· Just requested Claims ER? Check your inbox—your copy is on its way ·
Whether you’ve arrived through Claims ER or come directly for your score, this is the place to start.
Now find out how hard your claims system makes customers work.
Take five considered minutes.
Answer 15 questions about how claims really move through your operation. Get your Low Effort Score—and see where to investigate first. It won’t solve the problem. It will show you where to look.
Get Your Low Effort Score
Fifteen questions about how claims actually move through your operation. You get a score out of 100 and your reading on each of the five levers behind it — so you can see which one to fix first.
Then book your free Improvement Session with the result in front of you — or don’t. The score is yours either way.
after you've got your score let's have a chat
Once you've got your score book a 30 minute working session that leaves you with a plan you can start using on Monday.
1.
The rapid claims diagnostic that reveals what to fix first
A rapid diagnostic breaks down your score and, based on our 28 years of experience in this type of work we'll give you a clear view of where the real friction lies and what to tackle first.
2.
The exact strategy and tactics behind our results
A clear breakdown of the specific moves we used to cut backlog and end‑to‑end times, laid out so you can show your team exactly what changed and why it worked.
3.
A three‑step improvement plan tailored to you
A short, practical roadmap that spells out the next three moves to make in your claims system, so you know where to start, what to do, and how to measure progress over the next 90 days.
what you leave the session with
One page pdf
Recommendations for change from your diagnostic. We'll lay out exactly where to start your journey.
The slide deck
We'll give you a deck that walks you through the step-by-step process we use to help leaders understand the transformation process in claims.
A short plan
This is your individual custom plan of recommendations specific to your individual needs plus the steps we'd take to implement change in your system.
motor claims · service up, cost down
“I’ve used Stuart in a number of companies to help me improve service and cut costs. We made a huge difference in motor claims, insurance sales, call centres and preparing a business for sale. Stuart’s differentiator is his ability to analyse an organisation and know exactly what to change to get results for customers and the business fast. If you need lasting change in your service organisation, contact Stuart.”
Richard Beaven
Chief Executive (acting), Pension Protection Fund · ex-Operations Director, Insurance Division, Lloyds Banking Group
lower cost · backlog down · better service
“Using Stuart and his team’s approach transformed my way of working — at my former company we cut our costs, reduced the backlog and improved service, finally delivering value when we said we would.
Our stakeholders had confidence and team morale improved dramatically.”
Tia Millar
Chief Product Officer, Safeguard Global
clarity on what to fix first
“This process is brilliant in its simplicity.
Stuart will take you into the work, you’ll see how your claims operations work (you’ll be surprised at what you see), you won’t need to be talked into anything, you’ll see it for yourself. And then you’ll get amazing clarity on what you need to do to get a result.”
John Dunnion
Head of Agile, Major Bank
One of the worlds largest insurers knew loyalty was
the thing that they needed.
Renewals, retention, cost to serve—all of it at behind loyalty. They had run NPS. They had paid for expensive customer service programs, they'd set harder targets, added headcount and paid overtime. Nothing moved the needle.
NPS told them customers were unhappy, it could not tell them why. Our diagnosis clearly showed the answer was effort—how hard the business was making it to get a claim settled, and it's built in to the design of the work.
Here's what happened when we implemented our Low Effort Method for Claims Management
—here are the stats and the case study is below.
500-35
end-to-end days reduced
by more than 10X
2.8X
productivity increase -
same headcount
-66%
failure demand cut
by two-thirds
-30%
backlog reduced
within eight weeks
£0
additional spend on tech,
AI or headcount
Built on the Theory of Constraints & the ONE Thing Focusing Cycle — Descartes Consulting, with methodology from Goldratt Research Labs.
real case study from one of the world's largest insurers: how we helped reduce customer effort
90-Day Claims Experiment Case Study
Our client had a backlog of well over 100,000 cases.
A case was typically taking over 500 days to close which added up to huge customer effort. After the study phase, the client had a plan. Due to the size of the problem we conducted some additional, specific analysis.
As you will see from the charts within days of completing the analysis and with a handful of changes, the backlog started to fall dramatically. Claims soon fell from 508 days to close, to 35 days and productivity increased by a factor of 2.8X.
Leaders said that not only did it restore their reputation in the market but personally improved their standing in the company.
Summary of results:
A 44% decrease in touches
A 61% decrease in failure demand calls
A 73% decrease in the payment lifecycle end-to-end
A 10% decrease in documents received
Equating to FTE reduction of 30%
WHY BACKLOGS RESIST THE USUAL FIXES
A claims backlog is a wicked problem causing customer effort — so we built our firm to solve it.
Why clients trust us with complex claims problems
We bring around 80 years of combined experience, with most of our work grounded in casework and claims systems. That experience is reinforced by specialist capability in Theory of Constraints, Lean, and the Vanguard Method — approaches built for diagnosing constraint, waste, failure demand, and low effort redesign opportunities in complex service systems.
why do we provide this free call?
We aim to make every call genuinely valuable, which is why we only offer 8-10 per month
Claims teams are under pressure from service expectations, rising costs and increasing regulatory demands, so we use this call to help leaders get clearer on where the real operational issues sit and help implement a low effort way of working. It’s our way of giving something useful back to the market, while also being open that some conversations may lead to future client work where there’s a strong fit.
“You don’t have a people problem or a software problem — you have a constraint problem. Find the one weakest link, and customer loyalty starts to improve along with falling backlogs, reduced end-to-end time and lower cost to serve.”
THE descartes approach
Goal → Constraint → Problem → Conflict → Innovation → Experiment
IS THIS RIGHT FOR YOU?
Who the session is — and isn’t — built for
a strong fit if...
You run claims or administration operations with a large or growing backlog and you want to improve your loyalty scores
You’re breaching SLAs, watching cost-to-serve climb, or losing clients to delays
Adding headcount and overtime hasn’t solved it — or isn’t sustainable
You can give it your full attention for 30 minutes
You’re ready to change how the work flows, not just work harder
not a fit (yet) if...
You don’t actually have a backlog or throughput problem
You’re looking for general ideas on Theory of Constraints and Systems Thinking
The people who can authorise change can’t attend
There’s no appetite to change process, priorities or how work is sequenced
How to get started in three steps
Book the Low Effort Breakdown Call
Choose a slot in the calendar that best suits you.
Add it to your calendar
Look out for your confirmation email and add it to your calendar.
Come ready with a notepad
Remember to be in a quiet place and bring a notepad with you.
STEP 1 – complete the short form
Let's see if we can help you break your backlog, reduce your end-to-end times and give you a plan for change at zero cost.
Can you give us a little background about you and your operation before we meet.
A rapid diagnostic
Our exact method for claims transformation
A plan you can use today
FAQS
Before you book
Is the Low Effort breakdown call really free?
Yes. It is a practical working conversation with no fee and no obligation to proceed. We’ll help you clarify where the pressure is coming from, what may be restricting flow and what to investigate first.
What do I need to prepare before the session?
There is no formal preparation required. It helps to have a rough understanding of your backlog size, whether it is rising or falling, your current end-to-end times and what you have already tried. You do not need to provide sensitive customer, claimant or pension-member information.
Come ready with a notepad… trust us, you'll want to take notes.
What if we've already tried adding people, technology or process improvements?
That is common. Most backlog initiatives focus on increasing activity across the entire operation.
Our approach looks for the one constraint restricting the flow of work through the system. Finding and addressing that weakest link can reveal why previous changes failed to produce a lasting improvement—and what needs to change next.
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Registered in Scotland under company number SC787331.
Registered office: The Old Station Cowdenburn, Lamancha, West Linton, Borders, Scotland, EH46 7BD.
Descartes Consulting Limited and service providers, including Calendly, process information needed to manage appointments. Do not submit sensitive, financial, medical, pension or other confidential information through booking forms. All content is for general business and educational purposes only and is not legal, financial, pension, tax, actuarial or other regulated advice. Results are not guaranteed, and viewing, booking or contacting us does not create a consulting relationship. Where disclosed, content may be sponsored or contain affiliate links, and we may receive payment, benefits or commission at no extra cost to you. This does not guarantee suitability, and views expressed remain our own. Case studies are illustrative, relate to specific circumstances and do not guarantee similar results. Figures should be read with the stated methodology, period, baseline, conditions and verification status and may not be independently audited.