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Welcome to the latest edition of Manager.
Deacon are proud to celebrate 20 years of leading the market by providing an unrivalled service and having a wealth of knowledge of both specialist products and service.
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It’s more important than ever to deliver value for money – a high priority of all our clients. We are investing in all areas of our business; improving products to make sure more eventualities are covered and improving service and contact with clients.
Claims is a crucial element of delivery and with many of our clients surveyed, our in-house claims handling being either very satisfied of satisfied, we are delighted that we can provide faster results for our customers since we do not have to transfer correspondence back and forth to multiple parties.
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I hope you enjoy our newsletter – please let us know about any subjects you would like to see covered in future issues.
Penny Jepson
Head of Business
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Alysa Weiner
This edition we catch up with Alysa Weiner, Business Manager
How long have you worked at Deacon?
I’ve been with the company for 21 months now - I started in November 2007 and 2008 went really quickly.
Tell us about your career history…
I started my career in fashion and during my 4 years in the industry I worked as a Buyer and Branch Manager for two Benetton stores. Then I fell into Insurance, firstly Life, with Royal Insurance (now part of RSA) selling pensions, life insurance and related mortgage products, which was tough as my salary was earned on a commission only basis. I then made a career change to work for British Telecom, which was my first call centre experience. I then brought the two roles together and moved to LTSB
Insurance where I spent 11 years in their direct general insurance call centre. During the last couple of years with Lloyds I created the teams for their customer retention initiative over 3 sites; Bournemouth, Newport and Mumbai – effective communication was the hardest challenge. My greatest achievement was receiving an award from Eric Daniels the CEO of LTSB for improving staff retention.
So how are you enjoying your position?
I think it’s a good balance - constantly learning about the differences between my background of personal lines insurance and the more business to business environment of Deacon. I have a great team here and we are just starting to see the positive results from all the hard work that we implemented in 2008.
What are your plans for the future?
Continue in making the customer the focal point. It is key that we offer a unique service that offers good value for money in the current market and I believe our service offering cannot be matched. We started a journey last year by asking our customers what they liked and how we can improve - it is not always about the price itself but rather about keeping promises. The voice of our customer is influencing and changing the way we work and that is my main focus for 2009.
What do you think are the main trends for the Managing Agent market?
In today’s competitive market it is essential that standards remain high in addition to delivering more. In an environment where all customers are looking for value for money it is vital that we offer a unique sales and service proposition. We want to support our customers through this current climate and share some of the experience that we have learned over the past 20 years.
In this period of adjustment we took the opportunity to benchmark and review our product range. The market is changing, business is still there and if you are able to be flexible you can learn to adapt. We have just completed a refresh of our marketing collateral as we wanted to raise the profile of our experienced people and reinforce to reinforce to our customers that we continue to take time to know what is important for to them and work around individual needs.
OK, so now about you. If you could have any job in the world what would it be?
I would have to be in fashion as I’ve always loved Chanel. Personal Assistant to Karl Largerfeld, I think that would be a challenge as he has the reputation as a hard task master, but the clothes allowance, jewellery and make up would be fabulous.
What’s your ideal holiday destination?
Monte Carlo staying in the Grimaldi Palace.
What do you do to relax?
Sunbathe, preferably on a beach with a cocktail in my hand.
If you could have five famous people to dinner who would they be?
In keeping with my love of Chanel, it would have to be Coco Chanel and Monte Carlo connection Grace Kelly. Definitely my grandmother who died before I was born. Then two people I think would be really interesting George Clooney and Alan Sugar.
Thank you.
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Claims
Here at Deacon, we have a reputation for being one of the UK’s leading specialists in Blocks of Flats Insurance and are well known for our commitment to excellent customer service. In order to build upon this reputation, Penny Jepson, Deacon Head of Business, has decided to completely revamp our Claim’s Proposition. We are the only broker within our field to have our own In House Claims Team with significant delegated Claims Handling Authority.
The team have recently concluded a major recruitment drive to ensure that we are fully resourced and trained to improve and enhance the service we offer. The new arrivals augment the existing wealth of experience and knowledge possessed by the current team and have already proven their value to the business.
The increase in the size of the team, combined with new operational and administrative initiatives means that the Claims Team can continue to beat existing market standards.
Michelle Joyce, Deputy Claims Manager, comments: “We are constantly striving to maintain and improve upon the excellent reputation that Deacon has earned over the past 20 years that it has been operating in the insurance sector. As a result, we carry out regular quality audits, customer satisfaction surveys and intensive training courses for our staff, in a continuous bid to maintain our client base and keep ahead of our competitors."
We are aiming to increase the delegated authority agreements with Insurers and to reduce the amount of times a claim is touched, thereby speeding up the process between opening and settling claims.
There are a number of other initiatives in the pipeline so watch this space!
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Terrorism
Sadly nowadays, terrorism presents a constant threat to the UK and whilst it is not always at the forefront of our minds it is important to understand the insurance implications. It seems that not everyone is clear on how coverage is placed, how much it costs and what it actually covers which is why we have chosen to cover this important issue in Manager and ensure you are adequately informed of the risks.
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How Does Terrorism Insurance Work?
In the past, a basic level of terrorism cover was built into policies as a standard feature and additional cover was available to purchase on top of that. However this is no longer the case. In 2003 Insurers elected to exclude damage to property following terrorist acts and now cover must be specifically purchased as additional cover through Pool Reinsurance Company Ltd, also known as Pool Re, who are a mutual re-insurer set up by the British Government in association with leading insurers. If losses ever became so large as to exhaust its reserves, Pool Re would draw funds from the UK government to meet its obligations. Pool Re, in turn, pays a premium to the government for this cover and would be required to repay any funds drawn down in this way from its future income.
What Does It Cover?
What exactly is considered a terrorist act? Well, any incident thought to be related to terrorism must be confirmed by the Government or Treasury, so it isn’t that simple to define. However Pool Re use the definition of an Act of Terrorism contained in the Reinsurance (Acts of Terrorism) Act 1993:
"…acts of persons acting on behalf of, or in connection with, any organisation which carries out activities directed towards the overthrowing or influencing, by force or violence, of Her Majesty’s government in the United Kingdom or any other government de jure or de facto."
It should be noted that, whilst an event has to fall within this definition for an insurer to make recovery from Pool Reinsurance Company Ltd, the policy issued by the insurer is often written in much wider terms. Incidents that do not fall within the definition of an act of terrorism under the Pool Re scheme may nevertheless be covered under the relevant insurance policy. For example, most property policies routinely cover malicious damage. For further information on Terrorism Insurance, please call one of our team on 08000 92 93 94.
How Do You Purchase It and What Are The Costs?
Cover can be purchased with an Insurer who will be a member of the Pool Re mutual reinsurer. Deacon are authorised to quote on behalf of the majority of insurers we place business through. Properties are rated on their locations, therefore a property situated in inner city London is at greater risk of a terrorist attack than one situated in Cornwall, for example, and will therefore attract a higher premium.
How Could This Affect Leasehold Property?
Unfortunately it is a fact that terrorism attacks are becoming more frequent and therefore you could find your property damaged or be denied access to your home following a terrorist attack. Also, it is important to check your lease as there may be a condition imposed that states you must have terrorism cover provided at a certain level. So what would happen if you chose to ignore this? You may be held personally liable if damage were to occur due to a confirmed act of terrorism.
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Survey results
A BIG thank you to everyone that took the time to fill out and return the Customer Service Surveys.
We had a great response rate and found that over 78% of our customers are either very satisfied or satisfied with the service they have received from Deacon and 80% were satisfied with the accuracy of our written communications.
These results are impressive after a year that has seen a lot of change within the business but we are very proud of the feedback we have received. We have already taken steps to make positive changes based on results including:
Claims – in line with the growth of the business, our Claims team have expanded
Phone system– we have invested in a new phone system to improve how calls are directed in addition to the direct dials we have
Document review – we are reviewing the quantity and quality of documentation that we send out and have seen an increase in the amount of customers requesting documentation as pdfs – which we have available
Training – we are constantly training our staff to ensure they are up to date with changes in the industry and fully compliant.
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Return to menu
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Return to menu
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Deacon Through partnership Offers More Value
Did you know, as part of Barbon Insurance Group, Deacon are now able to offer you access to a full suite of products for a selection of markets.
Working with our sister companies at Cadogan Hanover Park, we are now able to offer you the following:
SAIFinsure – established for nearly 15 years in providing bespoke insurance solutions that are aimed specifically for the funeral profession.
Performance - specialist insurance for the Film & Media industry
Plastech - risk protection for the Plastics industry
CareAssured – dedicated cover for the care industry
For more information please visit Cadogan Hanover Park
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Deacon is a trading name of Barbon Insurance Group Limited which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. Registered in England:3135797. Registered Office Address 4-9 Highview, High Street, Bordon, Hampshire GU35 0AX |
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|
|
|
|
|
Welcome to the latest edition of Manager.
Deacon are proud to celebrate 20 years of leading the market by providing an unrivalled service and having a wealth of knowledge of both specialist products and service.
|
|
It’s more important than ever to deliver value for money – a high priority of all our clients. We are investing in all areas of our business; improving products to make sure more eventualities are covered and improving service and contact with clients.
Claims is a crucial element of delivery and with many of our clients surveyed, our in-house claims handling being either very satisfied of satisfied, we are delighted that we can provide faster results for our customers since we do not have to transfer correspondence back and forth to multiple parties.
|
|
I hope you enjoy our newsletter – please let us know about any subjects you would like to see covered in future issues.
Penny Jepson
Head of Business
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Alysa Weiner
This edition we catch up with Alysa Weiner, Business Manager
How long have you worked at Deacon?
I’ve been with the company for 21 months now - I started in November 2007 and 2008 went really quickly.
Tell us about your career history…
I started my career in fashion and during my 4 years in the industry I worked as a Buyer and Branch Manager for two Benetton stores. Then I fell into Insurance, firstly Life, with Royal Insurance (now part of RSA) selling pensions, life insurance and related mortgage products, which was tough as my salary was earned on a commission only basis. I then made a career change to work for British Telecom, which was my first call centre experience. I then brought the two roles together and moved to LTSB
Insurance where I spent 11 years in their direct general insurance call centre. During the last couple of years with Lloyds I created the teams for their customer retention initiative over 3 sites; Bournemouth, Newport and Mumbai – effective communication was the hardest challenge. My greatest achievement was receiving an award from Eric Daniels the CEO of LTSB for improving staff retention.
So how are you enjoying your position?
I think it’s a good balance - constantly learning about the differences between my background of personal lines insurance and the more business to business environment of Deacon. I have a great team here and we are just starting to see the positive results from all the hard work that we implemented in 2008.
What are your plans for the future?
Continue in making the customer the focal point. It is key that we offer a unique service that offers good value for money in the current market and I believe our service offering cannot be matched. We started a journey last year by asking our customers what they liked and how we can improve - it is not always about the price itself but rather about keeping promises. The voice of our customer is influencing and changing the way we work and that is my main focus for 2009.
What do you think are the main trends for the Managing Agent market?
In today’s competitive market it is essential that standards remain high in addition to delivering more. In an environment where all customers are looking for value for money it is vital that we offer a unique sales and service proposition. We want to support our customers through this current climate and share some of the experience that we have learned over the past 20 years.
In this period of adjustment we took the opportunity to benchmark and review our product range. The market is changing, business is still there and if you are able to be flexible you can learn to adapt. We have just completed a refresh of our marketing collateral as we wanted to raise the profile of our experienced people and reinforce to reinforce to our customers that we continue to take time to know what is important for to them and work around individual needs.
OK, so now about you. If you could have any job in the world what would it be?
I would have to be in fashion as I’ve always loved Chanel. Personal Assistant to Karl Largerfeld, I think that would be a challenge as he has the reputation as a hard task master, but the clothes allowance, jewellery and make up would be fabulous.
What’s your ideal holiday destination?
Monte Carlo staying in the Grimaldi Palace.
What do you do to relax?
Sunbathe, preferably on a beach with a cocktail in my hand.
If you could have five famous people to dinner who would they be?
In keeping with my love of Chanel, it would have to be Coco Chanel and Monte Carlo connection Grace Kelly. Definitely my grandmother who died before I was born. Then two people I think would be really interesting George Clooney and Alan Sugar.
Thank you.
|
|
Return to top
|
| |
|
|
|
Return to menu |
|
Claims
Here at Deacon, we have a reputation for being one of the UK’s leading specialists in Blocks of Flats Insurance and are well known for our commitment to excellent customer service. In order to build upon this reputation, Penny Jepson, Deacon Head of Business, has decided to completely revamp our Claim’s Proposition. We are the only broker within our field to have our own In House Claims Team with significant delegated Claims Handling Authority.
The team have recently concluded a major recruitment drive to ensure that we are fully resourced and trained to improve and enhance the service we offer. The new arrivals augment the existing wealth of experience and knowledge possessed by the current team and have already proven their value to the business.
The increase in the size of the team, combined with new operational and administrative initiatives means that the Claims Team can continue to beat existing market standards.
Michelle Joyce, Deputy Claims Manager, comments: “We are constantly striving to maintain and improve upon the excellent reputation that Deacon has earned over the past 20 years that it has been operating in the insurance sector. As a result, we carry out regular quality audits, customer satisfaction surveys and intensive training courses for our staff, in a continuous bid to maintain our client base and keep ahead of our competitors."
We are aiming to increase the delegated authority agreements with Insurers and to reduce the amount of times a claim is touched, thereby speeding up the process between opening and settling claims.
There are a number of other initiatives in the pipeline so watch this space!
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
Terrorism
Sadly nowadays, terrorism presents a constant threat to the UK and whilst it is not always at the forefront of our minds it is important to understand the insurance implications. It seems that not everyone is clear on how coverage is placed, how much it costs and what it actually covers which is why we have chosen to cover this important issue in Manager and ensure you are adequately informed of the risks.
|
How Does Terrorism Insurance Work?
In the past, a basic level of terrorism cover was built into policies as a standard feature and additional cover was available to purchase on top of that. However this is no longer the case. In 2003 Insurers elected to exclude damage to property following terrorist acts and now cover must be specifically purchased as additional cover through Pool Reinsurance Company Ltd, also known as Pool Re, who are a mutual re-insurer set up by the British Government in association with leading insurers. If losses ever became so large as to exhaust its reserves, Pool Re would draw funds from the UK government to meet its obligations. Pool Re, in turn, pays a premium to the government for this cover and would be required to repay any funds drawn down in this way from its future income.
What Does It Cover?
What exactly is considered a terrorist act? Well, any incident thought to be related to terrorism must be confirmed by the Government or Treasury, so it isn’t that simple to define. However Pool Re use the definition of an Act of Terrorism contained in the Reinsurance (Acts of Terrorism) Act 1993:
"…acts of persons acting on behalf of, or in connection with, any organisation which carries out activities directed towards the overthrowing or influencing, by force or violence, of Her Majesty’s government in the United Kingdom or any other government de jure or de facto."
It should be noted that, whilst an event has to fall within this definition for an insurer to make recovery from Pool Reinsurance Company Ltd, the policy issued by the insurer is often written in much wider terms. Incidents that do not fall within the definition of an act of terrorism under the Pool Re scheme may nevertheless be covered under the relevant insurance policy. For example, most property policies routinely cover malicious damage. For further information on Terrorism Insurance, please call one of our team on 08000 92 93 94.
How Do You Purchase It and What Are The Costs?
Cover can be purchased with an Insurer who will be a member of the Pool Re mutual reinsurer. Deacon are authorised to quote on behalf of the majority of insurers we place business through. Properties are rated on their locations, therefore a property situated in inner city London is at greater risk of a terrorist attack than one situated in Cornwall, for example, and will therefore attract a higher premium.
How Could This Affect Leasehold Property?
Unfortunately it is a fact that terrorism attacks are becoming more frequent and therefore you could find your property damaged or be denied access to your home following a terrorist attack. Also, it is important to check your lease as there may be a condition imposed that states you must have terrorism cover provided at a certain level. So what would happen if you chose to ignore this? You may be held personally liable if damage were to occur due to a confirmed act of terrorism.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
Survey results
A BIG thank you to everyone that took the time to fill out and return the Customer Service Surveys.
We had a great response rate and found that over 78% of our customers are either very satisfied or satisfied with the service they have received from Deacon and 80% were satisfied with the accuracy of our written communications.
These results are impressive after a year that has seen a lot of change within the business but we are very proud of the feedback we have received. We have already taken steps to make positive changes based on results including:
Claims – in line with the growth of the business, our Claims team have expanded
Phone system– we have invested in a new phone system to improve how calls are directed in addition to the direct dials we have
Document review – we are reviewing the quantity and quality of documentation that we send out and have seen an increase in the amount of customers requesting documentation as pdfs – which we have available
Training – we are constantly training our staff to ensure they are up to date with changes in the industry and fully compliant.
|
|
Return to menu
|
| |
|
| |
|
Return to menu
|
|
Deacon Through partnership Offers More Value
Did you know, as part of Barbon Insurance Group, Deacon are now able to offer you access to a full suite of products for a selection of markets.
Working with our sister companies at Cadogan Hanover Park, we are now able to offer you the following:
SAIFinsure – established for nearly 15 years in providing bespoke insurance solutions that are aimed specifically for the funeral profession.
Performance - specialist insurance for the Film & Media industry
Plastech - risk protection for the Plastics industry
CareAssured – dedicated cover for the care industry
For more information please visit Cadogan Hanover Park
|
|
| |
Deacon is a trading name of Barbon Insurance Group Limited which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. Registered in England:3135797. Registered Office Address 4-9 Highview, High Street, Bordon, Hampshire GU35 0AX |
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