Meltem Yazar: Claims Champion on how ‘every claims process can be improved’

Winning the Insurance Times Claims Excellence Awards 2026 Claims Champion of the Year award was recognition of more than a single process improvement for Meltem Yazar.

Rather, she believes the prestigious award reflected a mindset that should sit at the heart of every claims journey across the sector.

As support automation lead at Napo Pet Insurance, Yazar received the accolade at the Claims Awards in June for identifying a friction point in the insurer’s policy reinstatement process and designing a new approach that helped customers whose policies had been cancelled unintentionally

For Yazar, however, the award-winning initiative began with a simple question.

“I always ask, ‘How can I make this better?’” she says.

“At Napo, we always encourage everyone to question everything. Just because there is a process, it doesn’t mean that it’s the end. It worked today, but it may not work tomorrow.”

That philosophy has shaped Yazar’s four-and-a-half-year career at Napo. Having joined as a customer champion in 2022, she progressed to senior customer champion before becoming customer champion lead, where she combined leading a team with overseeing process improvements, AI automation and operational projects.

More recently, she has moved into the role of support automation lead, focusing even more heavily on improving customer journeys.

Although insurance was new to her upon joining Napo, customer service was not.

“I’ve always enjoyed roles where I can combine problem solving with helping customers,” she explains.

“As my career developed, I became increasingly interested in improving customer experience and customer journeys as a whole.”

Pet insurance, she adds, made that work even more meaningful.

“I have a dog myself and I know that it’s stressful. Sometimes it’s life-threatening. It’s not very easy.”

Looking beyond the process

The initiative that earned Yazar the Claims Champion award came after she identified a recurring pattern involving customers whose policies had lapsed, despite intending to keep them active.

One case in particular stood out.

A customer had contacted Napo before renewal to ask whether an existing condition would remain covered, suggesting they wanted their policy to continue. However, they later cancelled their direct debit, mistakenly believing a new payment mandate would be needed at renewal.

Looking beyond the administrative record, Yazar recognised the customer’s intentions had not been reflected in the outcome.

“We realised that we need to sometimes look into this further to understand why this happened,” she says.

“It’s not always black and white.”

Rather than treating every cancellation the same, Yazar developed a structured referral process enabling customer champions to investigate edge cases by reviewing previous conversations, customer communications and account activity before escalating appropriate cases for management and underwriter approval.

“We want to be fair and we want to be helpful for those who actually need it and didn’t intend to cancel in the first place,” she explains.

The process has since been adopted across the team.

Empathy first

For Yazar, the project reinforced something she believes sits at the centre of good customer service – empathy.

Claims conversations rarely happen at convenient moments for customers, particularly in pet insurance, where owners are often worried about the health of a much-loved animal while also facing financial concerns.

“We know how hard it is for the customers,” she says.

“They are very stressed because these are our babies – our dogs and cats.”

In these moments, she believes that technical knowledge alone is not enough for claims professionals.

“It’s not only directing customers to the right support, but also being empathetic with them, giving them the reassurance and support they need.

“It’s just being on the call and letting them share their emotions with us because that really helps them.”

While AI increasingly handles routine enquiries, Yazar believes these sensitive conversations will always require a human touch.

“People say AI is replacing people. We don’t want that,” she says.

“We want to make sure it’s working side by side for the best outcome.”

Instead, she sees automation taking on repetitive work so customer teams can dedicate more time to complex cases where judgement, investigation and compassion matter most.

A team effort

Although the Claims Champion award was awarded to her, Yazar is keen to emphasise that it should recognise the wider culture at Napo.

“It’s incredibly rewarding to receive recognition from people in the industry who understand the importance of delivering fair customer outcomes,” she says.

“What really meant the most was reading the judges’ comments.

“It’s also reflection of a collaborative culture. I got the award and I had my name on it, but all the feedback and the support from the team actually really helped to shape this.”

For customer champions, she says, external recognition provides reassurance that the difficult work of supporting customers through emotionally charged situations is making a difference.

“It’s recognised by wider insurance people. It means a lot.”

Looking ahead, Yazar expects automation to continue evolving, but believes the industry’s greatest opportunities will still come from people willing to challenge established ways of working.

Her advice to anyone hoping to become a future claims champion is simple.

“Be curious. Always question everything. Listen to customers, understand the repetitive issues you keep seeing and ask what you can do to make it better.”

Because, as her award-winning initiative demonstrated, sometimes improving customer outcomes begins with looking beyond what happened on paper to understand what really happened instead.