Fair Way Kōrero - August 2024
Ākuhata / August 2024
Nau mai haere mai, welcome to the latest edition of our ACC services Kōrero.
Hard to believe that we are already beyond the halfway point for 2024! The months that have passed since our last edition have been very busy and our team are proud to have assisted so many Kiwis through to a resolution of their ACC dispute.
People remain at the heart of everything we do and our commitment to providing the best customer experience is as strong as ever. With this in mind, we were delighted to provide our amazing Resolution Coordinators the recent opportunity to attend the “World Class Customer Service” course delivered by Dale Carnegie, to further develop in this area. The team have shared some of their reflections from this below.
It has also been our privilege to welcome a number of new Resolution Practitioners to the team, some of whom you may already have worked with on your reviews or conciliations. Read on for more info on our new team members.
There has been a lot of work going on behind the scenes preparing for some exciting additions to our service that kicked off on 1 July. We have been working with ACC to expand the scope of what we can offer through Alternative Dispute Resolution, including early resolution through mediation before a review is lodged. We have also gone live with a brand new dispute resolution service at Fair Way for the Natural Hazards Commission Toka Tū Ake, that many of our ACC practitioners will be assisting with.
We hope that you enjoy hearing about what’s been going on at Fair Way and please get in touch if you have any feedback, comments or suggestions.
Ngā mihi
Blair Wadams and Genessa Tabak
Operations Managers - ACC Services
Welcome back Seini
We recently welcomed back from parental leave our wonderful Resolution Coordinator Seini Talakai, whose baby girl Adrienne joined the Fair Way whānau late last year. The littlest member of the team has visited our Auckland Office on a few occasions and is very popular!
ADR
At Fair Way we’re proud to be able to offer two pathways through the ACC dispute process - a formal review of the decision or by seeking a resolution through Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). Our highly skilled mediators and conciliators take pride in working collaboratively with parties to reach an agreed solution in 79% of cases. What’s more, 86.2% of our customers report feeling satisfied with their experience with the ADR process.
We are therefore very excited to be increasing our offering in this area, using ADR to help resolve a greater number of ACC disputes. In recent years we have offered conciliation as an excellent way to get matters resolved without having to proceed to a formal hearing and wait for a decision to be issued. In addition to this, we are now able to assist with early resolution in cases where a review has not already been lodged. This approach can be helpful in a variety of situations, particularly when there needs to be a focus on restoring communication and relationships so that both sides can feel heard and a jointly acceptable path forward can be established. Mediation can also be effective post-review for those whose relationship with ACC is ongoing and may need assistance getting back on the same page.
If you think mediation or conciliation may be the best path forward in your cases, you are welcome to get in touch with us to get things started.
Customer feedback
“The gentleman holding the review was fair and both sides got an even time to talk and challenge each other.”
“The organisation and setting up the Zoom case conference from your office personnel was excellent as I had never used a Zoom communication previously (so very patient, helpful, right up until the Hearing started).”
“The mediator who ran the mediation was brilliant. She was fair open and transparent. I brought a professional witness who was given ample time and respect.”
“Your Reviewer took the time to allow me to consider the evidence provided and to get a full grasp of the situation.”
“Fair Way Reviewers are always knowledgeable & listen carefully to the claimant experience & arguments.”
“The meeting was well organised I had an opportunity to speak and I was satisfied with how things went.”
“The reviewer explained the process well and gave my client an opportunity to explain the event and injury details. The reviewer conducted the hearing in an empathic and professional manner.”
“Each team member I dealt with was great. I appreciate the time that was given to me.”
A growing team
With high demand for our services and to ensure exceptional timely customer experience we have a few more hands on deck in the team.
A unique set of skills are required to be a great ACC reviewer and we were very lucky to have some incredible people reach out to us expressing their desire to come onboard, including some familiar faces making a return to Fair Way!
Firstly, we’d like to extend a very warm welcome to Hannes Strydom, who commenced working fulltime with us in July.
“I am very much looking forward to (again) joining the Fair Way whānau. In the past I have worked for Fair Way for almost 10 years working in various roles including as a Resolution Practitioner and in management roles as part of the Service Delivery team. I recently started working as a contractor with Fair Way and found the ACC review process to be much more customer focused since I last worked as a Resolution Practitioner - this motivated me to express interest to join the team in a full-time capacity.”
We are also grateful to have Louise Taylor from Fair Way’s Commercial team now providing her assistance and expertise with ACC reviews.
“My name is Louise Taylor and I joined the Commercial team in Fair Way in March of this year. Prior to that I had been teaching and practicing law for more than 30 years with a particular interest in medico-legal matters. My practice included clients in dispute with their insurer or with ACC as well as a large number of survivors of abuse in care. While I will continue to work predominantly in the Commercial team, I am grateful for the opportunity to work with the ACC team as well and I look forward to learning and growing with you.”
Finally, we have a number of new additions to our pool of contractors:
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Christina Billing
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Dan Dwyer
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Maria Bagnall
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Monica Robbers
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Raewyn Anderson
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Sandhya Reddy
Customer service training
Customer service is something we believe is done exceptionally well at Fair Way and providing the best customer experience is one of our core goals in all that we do. While the feedback we receive from our customers in this area is very positive, there is always the opportunity to learn, reflect and think about ways we can continue to build on the great foundations that we already have in place.
Recently our team of Resolution Coordinators had the opportunity to come together in Auckland to attend the “World Class Customer Service” course delivered by Dale Carnegie. Not only was this a great opportunity for our team members from Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch to connect, it was also a chance to learn alongside colleagues from Fair Way’s Family and Commercial services teams, both with their own subtly different approaches to wowing our customers. We asked our team to share some of their highlights below:
“The training has helped me with how I listen, approach, and deliver customer service.”
“As a person who doesn’t like to offend people, it was great to learn how to use a filter to communicate effectively with internal and external clients.”
“I enjoyed learning about interacting with people especially different personality types, improving communication with others and how to better manage and prioritise our time.”
“The highlights for me are relationships between internal and external. Building a foundation that defines Trust, Credibility and Respect. Be approachable, clear communication and listen to what they say.”
“The training offered some new perspectives in how you can approach working at any given company. How you and your colleagues may approach the work day differently, how you may have more specilaisation in one field than a colleague, who may have more expertise in another, and how you can help improve each others work areas by having frequent discussions.”