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Clare Elliot
Clare Elliot of Higos Insurance Services knows that understanding her clients makes it easier to give them tailor-made insurance cover. “Home visits are a vital part of the job,” she says. “When you’ve visited a client and got to know what they’re about, you have a better understanding of their financial needs.”What value do you bring to your clients?
I’ve worked for Higos for eight years now and I think the secret to a good relationship is to ask the client key questions about their lifestyle to find out their insurance requirements. I find offering personal visits and an out-of-hours phone line really helps to give clients the level
of service they deserve.
The issue that gets me hot under the collar is:
The general public’s dim view of insurance. That and supermarkets, banks and breakdown companies selling cheap and cheerful insurance – it’s like going to the butcher
to buy a book!
Do you think that the new FSA regulations are a help or a hindrance?
A lot of people think they mean extra red tape, but I think that they head off potential problems later on. If a client has difficulty claiming on their policy because it wasn’t sold properly, then it’s far more time-consuming to solve that than to take the extra time selling the policy properly in the first place.
What do you enjoy outside of work?
I spend every day with my horse, Jester. He is a rescue horse – I got him when he was two years old and was so wild he was going to be put down as no one wanted him. He’s now four and still a little bit wild, but I’m practising horse whispering with him [as made famous in The Horse Whisperer with Robert Redford]. It’s basically mirroring the horse’s body movements to break him rather than using the traditional physical force. It’s slow work, but I’m enjoying the challenge.
What do you think we humans can learn from horses?
Trust, patience and courage. When you think about the horses that jump huge fences, or do crowd control for the police, you realise just how extraordinary they are. It makes you understand that if an animal can take such things in their stride, then you can do anything you put your mind to.
The thing I wish I’d known at the start of my career is:
That I would even have a career in insurance! I didn’t intend it to happen, but now I’m enjoying the challenge, I can’t even walk around the supermarket without keeping an eye out for stray grapes on the floor that could cause a liability claim!
The CV
2005 to present: Started the Platinum team at Higos
2003 to 2005: Ran the sales team at Higos
1998: Joined Higos as a trainee sales clerk.