Q&A with Amy Brettell, Head of Customer, UK Claims
Amy Brettell talks about her passion for helping others, how she got into the insurance sector and lessons she’s learnt along the way.
1. How did you get into the insurance sector?
The first time I really thought about the insurance sector was when I was about 14 years old; at school we did a survey that showed you different career options that you might be interested in based on what you liked and disliked. That was the first time I saw a role called an “Actuary” and I thought it looked quite interesting. At university I did an economics degree because I saw it as a practical application of maths, which I’ve always really loved. Towards the end of university, I started to explore the insurance sector and remembered the Actuary role, so I looked into it again and found it very appealing because it was about using maths skills to solve real world problems. I went to various career fairs and at one of these, I visited Zurich’s stand – it was the only company with a specific leaflet about being an Actuary and everyone was really friendly. They offered an Actuarial graduate programme and the rest is history!
2. What have been your career highlights?
One of my career highlights was helping Zurich become the very first insurance company and one of the first signatories of the Buy Social Corporate Challenge Campaign. Zurich partnered with Social Enterprise UK and was committed at that point to spend a billion pounds with social enterprises. This campaign took place in 2016, but I still clearly remember going to Downing Street (such an amazing opportunity!) and thinking that I was a part of something great; I felt so proud of working at Zurich, a company that was going beyond the industry and trying to use their purchasing power as a force for good.
3. What does a typical day look like for you?
My day can go from having strategic meetings about topics like the future of work or what our digital strategy needs to be, to helping solve problems that impact an individual customer and everything in between. I never quite know how my day is going to be, but I know it’s going to be awesome.
The thing I love about my job is that all day every day, I get to be an advocate for our customers and I get to help people. I get such a sense of satisfaction from helping somebody within the company to achieve something they didn’t think they could do, or if I feel like I can help a customer and I’ve made their day just a little bit better.
4. What is the main focus of your role?
My job covers three areas; claims relationship management activity, market insight and proposition, and claims digital activity.
I am responsible for a team that looks after our customers and brokers, to help ensure they get all the support they need from Zurich. This falls into the relationship management area. The second area is Market Insight and Proposition. This is about understanding what’s going on in the world outside Zurich. Through our customer listening program and through market research, we gather information in order to understand what's happening in the world, what our customers need and how we can respond. Then we bring it all together to create an even better proposition for our customers.
A great example of this is Zurich Support Services; we now offer up to five free counselling sessions for anybody who's made a claim or for their immediate family. This is because we know that when a customer comes to claim, whatever has happened, it can often be very traumatic and impact their wellbeing, so we want to help and support customers as much as possible. In this area, we also have a Medical Management Team that consists of nurses, physiotherapists and other fantastic qualified individuals in the health care profession. They can help people to get back to full health and work quicker, even without a claim. And the third area is all about digital activity, both our core IT systems and the innovation we’re doing in this area. This sits in our customer function because our aim is to use technology to solve customer problems.
5. What is the top lesson you’ve learnt?
The top lesson I’ve learnt is that it’s not a bad thing to fail. I don't like to think of it as failure, I like to see it as unintended or unexpected outcomes – they are good because you still learn something! I think gone are the days where you can sit in a room and come up with this perfect plan because the world is changing so quickly. I believe you need to test and learn, if you give something a go you get another bit of information to inform your thinking.
6. What is the best piece of advice you have been given?
At the end of my graduate program, someone said to me that, “opportunities fall in your lap, but you have to put your lap in the right place.” This has always stuck with me. My interpretation of this was that you have to put yourself out there by telling people who you are and showcasing yourself. This might mean taking a risk but you've got to be open to opportunities and stepping out of your comfort zone if you want to progress. Networking is a great way to do this, I remember someone saying to me that networking is a two-way relationship, and that it should be mutually beneficial. I have moved in quite a non-linear way through my career, showing people who I am, understanding what I can do to help them solve problems and being open to opportunities.
7. What would you do if you weren’t working in the insurance industry?
When I was very little, I wanted to be a librarian. While my little sister was the one climbing trees, I was the one looking up worrying what might go wrong. Perhaps I was always meant to end up in a business evaluating risk! I also wanted to be a maths teacher, but if I could choose now I'd probably do something in the social sector. If I won the lottery tomorrow, I couldn't not be intellectually challenged, so I'd probably set up a charity or do something in the voluntary sector. I probably wouldn't be a librarian anymore, because I'm really not good at staying quiet!
8. What do you love about working at Zurich?
I love that Zurich has some of the most intelligent, curious, caring, passionate people that exist. Also, I love that as a company we stand for doing the right thing. Every day I feel like we get to make a difference, from championing topics like climate change, right down to not only paying a claim but going the extra mile and helping our customers at the same time. Every day you get to make a difference that hopefully impacts positively on the world.
