This year's Claims Forum brought together over 180 senior attendees from across the claims sector to debate the challenges of operating in a tough economic climate. Combating fraud effectively emerged as one of the key themes of the conference. Undetected fraud is costing the industry around £1.4 billion a year so clear cost savings can be made through tightening up on fraud prevention. Ensuring that staff are trained to recognise fraudulent claims effectively and utilising data more intelligently were seen as critical. There was also agreement that the industry should look collectively at changing the public perception that soft fraud is acceptable. It was suggested that making consumers aware that these activities resulted in higher premiums could be an effective way of getting the message across.
Ensuring that the customer experience is positive in an environment where there is increasing pressure across companies to reduce costs continues to be a key challenge. There was consensus that stripping away bad costs to the business through tightening up on areas such fraud prevention should be the focus; compromising on customer service was simply not an option for Claims Directors.
This year's Claims Forum was a great success. We hope that you gained a great deal of benefit from the excellent presentations and discussion sessions and we look forward to seeing you next year.
