With a collective experience of over seventy years working for Carnival UK (astonishing considering they’ve all just turned 21) we thought we’d introduce you to the people who handle our Guests’ claims and try to make sure their holiday happiness is affected as little as possible. Here’s explained Nicky Green, Claims Manager to explain more…
So what does the day-to-day look like for the Claims Team?
We handle a really mixed bag of passenger illness, injury and contractual claims as well as ship’s company cases, mediations, arbitrations and court claims and attendances” .
“Although we’re only a small team of five, Claims are responsible for all UK passenger and ship’s company cases including Princess, Holland America and Seabourn claims. The cases can include anything from the common slips on deck and norovirus claims, all the way through to the slightly more bizarre cases like animal bites on shore excursions, or the claim we received for loss of enjoyment of holiday because the sea was too loud (no compensation was awarded)!”
Another important element of our role is in preventing claims of the future. This means we’re always on the lookout for trends and accident hot spots and we collaborate with the fleet and our Safety department in providing constructive feedback on accident investigation.
But is it difficult dealing with, what is often, the negative side of our business?
Whilst it would be easy to think we only see the negative side of cruising, there are definitely a lot of positive sides to it too! Our mantra is ‘ loyalty though resolution.’ This means that, wherever possible, we will always try and ensure a claim is resolved amicably with the Guest so that we restore their faith in the business and they don’t feel deterred from cruising with us again.
As an example, our Claims Executive Matt recently handled a claim in which a Guest sustained a fractured humerus after a fall caused by a defective door. Matt carried out a comprehensive review of the case which resulted in the Guest taking the decision not to instruct solicitors to represent her; the matter was eventually settled for future cruise credit and the Guest went on to book two further cruises with us for next year as well as providing some really lovely feedback about Matt and the way in which her claim had been handled.
There will always be challenges but overcoming them and receiving positive feedback from our Guests, in what are often very sensitive situations, makes our role really rewarding and Claims a great team to be a part of…here’s to another seventy years!