Insurance Claims: How Tryg Made Repair the Default Choice
Can an insurance company make repair the default choice across the entire supply chain?
Søren Frederiksen from Tryg explains how a repair-first claims policy was built and scaled across Denmark, starting from a market where nine out of ten damaged car bumpers were replaced instead of repaired.
What you’ll hear in this episode:
- Why repair in insurance claims is rarely more expensive than replacement, and often reduces cost, CO2 emissions, and improves customer satisfaction at the same time.
- How cross-country benchmarking data created the proof of concept that got workshops and suppliers on board.
- What it took to change an industry default: financial incentives per repaired item, access to training, and continuous follow-up.
You’ll also learn why making repair financially attractive for suppliers, not just environmentally preferable, is what moves adoption in practice.
This is the second episode in the series Enabling Circularity Through Insurance. The series looks at the concrete levers insurance companies hold, from risk assessment and advisory services to product design and claims policies, and how these can enable circularity.ete levers insurance companies hold, from risk assessment and advisory services to product design and claims policies, and how these can enable circularity.
Video Impression
People
Søren Frederiksen, Director, Sustainable Supply Chain at Tryg
https://www.linkedin.com/in/s%C3%B8ren-frederiksen-29647a52/
Patrick Hypscher, Circular Business Strategist, PaaS Expert
https://www.linkedin.com/in/hypscher/
Chapters
00:00 Intro
02:58 Introduction to Tryg
04:06 Repair in the Claims Process
08:02 Benefits of Repair First
12:48 Case Study: Car Bumper Repairs
16:34 Scaling Repairs with Data and Collaboration
19:06 Barriers, Outlook and Beyond Repair
About
Tryg A/S is a Scandinavian insurance company present in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland. The company is the largest provider of general insurance services in the Nordic countries.
Further Links
Know more about Tryg: https://tryg.com/sites/tryg.com/files/2025-01/Annual%20Report%202024%20-%20TRYG%20A_S.pdf
Transcript
[00:00:00] Intro
Søren Frederiksen: Repairing means drastic reduction in CO2 emissions, in some cases up to 80% or more.
Jingle: My name is Patrick Hypscher and this is Circularity.fm, the podcast about understanding, building and managing circular business models.
Patrick Hypscher: This is the second episode in our series, Enabling Circularity Through Insurance. Insurance is often seen as a passive player in the economy, but this series explores how insurers can actively drive circular practices. In the last episode, Lena and Michael from Allianz presented how they look at climate risk and its relation to circularity. Today we hear from Søren how Tryg boosted circularity in their operations.
Get the key learnings from this interview on one page and share it with colleagues by signing up for the Circularity.fm newsletter. You can find it at www.circularity.fm.
Before we continue, I have a new offer for you. You’re probably here because you want to learn, and this is for a reason. Circular economy is more than just a topic, it’s a learning journey. That’s why I’m happy that support for the series comes from the Endlich Academy. Endlich Academy is the first and only German language online academy completely focused on circular economy. Do you want to get a first overview about circularity? Then check out the Starter course. Do you want to know more and apply the knowledge in your daily business? Then the Circular Economy Explorer is perfect for you. You are a sustainability manager, consultant or trainer? Then the Circular Economy Pioneer course gives you the comprehensive know-how you need to succeed in your role. And here is the best part. Circularity.fm listeners get 25% off with our code circularityfm25. Visit endlich.co/academy and add circularityfm25 as the discount code. This is circularityfm25 in one word. You’ll find a link to the Endlich Academy in the show notes.
Nearly two decades ago, he joined Tryg. For many years, he worked in the automotive appraisal department before turning to supply chain. He and his team lead the supply chain related sustainability efforts across claims processes, procurement, and partnerships in the Nordics. For three years, he serves as the director of Sustainable Supply Chain. Welcome, Søren.
Søren Frederiksen: Thank you. Thanks, it’s a pleasure being here.
[00:02:58] Introduction to Tryg
Patrick Hypscher: Let’s talk about repair at a larger scale, but before, before we do so, can you give us a short introduction into Tryg?
Søren Frederiksen: Yes, of course I can. Tryg is one of the largest claims insurance companies in the Nordics, with customers in Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. We’ve been in business for almost 300 years and provide peace of mind to customers throughout the Nordic countries. Our primary owner is Tryghedsgruppen, who also owns Trygfonden, which is an independent and non-profit association with the sole purpose of supporting the creation of more security in Denmark. Roughly one in four families in Denmark and one in five families throughout the Nordic countries are customers at Tryg. We have about 7,000 employees who provide Tryghed, which in Scandinavian languages means peace of mind, to a little over 6 million customers and handle roughly 2 million claims every year. We offer all kinds of non-life insurance products to private and commercial customers.
Patrick Hypscher: Awesome. That’s already quite a handprint and footprint.
[00:04:06] Repair in the Claims Process
Patrick Hypscher: When and why did you start to look into the topic of repair?
Søren Frederiksen: Well, I think that smarter solutions, including repairs, has always been in Tryg’s DNA. We tried to find better and smarter solutions to almost every part of our business. But of course, by building strong partnerships throughout our supply chain, we’ve been able to be in front of technology and new ways of repairing and scaling. And that’s helped us being on top of this topic. But of course, the general focus on climate and sustainability over the recent years has increased that interest in repairs as a natural first choice.
Patrick Hypscher: I mean, repair is normally not the thing that it starts with, normally you have your customers to experience some kind of risk damage, and then reach out to you. So can you tell us a bit more how does it start? How does this normal claims process look like?
Søren Frederiksen: Well, I mean, that’s one of the areas where we try to do things a little differently. We try to be first point of contact for our customers when an incident happens. That means that we like to have our customers contact us or our supplier directly, and then we reach out to a supplier. That means that besides being able to provide help where it’s needed, it also enables us to guide the customer to a supplier who has the optimal skills and capacity for that exact task, and find specialists for whatever the customer needs at the moment.
Patrick Hypscher: And then when does repair get relevant? I mean, some things get replaced. Maybe repair is not relevant for all kinds of insurance. When does repair enter the stage?
Søren Frederiksen: Well, throughout our supply chain, our partners and suppliers, they all share our intention to choose repair first whenever it makes sense. And it’s built into contracts and KPIs with a lot of our suppliers. And that makes of course repairs relevant for almost all claim types, except obvious exceptions like stolen bicycles where of course repairs doesn’t make a lot of sense, but in almost any other claim type that’s how we try to prioritize. But of course, customer experience, safety for all parties and a financial perspective is taken into consideration in every decision too.
Patrick Hypscher: You already started to provide an overview when repair makes sense or what areas, so can you elaborate a bit more on that?
Søren Frederiksen: Well, I don’t think there are many exceptions from the perspective of repair first. I think actually whether we are talking physical therapy to avoid a knee operation or we are talking repairing car parts or personal electronic devices, it’s the mindset that whatever can be preserved with a positive result, of course, should be preserved instead of just replacing and buying new stuff. I think that’s the major overall mindset.
Patrick Hypscher: And maybe going also a bit back to the history, is this something that has been part of Tryg or part of the insurance industry ever since? Or is this a new thing?
Søren Frederiksen: At least in the Nordics, it’s always been part of the toolbox. But over the recent years, let’s say 3, 4, 5 years, the focus on repairing and circularity has increased. And I think as a company, we’ve taken lead on that agenda because we think it’s very important to us and to our customers.
[00:08:02] Benefits of Repair First
Patrick Hypscher: And it seems to be obvious what the environmental benefit is, but what is it for you? What is it specifically for Tryg to apply a repair first strategy?
Søren Frederiksen: Well, in general, as a general perspective, repairing of course means preserving the object that was already produced. That means avoiding the climate burden that’s related to producing a new object, and in many cases, transporting that object around the globe too. And that again means drastic reduction in CO2 emissions, in some cases up to 80% or more when you can repair locally instead of buying something new from the other side of the world. But also, of course, the amount of waste related to a claim is usually drastically reduced when repairing instead of replacing. Imagine the amount of avoided materials, energy, and waste if we can preserve the concrete foundation of a damaged building instead of demolishing it. It’s a huge amount every time that’s possible. Of course, waste has a big impact too. And I think the math is actually simple. Simply compare the emissions and waste created related to repairing an object, compare that to the production, transport, and disposal of a car or mobile phone. And nine times out of 10 or even more, the math makes sense in order to repair instead of replacing.
Patrick Hypscher: So it totally makes sense what you’re saying. And as a follow up question on that one, do you then still go deeper and try to quantify this environmental benefit, or do you say, I mean, this is so obvious and it just makes sense. Or do you go deeper and try to collect KPIs there?
Søren Frederiksen: We do quantify the effect on both materials and CO2 reductions in our claims processes, but we do more. We tried to get the 360 degree perspective of the emissions rather than just calculating the reductions. So what we should do is see reduction in average emissions on a certain claim over time rather than just adding reductions on top of each other. Does that make sense?
Patrick Hypscher: Yep.
Søren Frederiksen: So what you look into is actually the average CO2 emissions or material consumption on an average claim type.
Patrick Hypscher: And now you elaborated a bit on the environmental dimension. Of course there’s also the economic benefit of it. How does that look like?
Søren Frederiksen: Well, in some cases, of course, repairs are obviously cheaper than replacing. In other cases, the financial perspective is closer to breakeven. And I think that has to be seen in a larger perspective, whether an isolated case might be less attractive, but over time it makes sense to support the development of more sophisticated repair techniques. And that means even when there’s not a lot of money to be saved, it can make a lot of sense to work with repair techniques instead anyway. To most people, more sustainable solutions or less polluting solutions are related to a higher spend. Just think about yourself buying biodynamic carrots at the grocery store instead of the regular ones, and you’re used to paying twice the price. But when we look at repairs and when we look at insurance claims, that’s rarely the case, that it gets more expensive to think of the environment too. It often goes hand in hand, that if we can do something to reduce climate impact, we also reduce cost a little. And actually we oftenly improve the customer satisfaction too.
Patrick Hypscher: Okay, so that sounds to me that you also have like benefits in mind beyond economic and direct environmental benefits.
Søren Frederiksen: Yes, we do. Because, well, one thing is resilience in a challenged world as it is these days, it makes a lot of sense for us to be, as a society, less reliant on imports and global transport, et cetera. And then of course, supporting local economy and preserving local jobs, instead of buying stuff from around the globe, it makes a lot of sense too because as a financial institution, we realize that our customers make their living locally and it does make sense for us to support their jobs and their workplaces locally too.
[00:12:48] Case Study: Car Bumper Repairs
Patrick Hypscher: I mean, this is amazing. Like in times like these, when we also have conflicts about critical raw materials. I observe a lot that companies tend to optimize their specific situation and their individual customer contracts. And although they are aware of what you just said, the overall resilience, many companies struggle to make that part of the decision making that there is additional social value to circular practices. But for you, it seems to be this, I mean, of course, repair makes sense economically and environmentally in many cases, but even beyond that, you have a systemic view in mind that’s outstanding, so to say, and many companies still struggle to get there.
Yeah, maybe we can get a bit more specific. Can you give an example, a specific initiative where over the last years you changed your approach to the claims process?
Søren Frederiksen: Yes, I definitely can. Well, as an insurance company, we work with a very wide palette of claim types, so it makes sense for us to look where we get the most bang for the buck, simply where we have the highest frequency and the lowest repair rate. And car bumpers are a great example of that. Car bumpers are, as you, I guess, you know, designed to absorb minor dents and scratches, which makes damaged bumpers a very high frequent claim type. But also repairs on car bumpers were, at the moment we started looking into it, almost not existing in Denmark until we as a major player pushed hard to change that culture throughout our supply chain.
Patrick Hypscher: And when was that, and how popular was repair when you started back then?
Søren Frederiksen: Well, we started looking into it and working with bumper repairs a few years ago. But when we did, as an overall perspective, it was not a priority for the industry at all. Only a very few workshops were capable of making plastic and bumper repairs, and roughly nine out of 10 spreads, the damaged bumpers were replaced at that time.
Patrick Hypscher: Okay. Wow. And how common is it today?
Søren Frederiksen: Well, over the last few years we’ve been focusing very much on bringing these car parts back to life, and today repair rates are more than tripled compared to when we started looking into this case. We are talking about 30% repairs now, as in opposition to less than 10% when we started. And also bumper repairs have become an industrial standard across the whole branch today. Meaning that for almost all car workshops, it’s standard that they’re able to do these kind of repairs. That means that in our portfolio alone, tens of thousands of car bumpers are repaired every year with great benefits for the environment.
Patrick Hypscher: What you just said, is this for all the countries you’re active in or is it for Denmark, Sweden, or just to put it in perspective, roughly?
Søren Frederiksen: Sure. The numbers are for Denmark alone. The percentages are large with plastic repairs on cars also in Sweden and Norway. I think that one of the main drivers for the Danish project was actually benchmarking throughout the Nordic countries and the awareness that the percentage of repaired ones was much lower in Denmark than they were in Sweden and Norway.
[00:16:34] Scaling Repairs with Data and Collaboration
Patrick Hypscher: Okay, interesting. What are actually the measures you took to reach that improvement?
Søren Frederiksen: Well, data is king, and being a major player in this area, we had data to support that journey, meaning that we could cover thousands of suppliers, workshops, car brands, geography, et cetera. And that enabled us to create a proof of concept by simply comparing the Danish market to our neighbors and noticing that the repair rates in Sweden and Norway were much higher than they were in Denmark. So we opened dialogue with a lot of the largest workshop chains and went into collaboration with those and tried to find a way to make this also financially sustainable for the workshops to join up with us. That meant that we could use this data to benchmark workshops, car brands, et cetera, and look into obvious potentials. Let’s say that we could see that a certain car brand had a lower repair rate than another car brand, or that the same car brand in one region of the country had a different repair rate than in other regions of the country. We used those data to have a direct dialogue with the people who were supposed to help us getting these repairs through, and they were very positive, especially when they were benchmarked with their colleagues throughout the branch. Then, of course you have to bring the tools to the job. So what we did was team up with some experts who had the training skills and could provide the tools needed to make these repairs and made that knowledge and these contacts available for our partners too. Simply telling the workshops that if you need help to get started with this process, call one of these guys and he’ll get you started. Now, of course, as a financial perspective, and of course, workshops had to make money too, just like the rest of us. So what we did was introduce a financial bonus per repaired item to simply motivate the participating parties to repair more bumpers instead. On top of that, we have a lot of storytelling and relevant medias and a lot of following up with workshops and claim holders, et cetera. One thing is to get the ball rolling, but another is to keep it rolling. So a lot of following up with parties.
[00:19:06] Barriers, Outlook and Beyond Repair
Patrick Hypscher: On the one hand it sounds like pretty comprehensive. And now in hindsight, it sounds also a bit easy, but I’m pretty sure you had some barriers along the way. You mentioned so many activities, so what have been the main barriers and how did you overcome them?
Søren Frederiksen: It’s like so many other tasks, once you’ve got it done, it seems easy. As I guess, you know, culture eats strategy for breakfast. So unfreezing status quo in the automotive aftermarket, that was by far the largest barrier, telling suppliers that we’ve been working with for decades that we wanted them to do something differently. And then there was of course the financial perspective. They, just like everybody else, they have to make money when they go to work every morning. So we had to make it financially attractive too. So, like I said, we introduced a bonus that made a significant motivation for them. And then of course, the last great barrier was overcome by talking, training and tools and providing access to training and enabling the workshops to actually obtain the skills needed.
Patrick Hypscher: I think that that last part is really surprising to me because I feel like these people are already so close to the car and to the other subject, and they’re mostly the experts in dealing with it. So, I normally would have expected that they didn’t need any training, especially from, I mean, of course it’s not your insurance colleagues who gave the training, but some experts. But that surprised me a bit that they needed specific training.
Søren Frederiksen: That’s often the situation when you have some new technology, just think about mobile phone screens that the first people to repair were small workshops in basements who just learned how to use this new technology and how to make these repairs a long time before the larger companies and manufacturers knew how to do this.
Patrick Hypscher: Insurance companies help to mitigate risks, so do circular practices. If you want to build your circular economy knowledge and de-risk your company’s business, check out our partner Endlich Academy. The Starter course gives a first overview. The Explorer course provides helpful knowledge to switch from linear to circular practices. And the Pioneer course provides academic content, 70 case studies and more than 100 infographics. Circularity.fm listeners get a 25% discount with the code circularityfm25. Visit endlich.co/academy and add circularityfm25 as the discount code. This is circularityfm25 in one word. You will find the link to the Endlich Academy in the show notes.
Yeah, great effort, I mean, and great journey. So let’s look ahead, what do you do beyond repair?
Søren Frederiksen: Well, we think that prevention is a big deal because the best claim for all parties is the one that doesn’t happen. So prevention and especially in the buildings area, it’s a big deal. But also mitigation by scoping and applying specialized skills, partial repairs are often possible if you look at it the right way. But also recycling, recycling car parts and materials and the use of refurbished goods is another great potential within our line of business. And then I’d like to mention actually the social aspect too, because we work with our supply chain to try and ensure fair conditions for workers throughout the whole supply chain. So the social aspect is very important for us too. And I mean, we’re a business that sells security and peace of mind to people. So the people aspect is an important part of our sustainability strategy too.
Patrick Hypscher: Definitely. So are there any specific plans for the next two years?
Søren Frederiksen: Well, that’s one of the great things about working with sustainability, that one thing’s for sure, the job isn’t done yet. We’re not done next year either, so we still have a lot of cases and suppliers to look into and a lot of processes to improve. But like I said, buildings, prevention, mitigation, and, of course, adapting to climate changes is very high on our agenda. And then from a very overall perspective, I think we all, through all industries, need to scale and systemize circularity within all industries ranging from cars, over mobile devices, to buildings, et cetera, to really get the snowball rolling. We have to put circularity into system.
Patrick Hypscher: I mean, Søren, this is really amazing how you already brought the change to the world, to the Nordics, and sounds great to see what your plans are. Thanks for sharing your experience.
Søren Frederiksen: You’re most welcome, my pleasure, Patrick.
Patrick Hypscher: This was the second episode in the series, Enabling Circularity Through Insurance. You can find the key learnings from this conversation and an overview of upcoming circularity events in our newsletter. Sign up at www.circularity.fm. In the next episode, we examine the popular narrative of how switching to more circular business practices can de-risk your company’s operations. Stay tuned and all the best in driving a profitable circular economy. And please don’t forget, the most abundant renewable resource is your imagination.
Jingle: My name is Patrick Hypscher and this is Circularity.fm, the podcast about understanding, building and managing circular business models.