The insurance industry has long sought to be innovative, creative and bespoke in the solutions it provides for policy holders, and 2021 provided many great examples of this attitude in practice.
Gallagher Bassett was proud to be recognised in several countries for the way we treat innovation as a core function and strive to put our people, partners and claimants first.
When the pandemic hit, our company knew we had to not only change the way we did business but how we helped the industry navigate an intense and challenging time. So, we made a decision to dig deeper and support our partners and people to shape new ways of working.
People first, process second
We knew we had to provide stability and reassurance to our people and partners, this saw us establish highly skilled teams of business interruption specialists, lawyers and customer care experts. These teams could provide exceptional, empathetic support at a time when clarity on policy claiming due to COVID-19 was lacking. The 2021 Insurance Times Claims Excellence Awards recognised the success of this effort, with our UK team awarded Claims Team of the Year – COVID Response, for our “People First, Then Process” strategy.
Judges commended our team for how refreshing its COVID-19 response strategy was, commenting that “…since the beginning of COVID-19, they created a multi-disciplined team incorporating business interruption specialists and forensic accountants to proactively and collaboratively help their clients.”
Clear and meaningful communication
The next step we took to respond to COVID, that will have a lasting impact on the way we do business, was helping insurers cut through the overwhelming news cycle and get the critical answers they needed. With an overwhelming amount of change in the industry, we helped our insurer partners make effective, timely decisions through an extensive campaign sharing solutions and insights.
Through this campaign and clear communications, we shared proactive approaches and equipped insurers with the tools they would need to go beyond the pandemic. We leveraged data insights and insurer research to ensure we conveyed accurate, informative answers to the questions insurers were facing from their staff and customers.
Insurance Business Australia recently recognised GB for these efforts, placing the company on its Five-Star Insurance Innovators list. This award recognised how GB helped insurers find the opportunity to stand apart from the competition, and make decisions that had lasting, positive impacts on their bottom line.
Bespoke technology and tools
Technology was critical to carrying everyone in the industry through the pandemic but utilising this technology to communicate important safety messages was even more front of mind for many of our insurer partners. This was why we launched the interactive Poster Designer tool, to give companies of all shapes and sizes the free ability to effectively share health and wellbeing messages with their employees. We take a lot of pride in delivering claims solutions that are bespoke and fully customisable, so when it become clear our clients were struggling to gain cut through on important messages – we knew we had to find a solution.
We launched Poster Designer as a free tool as the global pandemic was beginning, and loaded it with a collection of posters designed to communicate sanitation, social distancing and checking in. This tool was recently awarded as Industry Innovation of the Year at the Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance (ANZIIF) awards.
We will continue to focus our way of doing business on these three core areas, as even as the pandemic shifts to a lower gear – the lessons we’ve learned from putting people first, communicating clearly and provide bespoke solutions are life-long ones. “Innovation” can often sound like a buzzword, but at GB we are committed to it being an everyday part of our operations.
To explore how Gallagher Bassett can unlock opportunities for your business, connect with the team today.
