IB Talk

Paul Lucas  00:00:05

Welcome to IB Talk, the leading podcast for the insurance industry across the UK and Ireland, brought to you by Insurance Business.

Gia Snape  00:00:12

You welcome to IB Talk. I'm your host. Gia Snape, news editor of Insurance Business, in today's episode, we're diving into a critical, but often overlooked part of the auto insurance claims experience, and that's replacement vehicles. For too long, this area has lagged behind an innovation creating stress in what's already a stressful time for customers, but one company is working to change that narrative. Joining us today is Leigh Broomhead, Strategic Account Director at Europcar with 15 years in the insurance industry, Leigh brings a wealth of experience across claims, supplier management and account management. Leigh, thank you so much for joining us on an IB Talk.

Leigh Broomhead  00:01:07

You're welcome.

Gia Snape  00:01:08

So Leigh, to set the stage, why has replacement car provision historically been such a pain point in the insurance claims process?

Leigh Broomhead  00:01:17

Think it's probably a couple of things, the first being customer, and potentially ensure a perception of the higher market in general. Obviously, within the UK, there's a wide presence of credit hire companies, which historically haven't been seen as favorable within the insurance space, although they do provide really good service to non fault customers, at the expense of, obviously, insurance companies. So there's that element to it, and also the fact that the processes themselves for delivering a vehicle is quite laborious and manual, so it can come with a lot of problems which some are foreseen and some are not foreseen. And obviously it's a big leader in complaints that a customer or an account may see on a day to day basis. So it's something that that we're working hard to try and resolve for the industry.

Gia Snape  00:02:19

How have consumer expectations changed in this area, and what does that mean for insurers?

Leigh Broomhead  00:02:25

Consumers now are starting to have their eyes opened a little bit. So we've got legislation within the UK such as consumer duty and the FCA, who are all basically giving the customers a wider view of what's expected through the customer services channels that we operate in. So people nowadays are buying vehicles based on preference and the image potentially and when they're involved in an accident in their own vehicle, the expectation is that they're provided with a like for like replacement. Some of those may believe that means right down to being the same manufacturer and make and model, but overall, it does pose a challenge for the higher industry, because obviously we need to make sure there's availability of those vehicles on mass to be able to deliver them nationwide to customers.

Gia Snape  00:03:19

Let's talk about Europcar's vision. How are you redefining replacement vehicle service for insurers?

Leigh Broomhead  00:03:26

Yeah. So what we've tried to do is put the customer back in the center of everything that we do, and then work our way outwards from what the customer expects to what the account expects from an SLA and performance perspective. So we've tried to re educate all of our call center staff, as well as our station staff across the UK to understand the needs of an insurance replacement customer, whilst at the same time introducing AI and technology within every part of our process to really enhance the customer journey, make it as seamless as possible, and work alongside our insurance partners to make sure that the transactions and reservations we receive from those are done digitally where possible, and in the quickest time available to us.

Gia Snape  00:04:20

Leigh, can you walk us through your integrated hire solution? What makes it different from the traditional model?

Leigh Broomhead  00:04:27

Yeah, so as we just mentioned, the key to it is API integration, and that comes from the insurers claim platform, to Europcar's central reservation platform. What this means is there's a two way link between the two systems, which means the insurance partners able to pass reservation details and claims detail through to us, electronically onto our system, and when there's an update in regards to the delivery and collection of a vehicle. Call to a customer that is also passed back to the insurer. On top of that, the integration has allowed us to essentially build an electronic notification of loss program with our insurance partners, which enables the end user, the customer, in this example, to actually start the reservation process. At the moment, their claim is authenticated by the insurance partner. This has been a real time saver for everyone all around and takes away a lot of the manual element of the process, which we alluded to earlier on.

Gia Snape  00:05:36

And Europcar has developed a bespoke app to support customers during their hire. What role does real time communication play in improving the claims experience?

Leigh Broomhead  00:05:47

Feedback we've had from our insurance partners is one of the key criteria that they determine as a success driver for their business is stopping the phone ringing at their end. So one of our key targets was to reduce the noise and the requirement for customers to actually need to use the telephone for phone calls into either Europcar or our insurance customers, the application allows the customer to make contact with our central reservations teams and call centers if needed, but also gives them links, contact information and general information about the cars to all of our supplier partners. So in the event of a breakdown, if there's a vehicle requiring a tire change or a windscreen repair, or just generally there's an issue with the vehicle that they want to report and have the vehicle changed over. This can all be done through the click of a link, click of a button, and this is available to every customer, not just insurance, but everyone in general. And you do not need reservation information to be enabled to contact any of these necessary services. So it means there's no requirement for customers to take paperwork around with them on their journeys.

Gia Snape  00:07:09

That definitely makes it more convenient for consumers. And tell us more about your electric vehicle strategy. We know electric vehicle usages going up talk to us a little about the green locations and availability.

Leigh Broomhead  00:07:27

Yeah, sure. So Europcar were probably one of the early adopters of electric vehicles within the UK Higher industry. We're currently sitting at around 10 to 15% of our actual fleet of full Bev. The target for 2025 is to increase that to 20% of our overall fleet makeup, with 85% of our delivery and collection stations actually being fully electrified at this moment in time. Those stations equate for neon 95 to 99% of actual transactions from an insurance customer point of view. So it's safe to say that we've got our insurance replacement customers covered from an electric vehicle point of view. And yeah, on top of that, we're also implementing additional strategies for our ESG initiatives to support, obviously, sustainable growth within the industry.

Gia Snape  00:08:28

You mentioned the delivery and collection service. Now I know this is one of the game changing strategies at Europcar. Can you talk about what makes it unique and how has it impacted customer satisfaction and operational efficiency?

Leigh Broomhead  00:08:44

Yeah, sure. So it's one of our USPS, and something that we're quite proud of, something we target quite heavily, especially in the insurance space, where the customers that were servicing have been involved in an accident, they're a little bit vulnerable at the time, and what they're looking for is onward mobility to get them back to their day to day routine whilst their vehicles in for repair. So by performing a door to door delivery and collection service, we're enabled to provide them with a vehicle at the most convenient time for those people, but also collect it at a time that's convenient without asking them to go out of their way, either to a station, to sign into documentation, to take the rental vehicle, or taking it to a premises which is not convenient for them at the best of times.

Gia Snape  00:09:36

Indeed, and I know you recently delivered significant improvements for a major UK insurer. Can you walk us through some of the results and how Europcar has really delivered on this promise of a better claims experience?

Leigh Broomhead  00:09:53

Yeah, sure. So it was around July 2024 we actually. Implemented the two way API integration solution, which we mentioned previously. What this enabled us to do is remove the manual element of the claims process from the insurers point of view, but within our call centers as well, what we've seen is over 12,000 completed reservations since that point in time, and over 700 hours of FTE time saved for the insurer alone. That's just based on no requirement for re keying into various platforms and providing updates through our our claims platform, essentially the result of that for the account in question is an improved conversion rate of up to 5% over the last 12 months. But whilst, at the same time, we've also seen a 50% reduction in the number of canceled reservations week on week, which is a major revenue stream that we've been able to increase for the customer. At the same time for the end user, the journeys become a lot more seamless, and the conversion call into Europe car has reduced from probably around 15 minutes to five minutes now, and that includes capturing relevant details to enable us to authenticate the customer into a higher vehicle. It's also meant that we're able to get the reservation details over to the station who's performing the delivery or collection service a lot quicker, and has seen our average delivery time reduced to around two hours now, and that includes some of the high end Premium vehicles within that as well.

Gia Snape  00:11:48

Fantastic. And if there's one thing you'd want insurers to take away from today's conversation, Leigh, what would it be?

Leigh Broomhead  00:11:55

I'd say customer service is key, and consumer duty is something that we need to navigate through carefully, and the adoption of electric vehicles is something that is on the agenda, both from a government perspective, but from a wider consumer perspective. There's a lot more take up in terms of electric vehicles on the road in the UK as of today. So insurers need to be aware of this, and need to be making adequate preparations for when the balance kind of tips over to a more green solution, to make sure that supply base that they're utilizing has the capabilities to service those customers.

Gia Snape  00:12:40

Well, right? And certainly, you know, replacement vehicle provision has, you know, been poorly served in recent times with a lack of innovation and choice. But Europcar clearly wants to change that.

Leigh Broomhead  00:12:54

Yes, that's correct.

Gia Snape  00:12:56

So Lee, before we go, where else can listeners learn more about this offering?

Leigh Broomhead  00:13:01

You're welcome to visit our webpage, which is europcar.co.uk, and there's an insurance landing page on there for any further details.

Gia Snape  00:13:10

Perfect. Thanks again, Leigh for spending time with us on the podcast and telling us all the cool things going on at Europcar. In the meantime, I'm Gia Snape, news editor of Insurance Business, and you are listening to IB Talk.

Speaker 1  00:13:26

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