In Focus: May - 30 years, Outsourcing, Our customers, Positive impact & Issues faced
13 May 2024
We asked the Carpenters Group senior leadership team 5 hot topic questions. Here are their thoughts on the road ahead...
Q: Carpenters Group at 30 and what the next 30 years has to come
A: “How can Carpenters Group be 30 years old! It seems like John, and I blinked and it happened. It’s certainly a moment to stop, take stock and look back on how far we’ve come in that time.
Did we know we’d grow so big, expand to so many offices or carry out such a wide range of work when we started as a niche law firm, no way! We started out knowing the type of values and culture we wanted in our business, how we wanted to provide a quality personal service to our customers, and we really wanted our people to enjoy working with us.
Fast forward 30 years and we are very proud of so much. Our DEI and social mobility record. Our people and their loyalty, hard work and commitment to us. Our continued values and culture that have survived our huge growth. The immense teamwork that makes us what we are.
What do we want going forward? Well, to dust ourselves down after 4 very tough years where we had to navigate a pandemic and the whiplash reforms. That was certainly character building. It’s great to be coming out the other side, together, and to be looking to the future positively.
Thank you to our people, our clients, our suppliers and anybody who has supported us in the last 30 years, it’s been a huge team effort."
Donna Scully, Director
Carpenters Group
Q: Why are we seeing the increased interest in outsourcing within the insurance Markets?
A: "It's important to understand the real life cost implications that an increase in claims handling expenses can have on an insurer, with rising rates and stubborn CoR returns, more UK insurers are considering both medium term and tactical support when it comes to traditional claims services such as FNOL (First Notification of Loss).
Outsourcing is the practice of contracting professional business service providers to manage the non-core functions of your business. Turning to outsourced services, especially as an inflation survival strategy, can help strengthen businesses in many ways.
One of the most immediate benefits of outsourcing is the reduction in overhead costs aligned with the ability to manage services “on demand”.
Our experience has created an environment where we can work with Insurers & Brokers to find a way to optimise call capacity management, whilst refining traditional FNOL services, to create a more dynamic approach to claims work-flows.
Outsourcing offers benefits other than simple cost savings. It also provides access to experts in every department. Through outsourcing, you can tap into existing expertise that supports the ambitions of the partner."
Simon Smith
Director of Claims Strategy, Carpenters Group
Q: What steps do you take to provide a customer-centric service to your customers?
A: “As Carpenters Group enter our 30th year, we continue to be recognised by our Insurer partners for providing market leading customer services. We continuously find new ways to improve the customer experience across both the insurance and legal claims journeys.
Customer experience has always been, without exception, our primary focus. We continue to work collaboratively with our Insurer Clients to create bespoke, effective solutions for them and their policyholders and by doing so we continue to build long-term relationships within the insurance industry.
We understand that first class customer service is not only crucial to the customer following an accident, but our insurer partners rely on us to provide the level of service they’ve promised, during the “moment of truth”. When the accident happens we are there to protect their brand and their reputation.
There are a number of key elements to our approach that make us the first choice for Insurance and legal services:
- We put the customer at the centre of the process;
- We place a premium on compliance and ethics;
- We own and maintain market leading technology that provides us with scale and flexibility.
- We operate specialist teams for every type of case, from a simple excess recovery case to a complex, high-value, catastrophic injury claim.
We are as always, very much focused on our customers and our insurer partners. We will continue to look for new innovative ways to provide frictionless, swift and simple solutions to enhance and deliver our market-leading customer service.
What do we want going forward? Well, to dust ourselves down after 4 very tough years where we had to navigate a pandemic and the whiplash reforms. That was certainly character building. It’s great to be coming out the other side, together, and to be looking to the future positively.
Thank you to our people, our clients, our suppliers and anybody who has supported us in the last 30 years, it’s been a huge team effort."
Paul Challoner
Commercial Director, Carpenters Group
Q: Making a positive impact
A: “Nobody likes buying motor insurance or expects to have to use it. The claims process is referred to as a ‘moment of truth’ by most insurers, as it’s at this point the customer realises the benefit of what they have bought. We are the shop window for many different Insurers and Brokers.
Have you ever thought how much of a difference you make to people’s lives, much more than you give yourselves credit for I’ll bet! You are there providing reassurance and guidance to our customers, most of who will be in shock having never been involved in an accident before. They look to us to help them with what they need to do next.
Think about it… Have you ever been involved in an accident? If so what did you need? To get your vehicle and family to a safe location? To get another vehicle as quickly as possible if yours isn’t driveable? You still need to get the kids to school or yourself to work. If you are injured you just want to be ‘better’ as soon as possible.
We do all of this for our customers, arranging recovery, booking hire and/or repairs, sorting out issues, booking medicals, arranging rehab or physio. I know this may sound simple but if that was for me or my family that would make a huge difference. It would be such a relief to know I was getting the help I needed. Don’t underestimate the difference you make to someone’s day!"
Sam Nicholson, Head of Insurance Services
Carpenters Group
Q: What key issues do your teams face?
A: “One of the issues the Bike Team face is how to deal with cases where clients have sustained significant injuries but liability is disputed. Liability is disputed on over 50% of claims involving bikes, mopeds and scooters.
The difficulty Claimants have is that whilst liability is disputed, insurers are unwilling to provide much needed rehabilitation or interim payments. When injuries are significant it can take several years to obtain medical reports and to be in a position to issue proceedings. By this time, witnesses have disappeared and memories have faded, prejudicing the Claimants position.
One tactic is to issue proceedings for liability only and to proceed with quantum only after liability has been successful determined. This is known as a split Trial. An application for a split trial can be made during the case lifecycle.
To succeed the injuries would have to be serious but as long further medical evidence is required, then focus should be on resolving liability before incurring disbursements and obtaining expensive medical evidence, which can take time.
As a Claimant why go to the expense of obtaining all the medical evidence to then lose on liability? Split trials are there for a reason and should be used in the lager more serious cases where medical evidence is awaited."
Mark Bratherton, Head of Technical Claims
Carpenters Group
