Our dedicated ‘First Response’ Contact Centre in the North-East has seen continued growth over the past year and is making a real difference with the vital first response and policy holder management services it provides to our insurance partners and their stakeholders.
This is a dynamic control room environment, generating value for our customers and helping ease the policy holders through their claims journey. The Centre has seen rapid growth and now employs a team of over 40 full time advisors.
Supported by continual investment into the latest technology and digital solutions, this high-performing team supports the continued development of Copart’s strong and trusted partnerships with insurers and their policy holders, adding yet another layer to Copart’s ‘customer first’ ethos.
With a strong focus on building and maintaining trusted and long-standing relationships with bodyshop and recovery operators, the team are responsible for recovery and storage cost management and policy holder pick up services.
These are critical elements for ensuring minimal disruption, enabling multiple pick-ups and delivering significant cost savings for our insurance partners. Whilst we lead the market with our service levels, we have a range of unique technology improvements in the pipeline which will further improve the customer experience.
Contact Centre Manager Lee Fayer tells us more about the vital role of the Centre and what exciting developments our customers can expect to see.
Can you tell us more about what the Contact Centre team does?
The centre is dedicated to the delivery of two essential services – Copart’s Recovery and Storage Cost Management Services, and the provision of policy holder vehicle pick up services known as Copart Owner Connect.
These services are vital in providing close cost management to our insurance partners for recovery agent and body shop charges, and in ensuring that policy holders have their vehicles collected quickly, safely, and conveniently.
Since the recent expansion, the team is also responsible for co-ordinating vehicle collections and providing swift payment on behalf of Insurers.
Our nationwide network of Copart Operation Centres, alongside our owned and branded transport fleet of over 400 vehicles, supports the team in achieving outstanding levels of efficiency. Vehicle collection is normally arranged within an hour of the assignment being received.
It’s a fast paced and vibrant environment, with an enthusiastic and driven team which is committed to delivering a world-class level of customer service.
What role does technology play in delivering world-class service?
Copart is continually investing into new technology and systems, and we even have the ability to develop our own bespoke systems tailored to the needs of our customers. This means the speed of implementation is incredibly unique.
Unique to the motor claims industry, our innovative data-sharing technology enables total system integration between our operating system and our insurance customers’ claims systems. This allows us to interact digitally with insurers from when a vehicle is deemed a Total Loss through every stage of the process to the final settlement.
Real-time data transfer provides our insurance customers with an efficient and seamless total loss claims process, greatly speeding up the journey and delivering significant benefits for their policy holders.
The team also works closely with our Central Dispatch function to ensure that the operational capabilities of our UK-wide transport fleet are fully maximised when arranging vehicle collections.
Our dynamic route scheduling software enables us to optimise the availability and location of our transporter fleet alongside real time road data and plan the most effective routes for our drivers.
On a day-to-day basis in the Contact Centre, our dynamic switchboard and MiPhone telephony systems are delivering brilliant results with our call handling capabilities. Using real-time call data, we can ensure that optimal performance and service delivery can be achieved for our customers.
Going forward, we’ll be exploring further multi-channel communication methods to expand our customer service offering even further.
How do you see the Contact Centre developing in the future?
Going forward, we will be creating new roles focused on building and maintaining our trusted and long-standing relationships with bodyshop and recovery operators, providing specialist training for Copart teammates to manage costs on behalf of Insurers.
This will of course lead to many promotion and progression opportunities for the team, which Copart actively encourages through individual personal development plans. We have a fantastic team at Peterlee, with real drive and ambition to progress and succeed, so it will be great to see individuals continue to thrive and establish long-term career paths within Copart.
What are you looking forward to achieving in the Contact Centre?
My ongoing aim is to develop a high performing team that delivers a fantastic return on investment for Copart as well as an unrivalled service for our Sellers and Members.
A key element of this is to ensure that the fees our Sellers pay are reasonable and appropriate. The team is responsible for managing significant amounts of money on behalf of our Sellers, so I’ll be ensuring that process is always carried out effectively to provide great value for money.
The Contact Centre is yet another signal of our ongoing commitment to providing world-class service to our customers and I am very happy to be part of a team that plays such a significant part in that.