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QBE wins award for claims excellence

By Scott Jacobs
Service Excellence Claims Manager

QBE Business Insurance has won the award for Commercial Lines Claims Excellence at the 2021 Insurance Times Claims Excellence Awards.

The award was in recognition of our ground-breaking Bionic Claims programme that’s revolutionising the way we handle commercial motor insurance claims, and helping us to meet customer needs even faster, when they need us most.

We began by fostering an environment where our claims experts felt empowered to think creatively and create a new process that would more greatly benefit our customers. It revolved heavily around using different automation and robotics technologies to alleviate a lot of the manual processing completed by our Claims teams.

The new approach created a new virtual production line workflow for claims. Rather than each claim being worked on by one team member, the team is split into squads that monitor anything in an automated production line that’s too complex or out of scope in the automation processes. 

Because many routine and repetitive tasks are now being handled by robots, the overall claims process has been speeded up, and Claims team members have more time to focus on making sure each customers’ needs are taken care of.

Award

The judging panel for the 2021 Insurance Times Claims Excellence Awards were impressed by three key developments:

Creation of flow: we’ve restructured the way we allocate claims to enable a more natural flow of a claims lifecycle. People and automation are now working together seamlessly to move each claim along a ‘virtual conveyor belt’ from first notification of loss through to settlement.

Removal of repetitive tasks using technology: we’ve redesigned our claims handling processes around the various technologies at our disposal. 

Intelligent workflow delivery: we’re using data and technology to deliver ‘right task, right time, right person’ capabilities.

The judging panel said: 

'A fantastic presentation that clearly articulated QBE’s claims proposition model and outlined their achievements and future innovations that will benefit both broker and customer. We were particularly impressed by the in-house technological investment in robotics and the development of staff, so they’ll have greater decision-making power and the tools to improve and speed up the claims process. An impressive and authentic journey of self-reflection and improvement.'

Exceeding expectations

At QBE, we take pride in the outstanding claims service we deliver to customers and brokers. But we’re always looking for ways to make it even better, so we don’t just meet expectations, but exceed them.

We continuously measure our performance against demanding targets and seek customer feedback, which we factor into our service planning.

Customer satisfaction is the true test of our service. But it’s always good to receive additional validation in the form of industry award wins. Our previous awards include:

  • Insurance Post Claims Awards 2019: Claims Innovation of the Year (Broker/Insurer)
  • British Insurance Awards 2019: Claims Initiative of the Year (Insurer)
  • The Insurance Fraud Awards 2018: Commercial Fraud Team of the Year
  • Claims Management Awards 2017: Insurer of the Year
  • British Insurance Awards 2016: Major Loss Award
  • The Insurance Fraud Awards 2016: Fraud Investigation Team of the Year
  • Rehabilitation First Awards 2016: Rehabilitation Initiative of the Year

About QBE

QBE helps businesses build resilience through risk management and insurance.

QBE European Operations is part of QBE Insurance Group, one of the world’s leading international insurers and reinsurers and Standard & Poor’s A+ rated.

As a business insurance specialist, QBE European Operations offers a range of insurance products from the standard suite of property, casualty and motor to the specialist financial lines, marine and energy. All are tailored to the individual needs of our small, medium and large customer base.