Blog: A day in the life of a HSB Claims Manager

Emma Webber

"A typical day for me is extremely varied. In the Claims team, we have to be reactive as you never know when a loss is going to happen. Coming in on a Monday morning, or any other morning for that matter, I always see something different. In my role as Claims Manager, I do tend to see the more technical and complex insurance claims, unusual circumstances or the occasional complaint.

We also monitor loss surge periods. For instance, during the dark nights of autumn after the schools return for the new term, we usually see a rise in plant and equipment damage claims. And as the colder months set in, we also see a lot of boiler claims through our client company and insurer partner channels; some of which facilitate a landlord’s or property owner’s insurance policy.

We've had many interesting and challenging claims over the years. One of the most memorable for me was an equipment breakdown and business interruption loss which involved a biomass boiler powered by chicken poop! Essentially, the chickens resided in warm sheds, which were supplied with energy from the farm’s biomass boiler; which was powered by their excrement. It made for an interesting (and very smelly) site visit! The claim was settled at £2.7 million.

Dealing with cyber crime claims can be a particularly rewarding part of my job. Take a customer who may have lost their life savings to a fraudster. Being able to assist in the recovery and reimbursement of monies they have lost can make my day; although recovering stolen funds isn’t always successful depending on how monies were stolen.

I really enjoy the variation of my role, from people management to managing the customer experience; ensuring our customers have an excellent customer journey.

Some of the biggest challenges I face are dealing with people's emotions, good and bad. Good news brings emotions and much as bad news does, which can make my job challenging as, at the end of the day, we’re only human!

I relish the challenges when, say, dealing with customer complaints; explaining and rationalising a decision that one of our Claims Handlers has made. Whilst we always have empathy for a customer's situation, we cannot process a payment where there is a clear exclusion. But we always remain considerate and calm, and ensure we know the full circumstances of the loss so to be able to provide the customer with a full explanation of our decision.

I strive to keep our customers happy, by treating them the way I, my close family and friends would like to be treated. And I take pride in the excellent customer service ethos that we have at HSB. A customer buys an insurance product from HSB for their worst case scenario, and it's satisfying to provide assistance in their time of need; from consumers to multinationals. After all, a product is only as good as what it promises to deliver."