Voted by The Judging Panel
Sponsored by Close Premium Finance

Winner

Robins Affinity Management

GAB Robins are extremely proud to have won the Loss Adjuster of the Year Award for the third year running. Derek Coles, managing director, said: "This fantastic achievement reflects the quality of staff within GAB Robins, their desire to continually innovate and our financial strength to invest in services that consistently delight our customers."

GAB Robins identified a clear market gap for a specialist claims management service for housing associations tenants' contents. Our research showed that local authorities wanted a low-cost offering with a simple customer-focussed process.

GAB Robins met this challenge by investing in a one-stop solution named Robins Affinity Management providing:

- End-to-end solution;

- Intranet workflow management system;

- Dedicated back-office teams;

- Supply chain solution;

- Demanding service standards;

- Standardised fees.

By delivering a tremendous value for money service, Robins Affinity Management achieved 35% growth in 2002 and handled over 35,000 claims. 2003 has also seen growth with over 33 new schemes won in 2003.

Derek Coles added: "At GAB Robins we are fortunate that our financial strength allied to our technical expertise allows us to invest in new market-leading services such as Robins Affinity Management."

Highly commended

Claims Expert Network

The Claim Experts Network is different: we are a chartered loss adjuster that doesn't act for insurers. We look after the claims needs of policyholders and retail brokers. We aren't the only loss adjuster to do that, but we are the only national one. Our network members are individual chartered loss adjusters of long and wide experience, all over the country, giving national coverage. We have central training, technical and knowledge resources available to all network members. We are the first and only systematic organiser of CPD in policyholder representation. We are active in FSA compliance matters.

Above all, we listen to all our customers: policyholders, brokers, individuals and businesses. Every case is tailored to the customer's needs, and every customer has individual attention. We guide our customers through the claim process, we take on repudiated or contentious claims, we restore confidence in an industry battered by service criteria and operational methods the public doesn't understand. We are knowledgeable; we are responsive; we are innovative. We are different.

Crawford & Company

Crawford & Company are delighted to have been highly commended for the Insurance Times Loss Adjuster of the Year Award 2003.

We differentiate ourselves by anticipating and responding to market challenges as they happen and by developing best of breed services for our clients.

Our counter fraud solutions (CFS) service, launched at the beginning of 2003, is one such example. CFS was developed in response to our clients' concerns about fraud and indeed the wider industry's requirement to provide a cost effective investigation service that meets the ABI's fraud guidelines.

CFS is a specialised response utilising nationwide expertise and structured investigation techniques to provide a consistent approach to tackling the problem of insurance fraud. The results have been fantastic and we can report that since its launch, CFS has already produced significant financial savings for our clients.

CFS offers just one demonstration of the way in which we deliver innovative, integrated claims and risk evaluation products to our clients, which deliver profitable services and information in the ways they want them. It is for this reason we believe Crawford offers the best possible loss adjusting service available in the marketplace and will continue to do so in the future.

Claims People Group

Claims People are honoured to be commended again in 2003. The company said: "For a company which only commenced trading in 2001, this achievement is particularly gratifying and is a reward for a great deal of hard work and radical thinking."

Claims People, which styles itself as a next-generation loss adjusting and claims management company, was founded in 2001 with the declared intention of reducing claims processing costs for insurers by utilising both modern technology and applying an exceptionally low cost base. At the end of 2002, Claims People turned its attention to the motor insurance market.

It was clear that motor insurers had a specific need for affordable impact inspections for lower value claims. In order to meet this need, Claims People devised a unique 'verify' inspection service that enables insurers to properly evaluate repair cost, reduce leakage, and generally improve their service to third parties at exceptionally competitive cost.

Claims People are confident that its verify product, which has already achieved a gratifying level of market acceptance, will continue to grow in popularity and will assist the company to maintain its overall growth, which has averaged 70% per annum since the formation of the company.

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