Join us as we sit down with Claims Director for ECSG, Simon Oliver, as we hear about how his experience in senior positions within the motor trade and motor insurance industry have shaped his career.

Being responsible for all commercial activity and general claims strategy is no easy task, though Simon has proven to be an exceptional person for the job as he considers every clients’ uniqueness in all aspects of the claims handling process.

And with almost 30 years’ experience, Simon always with a keen eye on great service and cost control. In fact, our first introductory Meet the Team interview with Simon was a popular read amongst our clients, so we were keen to schedule a re-visit.

Here’s how our catch up went. 

Hi Simon, could you start off by letting us know how long you’ve been working with ECSG now?

So, I cannot believe it is over 3 years from the embryonic conversations sitting in my garden to where are today! That time has flown by and from my garden we have grown to having a 365/24/7 Service and Claims Centre in the wonderful City of Norwich. This office deals with claims for insurers but we also deal with service calls 24/7 for supply chain partners and Insurers in peak/surge situations.

Thanks Simon. Do you think the mix of technology and also the human, ethical element of claims management is an important balance?

Technology is a crucial part of what we do,  machine learning for vehicle damage assessment and giving the customer the option of omni channel communications be it e-mail, webchat, web link, WhatsApp or text, this is all great, however if they want to speak to us about their claim we are cool with this and I still find that customers want to speak with a human being, at ECSG we have some lovely human beings, experienced claims people who know how to put a customer at ease without use of technical jargon. Customer ease, satisfaction and great customer/client outcomes are so important to us at ECSG.

As we know, there are a lot of market challenges right now such as rising fuel costs, parts supplies and economical concerns, all things which are likely affecting claimants. What do you think are the upcoming and ongoing challenges are and how do/will ECSG deal with these?

So, we can all see the inflationary factors affecting business and people alike. That does not look like easing anytime soon. Despite commentary on the subject, we do not see those commentators offering up any real solutions to help customers and clients combat this.

The world we work in has always faced challenges and change. Always we innovate and adapt. I think the Claims Industry is great at this.

However, we are behind the curve when it comes to labour rates for repair partners. I don’t think rates have moved for 10 years. We have to remember that these partners are, in the main part, the face-to-face connection with the customer, they do a great job for us and we should not forget this. It us much more than a labour rate, it is about outcomes, customer, cost, the correct repair.

Labour rate and energy costs aside (a repairer cannot turn down the temperature of the oven..) there are challenges… As I understand it there are paint issues coming down the track, Radon gas is used to produce paint, and this is produced in the areas currently affected by the Ukraine situation so supply and cost will be affected.

Parts, a subject well reported on in terms of production and supply/availability. It is a challenge, ECSG manage repair tightly, delays are understood and if that delay is parts related, we call upon our partners (Manufacturer, OEE and Green Parts suppliers) to attempt to source the correct part for a delayed repair.

Our opinion, considering the current parts shortage/delay, is that vehicles will be stolen to order for parts harvesting. This combined with the economic pressures on society in general will require a robust claims FNOL, triage, investigation solution. ECSG can offer this from new claim to investigation, settlement/declinature.

And considering these ongoing challenges in the market, do you think there is now more of an emphasis on claims intervention?

This has always been a great service to control cost and highlight brand for potential future customers. Intervention is a great tool if captured. ECSG make sure that mitigation letters are sent and we truly believe a failed capture is not a fail! Where possible, dependent on Client we move a “fail” into a live hire monitoring environment.

Our intervention and live monitoring of credit hire cases service provision can not only lower claims costs but give evidence of any delays and speed up key to key times. On all cases we will actively challenge the validity of claims for hire and repair and actively manage the downtime and off-hire.

We will set up a file within own Claims Advisor system and log our initial review of case. To ensure that each case receives our utmost attention, we will front load enquiries at the first call and set case diaries for 1 call every 2 working days until repairs completed/total loss settled, record every action taken until payment pack is received.

All telephone calls will be recorded should any of those be pertinent to settlement negotiations. All data in Claims Advisor is time stamped as it moves through the system to give a perfect audit trail of information. A user interface will be created to enable handlers to access all hire monitoring notes, information and documents at payment pack stage.

How would you say ECSG is different when it comes to the claims intervention processes?

A customer is a customer, right? We strive to deliver great service and control cost whether a Policyholder or a Third Party…. We will endeavour to provide services to a third-party customer and provide mobility but will always ensure the insurer client is protected in terms of a robust Copley defence via letter or SMS. We are keen to prove the benefits of swift monitoring on a “failed “intervention by monitoring third party repair in order to reduce third party hire cost.

To find out more about our services, contact our team today.