29/04/2024
Introducing Robson Summers of the One Broker Ambulance Team
Broking Technician Robson Summers joined the One Broker team back in 2021, lending his skills to our busy in-house Claims department. Deciding he wanted a fresh challenge, he moved to our One Broker Ambulance team towards the end of 2023.
To find out what he’s learnt, and what his new role now involves, we sat him down for an in-depth Q&A.
Tell us a little about your past experience.
My insurance career began with an uninsured losses provider, which is where I was based for about 3 years. The role primarily involved taking first notification of loss claims over the phone, so after a few years had passed I wanted to move onto something new. I therefore applied to One Broker and got the chance to work in the Claims team.
While working there, I mainly handled the Palletforce and pallet network claims that came in. In the second year of the job, I started to play more of a part in ambulance claims. When the opportunity came up for me to move to the One Broker Ambulance team, I made sure I grabbed it!
What have you learnt since you joined the One Broker Ambulance team?
A lot! It’s been a really busy time.
The main thing I’ve learnt is how much work the team has. When I was working in Claims, I didn’t really have an idea of what the Ambulance team was doing. Now I can really appreciate how hard they work.
After doing lots of training and shadowing my colleagues, I’ve also learnt a lot about the key policies and I’m now much more confident at carrying out renewals for Fleet Insurance and Commercial Combined Insurance, which includes Medical Malpractice cover, Public Liability and Employers’ Liability Insurance. This means that I’m now at the stage where I’m left to go through them on my own.
These are the main areas that I have focused on in the last 5 months. Going forward, I’ll be looking at the other products we have within this sector to grow my knowledge even more.
Has anything surprised you?
I’ve been surprised by the sheer number of clients. There are so many different independent ambulance companies, which has been a real eye-opener for me. Before joining the team, I think I was like most people: if I thought of ambulances, I’d just think of the NHS.
Now that you’ve settled in, what does your role now involve?
Now that I'm a few months in, I’ve begun to handle a lot of renewals.
A typical day means I check my emails in the morning and then I move onto working on the pre-renewals that need to go out that week, before focusing on the renewals themselves.
Pre-renewals go out about 8 weeks before the renewal date, while the renewals are sent about 2 weeks beforehand. This gives me the opportunity to uncover any client changes and update the renewal information. I then send this information to the insurers and negotiate the terms to ensure I get the right price and cover for each client.
Once we have agreed to these, my job is then to check the documents and send them to the client. If the price has increased, I provide an explanation as to why – communication is really important. This gives our clients the time and the information they need to decide whether to renew or look elsewhere.
Once I’ve handled the renewals, I’ll also speak to clients and answer their questions. Then I’ll usually tackle things such as car changes, deletions, and changed driver details. After that, I’ll either do some CPD work or attend meetings.
It’s been great to start working on things on my own and begin to build relationships with my clients. I’m driven to do really well as I’m taking over some clients from Jack McManus, and he is obviously very good at his job, so I’ve got to either maintain that level or exceed it! At the moment I’ve been doing lots of chatting on the phone but in the future I will be going out and meeting clients face to face.
What is the most enjoyable part of the job?
I enjoy the fact that this new role keeps me busy and engaged. I’d worked in Claims for pretty much the whole of my insurance career, so I needed to make a change and get some variety. I love the fact that I’ve jumped into something new.
The people I work with are also a bonus. We are really close-knit as we are a small team. This means that we can all be in the office on the same day and catch up with one another.
What are you most looking forward to?
My overall goal is to become an Account Executive, so I will keep gaining experience and learning about the other insurance products and policies to build my knowledge. Shane Ford advised me that it was best to get a good grounding in the basics and then build on it.
When you’re not busy in the team, what do you like to do in your spare time?
I go to Scotland quite a lot to watch football and see my family. In the winter I go up there maybe once every couple of months. Football is definitely one of the main things I do: I love playing, watching and refereeing, which I do for Norfolk FA. I also like going to the pub, playing on the PlayStation and watching TV.
Talk to the team about Private Ambulance Insurance
If you’d like to find out more about our Private Ambulance Insurance, please get in touch! You can call our dedicated team on 01603 218295.
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