Tim Neill, Claims Manager here at Lexelle, has reached his one-year anniversary with the company.
Tim has over 35 years of experience within the claims industry working for various companies, including Aviva, Aon and Zurich Commercial. He is responsible for managing the Claims Team. This involves overseeing the development of the team, ensuring a top-class service for clients, and making sure the policies we provide meet our clients’ needs.
To celebrate this one-year milestone, we sat down with Tim to talk about how the Lexelle Claims Team has developed since he joined and how he believes they will evolve in the future.
What does your day to day look like?
There is no typical day in my role at Lexelle. Whilst I do have a (very small) caseload of files, much of my time is taken up taking referrals from my team, improving claims processes, undertaking quality checks, and producing MI reports for our brokers and capacity providers. I also produce material for our monthly Operations meeting and our quarterly Product and Pricing meeting.
Can you describe the Claims team set up in Lexelle?
We do not have a call centre, but a Claims Team made up of claims handlers of varying levels of experience. Claims handlers are responsible for understanding the products and advising customers and assessing claims. We do not pass customers from one team to another, instead we aim for a single point of contact who knows and understands the product and does not simply read from a script. We have very low staff turnover as we believe in empowering team members to make decisions and actively promote development and progression within the team.
What were your main objectives for your first year in Lexelle, and did you achieve them?
Whilst I had spent well over thirty years dealing with commercial claims for a variety of major insurers/brokers, I was a virtual newcomer to legal expenses insurance. So, my first objective was to get a measure of the nature of the work, and to understand the workings of a wholesale broker. As I said previously, this role involves producing a large quantity of MI, and this was something new to me. Having most recently worked for a global insurance broker, tasks of this nature were undertaken by dedicated teams. Mastering MI has required a lot of perseverance, and I am still learning but it has provided me with a much deeper understanding of the covers, its’ performance and true value.
Coming into the business as a manager of handlers with superior knowledge of legal expenses meant that I spent a good deal of my early weeks listening, rather than speaking, and trying to soak up as much knowledge as possible, it was hard stepping back but well worth the effort and I thank the team for their support in climbing what was a very steep learning curve.
In other areas, such as MI production, it has really been a case of practice making perfect. Work of this nature has become so much more straightforward having really got under the skin of the business and understanding how the moving parts fit together.
How has Lexelle changed in the year you have been here?
I believe that we have increased our customer focus. As part of our commitment to consumer duty. I have revised our claims philosophy taking in to account the cross-cutting rules and customer outcomes to ensure that we are helping and treating our customers in the way they expect. We have also updated our internal auditing processes taking in to account our learning from the introduction of the Consumer Duty and the team have welcomed this as they can see the benefits it provides to the customers and to themselves as well.
What are your ambitions for the Lexelle claims team over the next 5 years?
Whilst I believe that the team already provide an excellent service to our clients, I am constantly looking at ways in which we can improve. It is my expectation that Lexelle will continue to grow in the coming years. It is vital that the Claims Team keeps pace with that growth and adapts to meet the changing demands we will face as we move forward.
To do this, it is crucial that our team are provided with the correct training and systems, and these are two areas I feel we really need to concentrate on. The team deal with a wide range of claims queries, often complex in nature. Team discussion is very much encouraged as a learning tool, particularly for our less experienced handlers, and being totally office-based as a team provides a great platform for this collaborative approach. Much work has and will continue to be done on automating our systems to increase efficiency.
Would you recommend Lexelle as a great place to work?
When I first joined Lexelle, the company, and indeed the wider group, was described to me as being very much like a family. As the months have passed, this has become increasingly evident.
With Lexelle being such a relatively small company, it doesn’t take long to get to know your colleagues, who without exception I have found to be hard-working and conscientious, but also good fun, with laughter never far away. Whilst my first year has at times been challenging, joining Lexelle has and continues to have been a great decision.
What has been your favourite thing about working in Lexelle so far?
On a purely personal level, the sense of progression, since joining a year ago, has been massive. The learning curve I have been on has been significant, and at times extremely challenging. But through hard work, together with the help and support of my colleagues, and particularly the senior management team, I believe that I have come a long way in my role.
The whole team at Lexelle congratulates Tim on completing his first year with the business. We look forward to seeing how the Claims team continues to develop with Tim at the helm.