Improving client service
Amlin considers provision of a high quality client service as a key differentiator in a subscription market. In 2005 we have invested and will continue to invest considerable resources in improving three main areas: access, policy insurance and contract certainty, and claims.
Access
By access, we mean the evaluation and turnaround of risk from broker to underwriter
and back. Previous years' investment in our data warehouse and underwriting workflow system, permitting our underwriters to more efficiently handle the receipt of electronic submissions from brokers, is paying off as electronic submissions have now become a fast growing feature of the placement process.
We are now taking this to the next stage and have been working with a select number of peers and broker partners to link our systems directly in a manner which we expect to allow
the removal of process inefficiencies and cost while providing good levels of service.
Policy issuance and contract certainty
In 2004 Amlin identified the timely and efficient issue of policy documents where we lead business as a strategic priority. Improvement in this area will reduce the scope for disputes over coverage and improve customer service. Our goals were provided with added impetus when, in December 2004, the Chief Executive of the FSA challenged the London market to achieve contract certainty by the end of 2006 or risk possible regulatory intervention.
Contract certainty is the "complete and final agreement of all terms between the insured and insurer before inception (of the risk)". This means that a full contract wording must be agreed before any underwriter commits to the contract. Amlin is striving to achieve 100% compliance by the end of 2006.
Based on a sample of 164 risks, comprising 22% of all subscription market lead risks underwritten during 1 January 2006 renewal season, our status against this target is set
out in the table above.
| Delivery of contract certainly at December 2005 |
| Amlin Cat. |
Status against our contract certainly standard |
% |
 |
| 1 |
Wording agreed prior to inception and the contract is in compliance with our standards |
46 |
|
| 2 |
Wording agreed prior to inception but failed one or two of our standard measures |
23 |
|
| 3 |
Wording agreed prior to inception but failed substantially to meet our standards |
17 |
|
| 4 |
Despite the slip being signed, there was no agreed wording prior ro inception and/ or the contract was written after inception |
14 |
|
| |
|
100 |
|
|
The above relates to subscription market business only. It does not include business where we underwrite 100% of each risk and therefore exercise full control over the contract certainty process. Our contract certainty average for this business was 98.5%
for 2005, with contracts mailed within
30 days of inception.
To help us deliver this better quality of customer service we have recruited additional contract wording specialists and are developing tools to better measure performance by both Amlin and each broker with whom we trade, so that we can identify any obstacles to meeting the high standards we have set ourselves. Our underwriting teams have received specialist training on the principles of contract certainty and the checks required to achieve it and will receive further on-line training in 2006.
Claims service
Despite having achieved top ranking in the 2005 Gracechurch Broker Survey for our claims service, we had in 2004 identified a number of improvements in efficiency and service which were not in place at the time of the survey. During
2005 our claims teams have been working towards the identified improvements, which has involved the following:
- The introduction of a claims workflow system which, like the underwriting system introduced
in 2004, will help us to manage critical service levels as well as providing an interface capability with third party claims repositories;
- The use of the above workflow system to maintain our own lead claims files, breaking the mould of historic market practice whereby the broker has maintained the claims files on behalf of underwriters. We expect this to improve materially the speed of claims settlement;
- Investing in our claims skills development through a combination of recruitment, a better understanding of the competencies required to meet our goals and a more formal development programme for claims technicians; and
- Putting in place a more rigorous set of processes for managing third parties to whom we outsource aspects of the claims adjustment and settlement process, including lawyers and adjusters in foreign jurisdictions.
In 2005 Amlin's claims teams received
between 1,981 and 3,641 claims files per
month and our service target (introduced in
May) was to adjust 75% of the portfolio within four working days. This was achieved with
the exception of December (74.32%), where considerable volumes of hurricane related claims caused a backlog. Our strategy for dealing with this is to triage incoming files, giving priority to material cases.
Based on feedback received from Lloyd's
we believe that we are leading the way in
claims management change in the specialist insurance market and we intend to build on
this position of strength in 2006. Our claims workflow system, developed with a key technology partner, has now been bought
by several other managing agencies.
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