Award winning (1) local insurance company, Fortis Insurance Limited (FIL) has been shortlisted in the category for ‘Most Effective Operations Management Initiative', for the prestigious ifs Financial Innovation Awards (1). The awards will be judged by an independent panel of industry experts and winners will be announced on Thursday 3 December at the Grand Connaught Rooms in Covent Garden.
The ifs Financial Innovations Awards recognise innovation, creativity, continuous improvement in the financial services industry and reward the work of those companies who improve the quality of the customer experience. As a major employer in Eastleigh, with over 1,400 staff in the UK, FIL has been recognised for embedding its customer focused claims and operations ethos, the Fortis ‘Claims and Operations Way', into its business with a view to providing cost efficiency, innovation, excellent customer service and differentiation from its competitors.
Commenting on the success, Mark Cliff, Managing Director at FIL said: "We are delighted to have been shortlisted for our dedication to improving the service we provide to our customers. The foundation for everything we do is based on our ethos of putting the customer at the heart of our business and we recognise the important role that our employees play in driving innovation, delivering service excellence and helping Fortis to lead the way in claims management within the insurance market."
These award nominations build on the success of the FIL claims operation. Recent independent research (2) ranked FIL as the ‘most efficient motor insurance claims handler in 2008' (a position FIL has held since 2003) and ‘most efficient household claims handler in 2008'. Being the ‘most efficient' is inextricably linked to providing great service, where FIL was also recently ranked by brokers as top insurer in terms of service levels compared to other major insurers. (3)
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Notes to editors
(1) The ifs Financial Innovation Awards are held by the ifs School of Finance, an international organisation incorporated by Royal Charter, providing qualifications to the financial services industry since 1879. Today the ifs School of Finance has over 80,000 students in 100 countries.
In previous years Fortis has been awarded the following accolades by the Financial Services body:
‘Most Promising New Product' 2008 - awarded for the insurer's launch of an innovative ‘reverse auction' price comparison website.
‘Most Effective Insurance Initiative' 2007 - awarded for the insurer's continuous improvement of customer service through a new initiative with its motor claims suppliers.
‘Most Innovative Application of Technology' 2007 - awarded for the insurer's innovative introduction of SMS technology in the sale of travel insurance.
Insurance Times Awards ‘Motor Insurer of the Year' (six times winner 2001-2003 & 2005-06 & 2008). British Insurance Awards 2008 ‘Claims Initiative of the Year'
(2) Datamonitor 2009 based on the top 10 largest motor insurers and top 10 largest household insurers by GWP.
(3) Institute of Insurance Brokers survey April 2009, Professional Broking Sentiment Survey & Insurance Age Broker Survey, May 2009
About Fortis
Fortis (Insurance UK) is a leading provider of award-winning personal and commercial lines insurance solutions in the UK. Fortis UK has two main divisions, manufacturing both non-life and life products, which are distributed through a range of channels including brokers, IFAs, intermediaries, affinity partners and the Internet, as well as various wholly or partially-owned companies (RIAS, Fortis Insurance Solutions, Affinity Solutions Ltd, Text2Insure and InsureTECH Systems).
Insuring in excess of 6.7 million customers and working with a range of partners, Fortis is recognised for delivering consistent and high-quality customer experiences. It employs almost 3,000 people with a head office based in Eastleigh and others in Belfast, Bournemouth, Gloucester, Haywards Heath, London, Redditch, Reigate and Stoke-on-Trent. In 2008, its non-life profit before tax and interest was £76 million and its non-life GWP was £760 million.