL 1Touch has been working with health and wellbeing specialists t-cup to assess the wellness of the workforce, which will inform what the business needs to focus on going forward.
Customers
But ‘people’ does not just mean those working within the business. Possibly the greatest change of the last year has been in customer habits, with a massive shift to online engagement. Being able to satisfy this preference is critical to continued success.
Waseem admits the insurance industry has not always been the most adaptable in terms of embracing new technology but insists that has changed in the last year.
He said, ‘We’ve looked at how we can focus more on the customer, that’s one of the good things to come out of this, and there is a definite shift from customers who want to interact digitally with us. That’s not going to change now so we have put much more focus on digital demands. It’s a necessity now, not a choice.’
Digital
As such AXA has introduced digital FNOL, with a quarter of its claims now originating this way, while the company is also now remotely triaging jobs at the point of notification and has reported 80% more accurate outcomes.
Waseem said, ‘We know we need to evolve and that we’re coming from a long way back, but we’re moving rapidly. Within three weeks of lockdown we had 95% of people working from home, so it just shows that when you put your mind to something you can do it.’
Furthermore, to ensure the tech transformation continues AXA has also launched a digital academy with more than 50 apprentices now on the 18-month course, and is actively employing data experts from outside the sector.
Partners
But future-proofing your business and becoming ‘sustainable’ can no longer be achieved in isolation. Aligning yourself with partners who share your thinking on fundamental issues such as transparency, customer service and carbon neutrality is critical.
Graham believes that these issues need to be addressed collectively with your supply chain, and the only way to achieve that is by aligning yourself with the right partners. He says ABL 1Touch’s management buyout backed by private equity firm Mobeus late last year is a case in point.
He explained how exhaustive and stressful it was finding a private equity partner that suited their own visions, but the effort has been worthwhile.
Strategy
Graham said, ‘Some private investors wanted aggressive growth strategies while some seemed to have very little ambition for us. Mobeus has allowed us to follow our own strategy and we’re now in a much stronger position than we were.’
Waseem agreed. He suggested partnerships can longer be decided by price alone, instead businesses need to take a long-term view and put the emphasis on common traits and building deeper, lasting relationships.
This was backed up by a live online poll held during the webinar, which found 46% of respondents said greater partner alignment would add the greatest value to the motor claims supply chain.
Processes
However, underpinning all of this is process. If the processes are not fit for purpose then no technology or partnership is going to make a difference. Both speakers agreed that in too many cases when you drill down into the way things are done and ask why, the answer is because this is the way they’ve always been done.
Waseem said, ‘Some processes haven’t changed in decades and when you look at them closely you’re amazed at what you’ve been asking the customers to do. You want the back end to be speaking to the front end, you want to create a seamless process right through the claim. Transparency and visibility throughout the process is one of the biggest challenges but biggest opportunities, and it all starts and ends with process. Once you’ve got your processes fit for purpose you can apply technology to it.’
And the improvement has to be continuous. While the last year has seen many forward-thinking managers and owners step back and assess every area of their business, this is a good habit to hold on to even as things return to some sort of normal.
Graham said, ‘We challenged every area of the business in the last year and we’ve got to a very good place now. But that wasn’t a one-off; we’ve got to continue to do it to keep finding efficiencies that drive the business forward.’
Volumes
Exactly when normal service will resume remains unclear, with the industry still largely divided on rates of recovery.
Another live online poll during the webinar found that half of attendees said they are still operating between 60-80% of normal volumes. Ten per cent said volumes were above 80% of pre-Covid levels while 40% said they were below 60%.
Underlining the vagaries, 39% also said volumes had remained static over the past fortnight, while 29% reported a slight decrease and the exact same number reported a slight increase.
