It was nearly a year ago that Jane Brewer (pictured) moved from her position as executive general manager (EGM) for technology & transformation to consumer EGM at Suncorp New Zealand. Here the business leader talks about her important remit and why she loves not just the job but the whole insurance industry.
As consumer EGM, Brewer said the focus is on “really” understanding where the value is for the customer.
Referring to her team, the AMI alumnus told Insurance Business: “Since I’ve been in my role as EGM consumer, I’ve really enjoyed establishing the team and bringing a sense of identity to us within Suncorp New Zealand.
“Among other things, we’ve been formulating what our vision is, what we want to be and what difference we want to make, as a team, alongside how we get the value of being there for the entire customer journey, for the consumer products.”
In Brewer’s view, processes should be adjusted based on what customers need, instead of policyholders making the adjustments depending on the process.
“We want to understand the needs of our customers and how we can adapt our business processes and customer journey, not the other way around,” she said.
“We know we can’t approach all groups in the same way, which means understanding individuals and building relationships – this takes time and can’t be rushed. This needs to come from the right place, which I believe is a genuine desire to make a difference for our different customer groups.”
Part of accomplishing the above, according to Brewer, is working collaboratively with government and local councils to show the value of insurance. The aim is to ensure that insurance remains available for New Zealanders and working through pertinent issues such as climate change.
Since taking on the post, Brewer has already made strides with the help of her team.
“One of the things I’m most proud of is the end-to-end model we’ve introduced – this is based on the customer journey for personal insurance where we have portfolio, underwriting, new business, and claims all in the consumer team,” she told Insurance Business.
“The consumer team has been able to cut through some of the historical myths floating about – for example, reviewing a customer pain point and working out not just what we’re being asked to do, or what on the surface is being asked, but what would create real value for the customer. By cutting through these myths, we’ve been able to simplify processes and introduce this new model of working.”
The EGM believes that, from a consumer perspective, the goal is to simplify where possible.
“We have the ambition for simple engagements to be offered digitally in the future, which means employees will be able to focus on the sophisticated side of insurance, helping our customers to understand complex claims and cover. We want to really be there for the parts of insurance where the customer needs a human face,” Brewer said.
Aside from the abovementioned end-to-end model, Brewer is also “incredibly proud” of Suncorp New Zealand colleagues who have helped respond to this year’s significant weather events.
“We had people on the ground volunteering at community hubs, people taking calls from across the organisation, and we also worked hard to retrain people to deal with more complex claims,” she told Insurance Business.
“Early on in Hawke’s Bay we introduced ‘claims clinics’, which involved members of our teams working side by side in person with the brokers to get through the large number of claims. This helped build relationships with customers and allowed any misconceptions or questions to be dealt with straight away. We had great feedback on this and are now rolling this out across the country.
“What we noticed over this time was decisions were made fast and we kept up the pace to get things done. I’m proud of how the organisation has been adapting and trying different ways of working to provide support for customers and to triage, prioritise, and resolve the enormous volumes of claims we’re working through from these events.”
For Brewer, this response is what insurance is all about.
“I’ve always found it a kind industry and, to be honest, I was surprised at how much I love it,” she said. “I think insurance has a bad reputation as the negative stories are often the ones that make it into the media, and the industry isn’t seen to be glamorous or exciting.
“I think people working in insurance need to be open to trying something new and be open to moving within all the different roles. In this risk-conscious business, one area we can take risks in is role selection – it’s interesting and challenging and a great career industry.”
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