Award winners 2004 - Vienna
Insurer/Underwriter of the year
Direct Line
What makes our travel insurance policy superior? We constantly challenge our systems and processes to strive to improve the products and services we offer to our customers. We are one of the few insurers to offer customers a legal protection service. Automatically included in our cover at no extra charge, this service entitles customers with up to £50,000 in legal fees to pursue a valid claim of a holiday contractual dispute, such as a misleading brochure description or poor food hygiene standards.
‘We offer the most sophisticated medical screening process in the industry, which means we can offer cover to our customers where our competitors can’t, at affordable prices.’
Provider of the year
Healix International
‘Client relationships are excellent.’
‘Throughout its existence, Healix had never lost a client.’
‘Healix can justifiably claim to have serviced the current requirement for the screening of travellers from the beginning. It developed one of the earliest sets of risk rating algorithms and now provides over 80 per cent of screening services in the UK. Similar services are provided in Canada. Such market penetration, together with claims assessment, vis a vis premium renewal and investment in Web-enabled IT systems, means it has become the leading European supplier of risk rating services.
‘All staff, other than IT and accounts, are either doctors or nurses and all have experience of evacuations and case management and understand the need of both the patient and insurer. In 2004, it will manage 30,000 cases and evacuate 2,000 patients. As a consequence, its experience and ‘real time knowledge’ of the competences and limitations of healthcare providers worldwide, including hospitals and physicians, is second to none’.
Air Ambulance of the year
Air Ambulance Specialists
Accomplished marketing, sales, medical staff and training in a two year period.
‘We have developed a business model that works extremely well; we have hired the best medical team in the country; and we utilise the most up-to-date medical equipment available, including a Dadaistic human patient simulator, which allows our medical staff to perform ongoing intubations and IV starts.’
‘Accreditation and involvement in the industry and trade bodies include CAMTS, who reviewed our state-of-the-art dispatch centre where we went through a simulated disaster plan, AAMES, ASMA, AMPA, ASTNA, AAP, AACN and AARC.’
‘Our medical team’s expertise and industry knowledge averages out at about 11 years.’ ‘We are one of the most experienced and knowledgeable air ambulance companies in the US.’
Assistance / Claims Handler of the year
SOS International
Emergency centre – new ways of serving the customer faster and better.
‘SOS uses best-of-breed solutions to deliver fast and effective results to meet every need of our outsourcing partners. We contract with experienced providers who can work to our aggressive timescales in delivering first-class customer-oriented solutions.
‘Until March 2004, every customer who called SOS was met by call centre staff. Based on the information given, the case was passed to an assistance co-ordinator with the relevant qualifications to assist. However, since we work with customers of many different nationalities, we felt that we could improve our service by putting the assistance co-ordinators in the first line.
‘Customers in need of assistance are now met by staff speaking their own language. The number of customers calling to hear how their case is progressing has fallen by 30 per cent and the number of outgoing calls during summer peak season has fallen by 600 per day. If the policy holder already has an ongoing case, the telephone system will identify the phone number and refer him to the relevant co-ordinator.’