Patons Insurance has appointed a long-serving colleague to a new role as it continues to expand its insurance offering.
Under industry veteran Steve Milner, who was appointed as commercial manager in August last year, Patons has been expanding and developing products, including fleet insurance, which recently saw regional the company’s renewals manager Emma Plumbley make the switch to become fleet account manager.
Emma has worked for Patons since 2013 and is enjoying her new challenge.
She said: “I really enjoyed renewals and feel it is a real achievement to have taken it from where I started, to where it is today.
“But as much as I enjoyed managing the team, I was missing the interaction with customers and fancied a new challenge, so when the opportunity to manage fleet accounts came up, it was too good to miss.
“It is also progression for me because this is a new area of the business for me and it felt like a good fit.”
For Emma and the fleet team, having someone with Steve’s experience makes all the difference.
She said: “With his knowledge and experience, you can ask him anything and he is also great at motivating and leading people and it’s exciting to work with him.
“Change is scary and having worked my way up in renewals, I feel I have to prove myself again and Steve is helping me do that. I completed my first sale at the end of my first week and it was fantastic to end it on a high.”
Like many members of the Patons family, Emma loves what she does.
She said: “I love working in insurance. Someone asked me the other day about my hobbies and interests, and I had to say ‘insurance’. I enjoy everything about it and can’t imagine working anywhere else.”
Steve, who had been operations manager at Gallagher for almost four years, following 14 years at Bollington Insurance Broker, is pleased to be growing the commercial team which currently stands at 18.
He said: “I’m delighted to have Emma on board. She has a wealth of experience running renewals and a great addition to the team because it helps us reach those fields and also gives us the opportunity to focus on niche products such as commercial property related to their fleet.
“It’s been a good 10 months, with a few records among them, which means we can recruit more people to help grow the business further.
“The size of the company makes it much more agile than larger firms and you can make decisions and act much quicker.
“A lot of the customers tell the guys they like dealing with us because it is ‘slicker and quicker’ and they also prefer to be able to speak to the same person about their policy and build a relationship with them, rather than dealing with someone different every time.”
Steve welcomed the expansion which has seen Patons increase its insurance offering.
He said: “In insurance terms, fleet has always meant taxis, but being able to expand our products means we can cover all commercial vehicles from trades to hauliers and couriers.”
