“We had more than 60 customers attend this forum and based on the positive feedback last night, we’re already looking at when we can come back to meet with more of our customers in the area,” he said.
Mr Dransfield also said Suncorp was aiming to have 80 per cent of all roof repairs connected to the New South Wales hail storms commenced by the end of April and 80 per cent of cars scheduled for repair out of this event to be completed by the end of July.
“We continually look to improve how we respond to natural catastrophes and some new initiatives have meant we’ve been able to make good progress in supporting our customers through this disaster.
“Our zero touch digital claims lodgement process allowed people with relatively simple claims to complete lodgements quickly, which also alleviated some of the loads on our contact centres.
“Our hail assessment centres were up and running within days and at their peak, were assessing more than 1,000 cars a day, which has expedited that process.
“The introduction of a case management approach means customers have a dedicated client manager supporting them through the claims process from start to finish, and further improve our communication and transparency.”
Mr Dransfield said they had heard of some instances where unauthorised tradespeople had approached affected customers in a bid to fraudulently pick up business or take cash payments.
“While we’ve seen this behaviour in previous events, particularly hail storms, we’re noticing these scammers becoming more sophisticated in their approach. Some are going so far as replicating vehicle signage to impersonate authorised builders.”
He said Suncorp supported the Insurance Council’s advice to customers to ensure they carefully consider the use of claims advisors or advocates.
“Our systems are designed for customers to work with us directly, but they can choose to use external advisers, such as claims advocates, at any time. Our experience is there are two types of advocates – the ones that work in the best interest of the customer and those that are leveraging already vulnerable customers for their own commercial gain.
“Given this, it is very important that customers are aware of the risks associated with engaging a third party that proactively approaches them, as there will be a cost and it is not covered by the policy,” he said.
Suncorp will host more community forums in the coming months.
Suncorp customers yet to lodge their claim, should do so as soon as possible, either online or over the phone at
