A car accident alone can often be a traumatic event, but it will never just be the only thing going on in someone’s life.
This was the case for Mr Trafford who, on the evening of 2 September, called the Ageas claims department to report an incident.
His call came through to claims handler Summer White, who listened as he explained that he’d collided with a metal gate post. Thankfully Mr Trafford was uninjured, but he went on to explain that he was overwhelmed by the situation as he had a lot going on, disclosing that his father had passed away the weekend before.
Summer remembers immediately telling the customer she was sorry to hear what had happened. She stated: “I have only experienced policyholders grieving a few times, but I appreciate that being in a car accident could be even more distressing. Having to call your insurance company to make a claim would be the last thing you want to do, so I continued with the call as I would normally, and we did not discuss it again.”
After the call ended, Summer recalls feeling a lot of sympathy for the customer, adding that “the aftermath of a car accident can be challenging enough, and that’s without the heartache he and his family were going through. I knew I wanted to do something.”
Ageas has an initiative called Magic Moments. Launched in 2022 in line with its purpose to Understand People + Simplify Insurance, it offers claim handlers the ability to personally acknowledge a momentous or challenging event in a customer’s life with a gift.
Summer has used this service before and empathising with the situation Mr Trafford found himself in, felt compelled to try and bring some comfort to Mr Trafford at this difficult time. The next thing she knew, she had received multiple emails from various people around Ageas to draw her attention to a post on LinkedIn. Not only had Mr Trafford appreciated the flowers that Summer had gifted him on behalf of Ageas, he had taken to social media to express his thanks.
“When I saw Mr Trafford had posted about this on Linkedln I was so happy. Mr Trafford’s post was lovely, and the fact that he mentioned me by name made me feel really appreciated. I am so glad that I sent those flowers to Mr Trafford as I can see they made a difference to his experience of making a claim.”
As an organisation, Ageas is fortunate to have such brilliant people representing the company and supporting its customers in their time of need.
As Summer concludes so perfectly, “We care for our customers, and I am grateful I was able to do something for Mr Trafford.”
