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At NIG, we’re always looking for innovations that make the claims process easier and faster for our customers. For our Commercial Claims team, this means creating new ways to make video evidence submission easier, get payments across faster, and improve the way we communicate.
To give you an idea of what to expect from these initiatives, we caught up with four members of the Claims team from across the country to find out what they think. Let’s meet:
• Andrew Perry, Claims Relationship Manager, based in Bromley
• Matthew Hitchman, Commercial Claims Handler, based in Birmingham
• Robert Strother, Senior Commercial Claims Handler, based in Manchester
• Jack Wallace, Senior Commercial Claims Handler, based in Bromley
Making video evidence submission simple
Video evidence is proving increasingly vital for our Commercial Claims teams, particularly in the Motor sector where dashcam, CCTV and mobile footage has helped speed up the claims process. Despite this, until now sharing videos and images with our claims handlers has meant submitting physical copies on CD or USB, often making the process slow and cumbersome.
But this is changing – with NIG’s new 360 initiative, you can now submit video evidence online meaning your claim handler can process it on the same day.
Matthew Hitchman calls 360 a “godsend”. Explaining how it works, he says: “We send the user a link in an email, and they upload their footage to the 360 secure website. It’s as simple as that.
“It’s an absolute winner because we can process videos and make our liability decisions much faster. It’s already proven a massive hit with our staff, clients and brokers.”
Improving our communication with brokers
CONNECT is a new training programme for all our team members here at NIG, including our claims team, that focuses on improving how we communicate with our customers and brokers. It’s designed to improve the contact process from start to finish, ensuring you feel supported and well-informed by your claims handler from the very first conversation.
As Jack Wallace explains, “A great thing about CONNECT is that it teaches us how to adapt our conversation style to suit a customer’s needs.
“So, when speaking to our loyal connectors, we always look to build a rapport with them before diving into the nitty-gritty of a claim. Doing this helps the customer or broker feel more comfortable from day one. We then use signposting language to give them a better understanding of how things work and to help them make the best decisions.”
Earlier notification, quicker payments
As a customer of NIG, it’s important to know your claim can be processed and approved as quickly as possible. That’s why we encourage early notification of claims as this allows us to consider it promptly. Once approved, we offer payment options to suit your business.
As well as the traditional option of receiving a cheque, you can receive payment by BACS. In March we’re introducing Faster Payments to further enhance our BACS settlement solution, meaning you could see the money arrive in your bank account within 2 hours, versus taking 3-5 days to clear.
“Being able to pay claims by BACS is great for our customers who prefer to bank online and Faster Payments will make it effortless for customers to receive payment on the same day,” says Robert Strother. “But for everyone else, we still provide the option to pay claims by cheque – it’s all about giving the customer choice about how they do business with us.”
Increasing our accountability
In order to make sure we’re meeting our standards for customer service and efficiency, we have a feedback survey that makes it easier for our claims team to measure their own performance level.
The surveys ask our customers and brokers to rate NIG’s performance in several key areas, such as the clarity of our communication and whether the outcomes of the claims process met their expectations. The feedback we receive helps us improve the quality and efficiency of our service and strengthen our relationships with customers and brokers.
Andrew Perry, who oversees the process, says: “Feedback is important to us, not only because it helps us to see how well we are performing, but also because it allows us to identify gaps in our propositions.
“We then use this information to guide the development of new initiatives which makes it easier for us to achieve our objectives – making our service feel like a walk in the park.”
Let us know what you think
We welcome client feedback to help us continually improve the NIG claims journey. Please remember to complete the claims survey link following the first notification of loss and at settlement of the claim. If you have any queries, please contact your NIG Claims Relationship Manager or usual claims contact.