Express News The Newsletter for Commercial Express Agents
Issue 11 June 2014
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Why not call us? Don’t just accept the system price, we are your flexible insurance partner. We are looking for good quality risk for the right price. So whether it be a product query, premium flexibility or general advice, we need you to give us a go and give us a call.
The changes we have already made include: • Expanding the underwriting team to ensure more time can be taken over more complex cases. • Employing highly experienced underwriters to provide a high quality service. • Agreeing increased authority with our insurers which means we can offer favourable terms beyond the system price for the right type of risk – our aim is to attract and retain good quality business. • Increasing the number of Business Development Managers plus a BDM support person based at our offices. Call now 0845 094 2077 (option 2)
New Product Hobby & Club is Commercial Express’ latest ‘niche’ product and is a liability contract for organisations where members meet to discuss and/or participate in activities related to the club type. Acceptable clubs include: Amateur Dramatics, Art, Bridge, Camera, Collectors, Collector Clubs, Home, Model Railway, Music, Needlework, Networking Clubs, Prayer Groups, Parent Teacher Association, Singing and many more social activity groups. Sports clubs are unacceptable except for dance and exercise groups. The facility covers up to 250 members for Public & Products Liability and Employers Liability £5m limit of indemnity. The policy wording automatically includes member to member cover. A major benefit to this facility is the Material
Damage extension which provides cover for up to £5,000 worth of items owned by the club anywhere in the world for only an additional £50. Perfect for clubs that attend exhibitions and road shows. This product is extremely flexible, so if you have a club, organisation or even an individual with a hobby that requires liability insurance and/or a small amount of property insurance, then we can accommodate this at very reasonable rates. Gone are the days where you have to arrange a commercial combined policy and pay inflated minimum premiums. Premiums start from only £120. 2
You Spoke, We Listened In order for us to continue to improve our service to you, we will regularly be asking for your feedback on how we’re doing. We recently issued you with an online Service Survey, asking about the service we provide. Your feedback has enabled us to pinpoint those areas where we excel and those elements of our service that require attention. We have used your feedback to further improve our service: A knowledgeable & experienced underwriting team One area of improvement is the knowledge and experience of our underwriters – we have addressed this in appointing a further four highly experienced underwriters and also by separating out our underwriters into teams dedicated to specific Commercial Express products, therefore increasing their product knowledge in those areas.
A Traditional Underwriting Style We have underwriters with the power to underwrite! We have a ten-strong team on hand to consider the more complex cases in greater detail. We are exchanging an element of speed for quality and service and are fully utilising the skills and tools around us to make educated and informed decisions.
Improved Support New Insurer Another key area for improvement is the service provided by our Business Development Managers. A new Regional Sales Manager, Paul Price, has recently been appointed, along with an additional BDM who joined us in April. The Commercial Express New Way of Working is a journey that we want you to be a part of. This new process will take time to fully materialise so we do ask for your patience whilst we get to where we want to be. Give us the opportunity We need you to give us a go and give us a call - don’t just accept the online system – we can only apply our New Way of Working if you give us the opportunity!
Faraday Join Commercial Express Commercial Express has added Faraday Reinsurance Co. Limited to our growing list of insurers. Faraday is providing the insurance on a number of Commercial Express’ niche schemes. This follows the addition of a panel of branded insurers at the beginning of the year that includes Royal & Sun Alliance plc, AIG Europe Ltd, Aviva Insurance Ltd and Covea Plc. “We are delighted to be an insurer on the Commercial Express panel and we look forward to building a strong relationship with Duncan and his team.” Roger Nash Liability Underwriting Manager, Faraday
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Underwriting Update There have been a number of product updates since our last underwriting e-shot. These include: Tenant’s Contents Two new cover levels of
£10,000 & £20,000 Commercial Property Owners Rates for shops and offices have been reduced by up to
Fast Food & Restaurant Minimum premiums have been reduced by
10%
Commercial Combined We have added some new food trades to the already extensive list of available trades:
are now available
£25 Biscuit Manufacturer
Fruit Syrup Manufacturer
Cake Mixture Manufacturer
Bakers Sundries Manufacturer
Meat Products Manufacturer
Dairy Product Manufacture
How to hold cover in excess of 30 days... The system will automatically produce an ‘Invalid Date’ warning when trying to hold cover. In order to incept a policy with an effective date in excess of 30 days simply email srowley@commercialexpress.co.uk
confirming the quote reference and inception date. Please note the entry will be added to your statement of account unless credit card details are provided. 4
Contractors All Risk The scheme has been improved to include: The contract value referral limit has increased from:
£1 Million
wo new levels of rates T (size discounts) up to
£100,000 &
£1.5 Million
£250,000 sum insured for Owned Plant
Public House insurance for your clients Key Benefits to Standard Policy • Up to 6 letting rooms included • Pubs with dining area acceptable • Damage to garden furniture for insured perils up to a maximum of £500 included at no extra cost Key Optional Extensions without referral • Children’s outdoor play area • Outside Catering up to £25,000 • Loss of Licence up to £100,000 Call now 0845 094 2077 (option 2)
Extension available to increase Tools limit of indemnity from:
£500
Two new levels of rates up to
£50,000 &
£1,000 per employee
£100,000 annual hire fees for Hired in Plant.
A bespoke business insurance policy • Pick and Mix the right sections of cover • Attractive 20% commission • Direct access to a dedicated underwriter
New ‘Groundworkers’ trade.
Reduction in Owned Plant base rates.
• Online & Manual presentations accepted Download full product information guides from our website.
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Our Business Development Managers We’ve expanded our team of Business Development Managers to improve our level of service from every angle. Our team are based throughout the UK to provide a personal service to you. Paul Price Regional Sales Manager & North London & Essex Paul covers the North London & Essex regions and has over 30 years’ experience in the insurance industry in roles such as Business Development Manager for Covéa. 07990 833877 pprice@commercialexpress.co.uk
Phil Lackie BDM for the West Country, South Wales, Northern Ireland & Scotland Phil joined Commercial Express 3 years ago and splits his time between Bristol, Belfast and Scotland. Phil has over 16 years’ experience in the insurance industry, including underwriting, claims and broking. 07901 040 402 plackie@commercialexpress.co.uk
Colin West BDM for North West & South Yorkshire Colin has been with Commercial Express since February 2009, following previous roles at Allianz and Aviva. His area covers the whole of the North, and provides him with the opportunity to identify broker needs, and to work together to promote a profitable account.
Rob Kirkpatrick BDM for the Midlands Rob joined Commercial Express as an underwriter in October 2012 and has since become BDM for the Midlands. He has worked in the insurance industry since 2004 with both broker and underwriting experience. 07920 142937 rkirkpatrick@commercialexpress.co.uk
07825 279 200 cwest@commercialexpress.co.uk
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New Starters in Underwriting Peter Reed Bringing over 5 years’ experience working with brokers at Swinton Insurance, Footman James and Coversure Insurance, Peter joins the Property Owners underwriting team. Barrington Kerr With over 7 years’ experience working in the insurance industry, previously working for JLT, Premium Choice and then AIG Insurance as Underwriting Service Advisor before joining Commercial Express in March. Barrington works on the Property Owners schemes.
Warren Gibbs Having over 10 years insurance experience, beginning his career as a motor underwriter with RSA before moving into packages and commercial combined. He then spent 4 and a half years at Fusion. Before joining Commercial Express Warren spent two years as the commercial marine underwriter for Birmingham. Warren is now working on the SME, Liability and CAR schemes.
Caroline Fisher BDM for London & South East
Shalman Ahmed BDM Support
Caroline is our newest recruit and has worked in the insurance industry for over 20 years. Caroline’s career began in personal lines broking however for the last 8 years she has been extremely successful in Broker Development Manager roles. In her last position at Covéa she worked with a panel of 150 brokers across the South East.
Sham is office-based and looks after over 200 brokers whilst also supporting the BDMs who are out on the road. Sham has over 7 years’ experience within the insurance industry. If you have any queries or issues please contact Sham under option 5. 0845 094 2077 (option 5) sahmed@commercialexpress.co.uk
07990 833877 pprice@commercialexpress.co.uk 7
Improvements to our Claims Service
We have made a number of improvements to our claims facility over recent years, and we wanted to make you aware of the intended plans for increased performance in the future.
Our claims service was originally outsourced and after appointing a number of companies, who each performed poorly, the decision was made in 2010 to invest in a Claims Manager to improve the claims service and to offer agents a point of contact for dealing with any complaints or issues. At this point a full audit and review of the claims process for the majority of schemes was undertaken, resulting in revised service standards and a reorganised claims process, which included: • A dedicated Commercial Express claims team was formed which included 13 hand-picked and approved loss adjusters • Extensive product & policy wording training undertaken by each claims handler • New claims handling procedures and rigid service standards implemented By 2012 this meant that we were providing an acceptable claims service and throughout that year further training for the desktop handling team was undertaken, along with a revision of the loss adjusting panel which included a full day’s training on Commercial Express policy wordings and procedures.
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This improvement meant we were in a position to enhance our offering. The desktop claim limit was increased from £2,500 to £5,000 meaning more claims could be handled without the appointment of a loss adjuster, which in turn resulted in faster conclusions on claims. New procedures were implemented, along with further training on communicating decisions on declined and void cases. At the end of 2012 a validation team was created to assist the desktop team. This is a shorter, faster process for the less detailed claims, where a surveyor or building contractor will meet with the insured and establish the cause of the damage, take photographs and detail repair costs. During 2013 we focused on improving the finer aspects of claims handling, with the core focus on communication - ensuring the agents, therefore their customers, were kept up to date with the position of a claim. A secondary loss adjusting panel was also introduced who assist at any time when claim levels are high.
We are now positioned to launch our ‘improved broker claim communication’ initiative, where you will see improved communication as we roll out stage one. On all material damage claims handled by Cunningham Lindsey and Certo, you will receive: • Notification of a new loss including brief details. • Letter informing who is directly handling the claim. • Confirmation letter detailing payment details or declination. Further enhancements of the initiative will be released throughout the year and your feedback will be the driving force behind this. To close, we are now at a point where we have rigid service standards however we are working to further enhance both the quality and efficiency of the claims facility, and also to bring the remaining schemes in line with this high level. We are aiming to offer one of the best claims services in the market. We see this facility as one of the most vital aspects of our business and our focus is that you, the agent, has the confidence to place business with us due to our excellent claims service. We will keep you further updated as the improvements in this service come into force. 9
Product Updates
Caravan
Commercial Express Let has been improved with the following updates:
With summer around the corner the season is fast approaching when your clients will be looking to insure their caravans. Commercial Express offers insurance for both static and touring caravans, and both schemes have recently been improved.
• Accidental Damage to Buildings is now included for professionals, students and DSS non referrals, at no extra cost on the Let-RSA scheme. • A 5% discount has been introduced, if the Buildings Sum Insured is more than £500,000 and under £1,000,000. • The professional rate has been reduced by 10% in certain regions. • Let now also includes £5,000 complimentary Landlords’ Contents cover as standard.
Changes to Street Food The Street Food scheme has been removed from the Catering category, meaning no new business quotes can now be processed. However, the scheme will remain in the Retrieve Quotes & Policies dropdown of the website, should you require access to existing quotes or policies. Instead, quotes and cover can be organised through the trade “Street Food Operator” which has been added to the Outside Caterer scheme.
Touring Caravan The referral limit on the sum insured has been increased from £30,000 to £50,000, plus the policy excess has been reduced from £100 to £50. Static Caravan The base rate on this scheme has been reduced by 5% and the policy excess has also been reduced from £100 to £50.
Free Protected No Claims Bonus on Catering Van As part of our continued drive to improve the quality of our products we are delighted to announce that with immediate effect FREE Protected No Claims Bonus on the Catering Van scheme with Aviva, for any level of NCB is automatically included! This is a unique benefit to this type of policy, as many other providers only offer Protected No Claims Bonus once the policyholder has reached five years without a claim. Benefits of the Catering Van policy are: • Free protected no claims bonus • Applies for any level of NCB • Allows 2 ‘fault claims’ in a 5 year period before the NCB is reduced
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Spotlight on Underwriting Liability (Wages & Turnover)
Hello, my name is Siobhan Penlington. I have recently joined Commercial Express as an underwriter primarily focussed on liability. I bring with me 10 years of commercial combined, liability and package underwriting experience with composite insurers Aviva and RSA including 7 years’ experience as an on-site underwriter at numerous brokerages around the West Midlands. In this underwriting feature of the newsletter I will be focussing on the Liability (Wages & Turnover) scheme which provides the right level of protection for larger businesses or more diverse business activities. Popular trades at the moment within this scheme include Builders, Plumbing and Heating (Domestic & Commercial) using both plastic push fit plumbing and use of heat, Property Maintenance and repair and Haulage/Drivers of HGVs. Out of these popular trades I will be concentrating on Builders and Property Maintenance. Our preference is for Builders using their own established workforce working on-site as a main contractor (thereby retaining overall responsibility for site safety) to work up to a maximum of 10 metres in height. We can consider a small percentage of work above 10 metres with our absolute maximum being 20 metres by looking at each risk on its own merits.
We would take in to account the insured’s experience in the trade with full details of height working methods and health and safety procedures for height work. One of the main features of this scheme is that we automatically include an allowance of up to 20% of the insured’s total turnover for the following ancillary activities: • Plumbing, heating, gas fitting or boiler servicing • Air conditioning • Roofing, re-roofing or cladding • Window fitting • Groundwork or site clearance where no demolition work is undertaken Where a builder is getting involved with other activities that do not quite fit the online system such as working with electrics or if their turnover splits do not fit within the above 20% allowance we can still consider these risks with full details of activities undertaken and respective percentage splits.
If you wish to discuss a risk in more detail with Siobhan please feel free to contact our dedicated liability team on 0845 094 2077 (option 2) 11
B1 Custom House The Waterfront Level Street Brierley Hill DY5 1XH
commercialexpress.co.uk hello@commercialexpress.co.uk
0845 094 2077 12