Blog - November 2025

When I was in the police, nobody ever rang 999 and said:

“Hi, I’ve had an accident… any chance we can schedule this for between 10 and 11 tomorrow so it fits your office hours?”

Real life doesn’t work like that.
Incidents happen:

• On the motorway hard shoulder in the rain
• In a supermarket car park at 11:47pm
• Halfway through a kid’s football match

Yet, in insurance, we’ve traditionally told people:
“Thanks for your patience. Please call back during business hours and have your policy number, inside leg measurement and blood type ready.”

At Elevate Specialty, we decided that’s ridiculous.

As a detective, I once took a witness statement on the bonnet of a car, in the dark, using a torch between my teeth, because that’s where the person was and that’s when they needed help.

Fast forward a few years, and I found myself in insurance looking at a claims process that basically said:

“Please go home, log into a desktop you don’t have, print out a form, scan it back, and then sit by the phone for 3–5 working days.”
 

We’ve built a world where you can order a taxi with your thumb…
…but some people still need a desktop computer and 40 minutes of quiet to report a claim.

That’s not just old-fashioned – it’s unnecessary friction at the exact moment they’re already stressed.

So at Elevate Specialty, we built claims around how people actually live now.

For me, “on-demand claims” means things like:

• You can start a claim at 2am in your pyjamas after something’s gone wrong – no phone queue, no “we’re now closed”.
• You can pause halfway through because the online grocery shop has arrived, the kids are shouting, or the dog’s just stolen your dinner. Pick it back up later – no punishment, no reset.
• You can upload photos and docs straight from your mobile, instead of emailing yourself pictures, renaming files and wondering where “IMG_7392_final_FINAL (2).jpg” has gone.
   

And yes, you get instant confirmation that we’ve received your claim.
Not the “Did that even send?” feeling.

In my old job, people wanted to know: “Are the police actually coming?”
In insurance, they just want to know: “Has anyone actually got this?”

Same anxiety. Easy to fix.

Most people don’t think in “devices”, they think in moments.

You might:

• Start a claim on your phone on the train or on the bus
• Add extra detail on your laptop when you’re back at work
• Check the status later on your tablet on the sofa
   

At Elevate Specialty, we’ve built the claims journey so it follows you, not your device:

• No retyping the same info three times
• No restarting forms because you switched from mobile to desktop
• Everything is saved and synced across devices as you go
   

In detective terms: it’s like finally having all the evidence in one case file, not scattered across five notebooks and a Post-it stuck to your mug.

Yes, it feels better for the customer. But it also:

• Cuts down calls where people are just chasing updates
• Improves data quality because it’s captured there and then
• Turns one of the worst days of someone’s year into something… tolerable. Maybe even reassuring.
   

In policing, we used to say:

“People don’t remember everything you did, but they remember exactly how you made them feel.”

Claims are the same.
Customers remember whether we made their life easier or harder when it really mattered.

The industry is at a crossroads.

We can keep pretending people will happily wrestle with outdated systems when they need help the most.

Or we can accept that loyalty is built in the claim, not in the brochure.

At Elevate Specialty, we’ve chosen to build a claims experience that:

• Is always on
• Works on whatever device you’re holding
• Bends around your life, not our processes
   

From 999 calls to claims oversight, I’ve spent my career dealing with people on bad days.

The least we can do is not make those days harder.

— Al Johnson
Claims Oversight Manager, Elevate Specialty
(Recovering police detective, allergic to unnecessary friction)

About Elevate Specialty

Elevate Specialty is a next-generation, full-stack MGA making insurance work—by design. Using technology, granular data, and relentless customer focus, Elevate creates native insurance products that people actually use and value.
More at: elevatespecialty.com