Crawford & Co’s Bartlett on the need to meet shifting customer expectations

This article was produced with Crawford & Company.

Gia Snape of Insurance Business sat down with Insurance Global 100 2024 awardee Lisa Bartlett, chief operating officer, international operations, and president, UK & Ireland, at Crawford & Company, to discuss the importance of talent, the need to meet the shift in customer expectation, and the future of the industry.

Insurance Global 100 2024 awardee Lisa Bartlett’s (pictured) introduction to the insurance industry was serendipitous, having been drawn into it early in her career.

Today, however, Bartlett wants the opposite for new entrants to insurance. Instead, she said the industry must make a concerted and focused effort to attract, retain and develop talent.

The post-pandemic talent landscape is vastly different from before, and leaders need to work hard to adjust. Providing pleasant working conditions, meeting employee needs, ensuring diversity and equity in the workplace, and creating an appealing corporate culture are just a few of the many challenges the sector needs to confront.

“There is a shortage of talent within the industry,” said Bartlett, president of UK & Ireland and chief operations officer of international operations for Crawford & Company. “Competition for talent is not going away any time soon, so there needs to be a focus on keeping people in the sector and investing in technical skills.

“Like my own journey, we’re extremely focused on keeping talent in the business and promoting from within. So, I’m a real-life case study of what we’re trying to do.”

‘Developing the individual, delivering the team’

Bartlett’s insurance journey spans various roles across the value chain. Beginning with Aon and then Marsh, she quickly immersed herself in the insurance business, gaining experience across broker, carrier, and corporate roles. Her resume also includes stints at AXA and WTW.

Bartlett’s versatility and dedication soon led to rapid promotions, culminating in her current position at Crawford & Company.

Having achieved a master’s in risk management, Bartlett is a strong promoter of continuous learning across all generations in the insurance workforce. She acknowledged the need to balance traditional education with adopting innovative technologies to cater to different segments.

“Professional qualifications are important if you want to progress within the insurance industry,” she said. “But then there’s also keeping abreast of new technologies. Some team members might prefer traditional methods, but those who are new to the workforce want new tools and technologies. So, it’s about providing facilities for everybody to get what they need to do the job.”

However, Bartlett is keen to highlight that while technology has an increasingly prominent role in the claims ecosystem, it is a facilitator not a replacement for the skilled adjuster, adding, “Fundamentally, it is our people who make the biggest difference for our customers.”

For her, the ideal relationship between technology and human ingenuity is one where the two complement each other to enhance client experiences and operational efficiency.

“We’re all trying to work out the roles artificial intelligence will play. But certainly, my view is there will always be humans in the loop,” she said. “It’s bringing the technology and people together in the best way for the benefit of our clients.”

‘A unified approach to evolving customer needs’

The ability to seamlessly combine different capabilities—expertise, technology, and processes—into a single cohesive solution that delivers the highest service standards is also critical to meeting expanding customer requirements, particularly given the rapidly evolving risk landscape.

Today’s volatile environment makes achieving operational excellence much more difficult than in years past. Widespread supply chain disruptions, global political and environmental upheavals, and radical changes in the workplace highlight the need for leaders to be agile and responsive on many fronts. It is essential to define excellence by outcomes around client and customer solutions.

Bartlett said: “Customers’ expectations are no longer determined by their interactions with the insurance industry, but rather by their interactions with cutting-edge service providers across retail, entertainment, and transportation. As a result, today’s customers expect greater personalisation, improved access, modern sales experience, and data/insurance privacy security.”

She believes that achieving these goals for the customer journey requires the collaboration of many different parts of the organisation.

“Only by working together to deliver exceptional customer service and identify growth opportunities can teams help drive revenue growth and ensure long-term success,” Bartlett said.

Since her appointment as chief operating officer, international, in 2023, a key initiative for Lisa has been to look at how Crawford competes in a new era of customer-centric insurance and the need to adopt an agile response that recognises changing customer behaviours and ensure that a One Crawford approach is core to every solution delivered.

As COO, Bartlett ensures that clients and customers are front of mind so Crawford stays competitive in a constantly evolving insurance industry.

Find out more about this year’s Insurance Global 100 winners by reading the special report.