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.
Low-effort claims that build loyalty and cost less to run.
Want to create more customer loyalty? Start by discovering how much effort your operation creates today.
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, a score out of 100, and a reading on each of the five levers behind it — so you can see which one to fix first.
Then book your free Low Effort Breakdown Call with the result in front of you — or don’t. The score is yours either way.
What leaders say about working with Descartes Consulting
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 world's largest insurers knew loyalty was
the thing that they needed.
Renewals, retention, cost to serve—all of it sat 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 into 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.
508 ➜ 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.
“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 we help and who we don't
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
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
A few things you may be wondering
Do I need to book a call?
No. Choose a personal score review, request the Low Effort Pack or book a call. You remain in control.
What happens when Stuart reviews my score?
Stuart will email you his interpretation and a clear plan for where to go next—usually within two working days.
Is everything free?
Yes. All three options are complimentary, with no obligation to proceed.
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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.