Jeremy Pinchin's new dawn
Hiscox’s first group claims director tells Hiscox News about his holistic approach and the challenges aheadJeremy Pinchin likes a challenge. Having initially joined Lloyd’s of London in the aftermath of the World Trade Center attacks to coordinate the market’s resulting losses, he became its first head of claims, developing its first formal claims strategy following the creation of its Franchise structure.
Nine months ago Jeremy made Hiscox history by becoming its first group claims director. Working with both the UK Retail and Syndicate claims managers, he’s using the principles he developed at Lloyd’s to ensure Hiscox drives forward its strategy of differentiating itself from the competition through the quality of its claims service.
“Hiscox has performed extremely well in its claims management,” he says, “but we need to enhance the existing foundations of the operational structure to keep pace with our growth in the UK and Europe and the expansion to Bermuda and the US.” Jeremy believes his key task is to develop a structure that will accommodate Hiscox’s future aspirations to ensure that the excellent claims service it currently provides can be ustained and improved upon – regardless of scale.
A key focus of Jeremy’s strategy in both the short and long term is the full-scale integration of claims into the overall business process. “Claims is what sets us apart from the crowd,” he says. “Ultimately, it’s what our customers, both brokers and policyholders, judge us on. The claims teams are integral to the business process, providing invaluable feedback to the business on experiences, risks, potential opportunities and product improvements.”
Working as one
Jeremy believes that with such a unified approach, Hiscox can continue to innovate, bringing new and improved offerings to enhance the solutions it offers its brokers.
In addition to business integration, Jeremy explains how his short-term strategy concentrates on service excellence. By segmenting claims, Hiscox aims to ensure cases are handled quickly and efficiently.
For more straightforward claims, this can mean a settlement at the first call or a Hiscox claim surveyor visiting the client and leaving a cheque with them. For more complex losses, such as those arising from the professional indemnity account, there are different targets. “We are there to provide expert advice and protection to a client at a time of business difficulty,” says Jeremy.
He believes Hiscox can offer customers the best option – great claims teams provide the right amount of attention and expertise on losses that require it, and offer speed and efficiency at the same time.
Although service excellence is key to success, Jeremy was keen to highlight that this is not the only aspect of the claims strategy. Very much aware of the regulatory environment and the pressures on the broking community, he is keen to offer assistance wherever possible.
“The FSA no longer permits the use of anecdotal information when brokers are selling products, so we need to be out there telling everyone about our successes. Although we have many, we have always been relatively shy about it,” Jeremy says.
Hiscox uses quantitative performance measures to track client opinion and service speeds, but Jeremy says that, while these are helpful, the best demonstration of quality is independent acknowledgement.
The bigger picture
As for the overall claims environment, he considers it to be “reasonably stable” in property and general insurance. On the professional indemnity side, he sees enormous opportunities for Hiscox to assist professionals and corporations by using excellent products and support, either internally or through a network of experts, to help them survive the pitfalls of modern commerce.
Encouragingly, although Jeremy sees risks increasing, he believes that the UK is not as yet fully following America’s trends in the compensation culture.
When asked about his decision to join Hiscox from Lloyd’s, Jeremy is quite clear. “Hiscox is an incredibly dynamic company that strives to provide the best possible service at all times,” he says. “To work for a company that gets the most extraordinary feedback from happy clients who have faced difficult times is rewarding. It gives me the drive to ensure that the right structures and strategies are in place to ensure we can sustain this.
“We create huge brand value from simple principles – good-quality service and ease of process,” he says. “Brokers can use this and, with our efforts to make it more transparent, I’m looking forward to strengthening our relationships with brokers even further.”
The essential Jeremy Pinchin
Career: Before joining Hiscox as group claims director, Jeremy trained as a solicitor, working
for many years as general counsel for and board member of the Sedgwick Group
Outside work: Married, with one girl and now twin boys, his life has changed considerably.
He spends less time than he used to following his joint passions of sailing and rugby, but one day he will have a ready crew
Business motto: “No surprises”
On Hiscox: An organisation that means what it says when it puts claims at the heart of its business
On brokers: “Well, I spent most of my career in the broking industry. They are the glue that brings us together with our customers”