Collaboration
with Carpenters Group
Moving into 2020, the insurance industry has narrowed in on the idea of collaboration. Modern Insurance spoke with members of the Executive Board of Carpenters Group about their key strategy for collaborative success; how this aids customer interaction, tech and the push to combat fraud.
For over a decade, Carpenters Group has striven to break down traditional barriers in the claims sector. We fundamentally believe that effective collaboration is essential to customer care and by working together we can achieve shared goals. Easy enough to say but we all know that collaboration in practice can be difficult. It requires a long-term commitment by senior management to be ethical and put customers first, a mutual respect for differing opinions, a long-term investment to create quality relationships, deep reserves of patience and a regular dash of humour! Productive collaboration can only be achieved once trust has been earned and trust can only grow from an open and honest dialogue that’s professional and reasonable over time. Difficult though it may be, Carpenters has demonstrated that working collaboratively with others can achieve practical solutions to some of the problems we face, working with the whole industry to combat fraud and improve sector standards. As former Chair of the Motor Accident Solicitors Society (MASS), Donna Scully, played a leading role in setting up the MASS Fraud Forum and helping to establish AskCUEPI which took four years from conception to implementation. Carpenters’ commitment to collaboratively fighting fraud saw them invest in and support the Insurance Times Fraud Charter since its launch in 2012, effectively bringing together leading players across the sector to discuss fighting fraud together. Strongly advocating the necessity of working together across the claimant-defendant divide, we’ve constantly sought to break down barriers, attending numerous insurance conferences, seminars and meetings that were once ‘echo chambers’ without industry-wide participation. Carpenters is now proud to be an associate member of both the ABI and the Insurance Fraud Bureau. The coming changes to the claims process have been divisive and there will undoubtedly be problems ahead, but the reality is that there’s still much agreement within the sector. The end of all conflicts begins with talking. Solutions to problems have been found before, and they will be again when we focus on what we can achieve jointly whilst respectfully disagreeing when we have alternative views. As we have done, Carpenters will continue to work hard with all sector colleagues to develop a fair and workable system that functions well for all sides.
I still believe that better collaboration across the sector is not a nice-to-have, but a must Donna Scully
4 Carpenters Group Supplement
