Consultant Review

I work as a phone based consultant for Direct Line Group. I am a part of the motor insurance department and take service and amends calls. In my role I primarily help policy holders to make amendments to their policy such as changing vehicle details, address, named drivers. As well as this I answer general questions and queries that they may have and if they need something that I am unable to assist with then I transfer them through to the correct department. Alongside this I am also targeted on selling breakdown and rescue policies to customers that call and also gaining home-lead call backs for the home insurance team to provide new quotes.

Within my role I have heavily developed my customer service skills, especially in terms of listening skills. Customers are generally not experts in insurance so quite often I am required to pick key information out of what a customer is telling me so I can figure out what the customer needs and help them as best I can. I have also gained a massive amount of knowledge of insurance which is something that I previously knew very little about.

The apprenticeship side of my role has been a bit all over the place. The initial setup was very fragmented with very poor communication which eventually meant we didn't start the programme until 2 months into my job role. As a result there was a huge backlog of off the job training that we had to try and remember and log. Since then things seemed to be going smoothly until our trainer turned round told us she had been reassigned to something else and that she was passing us over to another trainer. With no introduction to this new trainer we have been left very much in the dark whilst at the same time they have turned round and changed the entire structure of one file and how it is filled out with minimal instructions and next to no help. So at present not enjoying it very much but hopefully when i do hear from this new trainer at some point... hopefully they will be helpful

Very poorly organised. As outlined in the previous answer the apprenticeship started 2 months late due to poor communication causing a backlog in the off the job work log. Communication has been minimal and somehow our trainer wasn't working on the days that we were provided learning time by our employer so there's always a time delay of up to a week before we can get answers or support.

Employer has been fantastic, doing their very best to communicate with Babingtons regarding our issues and concerns. They have consistently insured that we are given the learning time that we require and always are checking in to make sure that we are okay. Unfortunately our employer can only do so much as they do not know the course content but where ever possible they have been happy to help.

Personally there has been very little support. I assumed that this was because I was not struggling with any of the content and am generally an independent learner who just gets on with things. However I was very surprised to hear that some of the other people in my group were struggling greatly and stressing out over this and weren't receiving any substantial 121 help from trainer. Where they have emailed for help they generally got no real help in the response if their email was even responded to.

A lot of the textbook for foundation of insurance isn't directly relevant to my role as I work specifically in motor insurance. However this big picture approach to insurance has definitely developed my knowledge of principles such as insured interest which has been useful within my role. Also the later chapters do focus on motor insurance and become a lot more relevant.

We had a group event where we remotely got to meet the CEO and ask questions and heard from previous apprentices and people from different levels within the company. There are all sorts of charity opportunities that are emailed out to get involved with. There is also a company social media called yammer where we are encouraged to partake in groups and be a part of the company community. Alot of the usual activities that would be available within an office environment are not possible with homeworking but DLG goes the extra mile to provide what they can.

No

Frankly the professionalism and quality of service is not there. I don't know if my experience is a fair representation of the company as a whole. However I previously did a different qualification with Talent Rise and they were fantastic. Talent Rise were supportive every step of the way, communication was excellent and everything was smooth and easy in spite of it all being remote working and in the height of the lockdowns. Personally I would recommend DLG use Talent Rise for their apprenticeships in future.

If your going to be working with babington's don't wait for them to get in contact at the beginning and make sure you keep a diary of any off the job training you receive in your employment role as backdating that stuff is a nightmare. Make sure to self manage heavily because there is unlikely to me much support for you if your struggling. Or better yet, just don't, if you can take a different service then do.