Page 13 - Shaw Wall of Honor

A great claims experience is what will turn our client into a customer for life.
claims people? Probably not. I’m sure you have marketing reps stopping by your office. They even bring their underwriters from time to time. If you’re one of the lucky few, you have relationships with upper management or even executives at a handful of carriers.
But we rarely (read: never) meet with claims people. Why is that?
We should be meeting with them ALL. THE. TIME. Again, it’s what we’re selling our customers! The only thing we sell is a promise that those people will help out in our clients’ time of need. Sick of that line yet? Tell me I’m wrong and I’ll stop.I’m not talking about meeting with them after the shit hits the proverbial fan; . I’m talking about meeting on a regular basis to strengthen the relationships, . not to solve a problem that already happened. It’s about avoiding problems from popping up in the future.
We should be building strong relationships with the claims people.
Only then will we know their processes in detail. We will also understand their specific time frames associated with these processes. Both can vary drastically from carrier to carrier.
Having this knowledge alone will allow us to better educate our clients about what to expect. We’ll also know if there is a breakdown along the way.
This is where the relationships come back into play. Rather than having to call into the claims call center and dealing with phone trees and hold music and endless frustration, wouldn’t you rather rely upon a strong relationship?
Giving Natalie a call directly at ABC Insurance to find out why a payment hasn’t been made yet; . shooting Dave a text at ZYX Mutual to find out when the field adjuster will be sending the estimate. Even if Natalie or Dave isn’t the adjuster or team leader or manager of the team handling that specific claim, they will find the answers for you. I was one of those guys that agents would call directly, so this is not just a myth.
But John, my carriers don’t offer to bring along claims people.
Ask them to! Demand them to! If they say they can’t for any of the excuses I’ve heard before, especially “we have too many claims; we can’t afford for them to miss the time,” it might be time to look harder at that “partnership.”
If claims personnel don’t have the time to build upon relationships with a so-called partner, that tells me they are too understaffed. And if that’s the case when dealing with you at the agency, how the hell are they going to treat your customers when they’re having the worst day of their life? I don’t want to know the answer to that one.
John, you’re bringing me down the gloom and doom route.
Okay, let’s turn it around and talk tactics so all is not lost. First things first; it’s your customer. You should have a process to intake claims. No, this isn’t a list of your carriers’ links on your website sending them to the “File A Claim” form—and . it’s certainly not passing an 800 number along either.
The first step is for you and your team to offer Claims
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