I post late as now sleep late- just hung it up after 44++ yrs in claims – all comments valid – if carriers could put robots at the desks they would – as it is, they have assidulously tried to ‘clericalize’ the claims function ever since I came in when, by the way, women were not allowed to even handle claims, let alone run departments. Nothing against the gals here as they are more than able – point is no one works the streets for 20 plus years anymore before sitting down at a desk – so – the people part of claims gets short shrift and the ‘process’ part (all forms filled in? all pieces of paper in place? all questions answers, documented and vouchsafed?….sic transit gloria
There are two main reasons why the claim handling has been delayed as time go by. Most of carriers are hiring low wage inexperience adjusters to cut their expenses and the body shops are taking longer repairing the vehicles due to work overflow. Some of those adjusters just don’t have any basic commonsense. For example, I wouldn’t call insured at home during the daytime and leave message for the statement when most of people are not home. Why not calling at insured’s cell phone? Also, when insured returns call, it’s impossible to reach the adjuster unless agent get involve after insured file complaint, then, it will delay another 2 to 4 days. Adjusters should always follow up with messages or next procedures rather than keep waiting.
Hello.
Just adding my 2 cents..
You other folks are correct that the insureds/claimants need to contact their carriers first and not the agents.
Once you get past this issue, you then move onto the issue of insufficient claim staffing and, in some cases, out of date systems which tends to delay the entire process and lead to many of the reported negative consequences.
Also, the insureds sometimes seem to expect the carrier to do absolutely everything to fix their particular claim but often times this an unfair position which leads to reported negative consequences as well.
So..All of have things that we can work on getting better at so we’ll just continue to do our best.
At least that’s what insurers advertise on the Teevee. Contrary to that, we tell our clients who call a claim into my agency that they need to be prepared to discuss their claim with our claims department, and that includes a list of questions they may have regarding their claim, who they might want to use for restoration or repairs, and any other questions they may have. In other words, be prepared to start the process. At three days we call the claimant to make sure they are on track. At ten days we call again to see if everything is OK. At 30 days we send a followup questionnaire from my agency with a tearoff reply regarding claims satisfaction. Not surprisingly we get an almost 100% positive response to the claims process. On difficult claims I go out and meet the insureds and claim rep to provide positive support to BOTH. I cheat a little by making sure the claim rep feels respected so I can develop a long term relationship with him. Then when something really tough comes up I have an ally who can drop everything to help my client. If all this sounds familiar it should – it’s what agents used to do for their clients and respective insurance organizations. Do they teach this to new agents? I really don’t know. Who has the lowest lapse/can in my district? Well who do you think?
Gill fin, you are what an agent used to be before greed and corporate takeovers ruined life. I am sitting here thinking that my parents State Farm agent was like that and I am guessing you are an about to retire State Farm agent. You explained how it used to be and how it should be. As corporations grew and became ever more powerful and greedy they lost sight of what made them truly successful. Look at State Farm today. It is a shell of its former self because it lost sight of its moral obligation to its customers-as have all the insurance companies. It is better for the bottom line financially if they forego proper training and just make new hires instead of teaching the proper way to run a business. I congratulate you, Gill Fin, for keeping your morals high and doing whats right, not whats expedient.
I do what I do because I don’t know any other way to do what I do. But if I only wanted to maximize profits I would still do the same thing. Quality is where the money is. Service is where the money is.
Separating yourself from the also-rans is where the money is. I have been encouraged to go with the flow on every cockamamee idea thats come down the pike for fifteen years. Mass mailings, cold calls, auto shows, street fairs, mutual funds, banking, variable products blah blah blah. None of those things is near as important as answering the phone with a smile in your voice during business hours. Its not popular to know much about property and casualty insurance these days, even thought 95% of my paycheck comes from property and casualty insurance. If 95% of my paycheck comes from P & C, shouldn’t I allocate most of my time to that aspect of agency? That includes claims. How often do we discover that a client is unhappy due to some preventable matter that could be resolved with cheerful cooperation and better communication. Lastly, I don’t always tell my clients what they want to hear. But if they know I care enough to take the time to explain the contract then we rarely lose the client. Again, the money for all of us is in the quality of how we go about OUR business. Its ours anyway until we give it away by providing lousy service.
After 39 years in the insurance business, I feel qualified to state, as I have before,the insurance business is crooked. It wasn’t always this way;but,it is now.
these people are a menace. I had a risk that had a $20,000 contents claim, sprinkler leakage. Insured, thinking that insurance companies’ main objective is to rip people off, went to a public adjuster.
PA put the claim in at $81,000. Claim dragged on..and on..and on…Insured frantically called his broker…broker could do nothing…insured frantically called the wholesaler, your truly….my hands were tied. It took about a year to settle the claim due to the shenanigans of the public adjuster. I think it ended up being settled for $25,000.
As an agent I can wholeheartedly agree that customers want and expect to be treated with some consistency and timeliness. Once in awhile though you have a tug and pull between what a shop wants to repair and what the adjuster believes needs done to make the car whole again. That often is the issue and perhaps insurers need to communicate that better. http://www.phoenix-life-insurance.com
Boy, did you make a direct hit on what is wrong with adjusting today. Your blog sounded like it came right out of a company manual, without emotion, thought, or understanding. We are computer driven but this is going too far. Give a little personal thought to your blogs and contribute YOUR thoughts, not the writings of emotionless automatons who have no feelings except for their glee when they see how much money they made last year.
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I post late as now sleep late- just hung it up after 44++ yrs in claims – all comments valid – if carriers could put robots at the desks they would – as it is, they have assidulously tried to ‘clericalize’ the claims function ever since I came in when, by the way, women were not allowed to even handle claims, let alone run departments. Nothing against the gals here as they are more than able – point is no one works the streets for 20 plus years anymore before sitting down at a desk – so – the people part of claims gets short shrift and the ‘process’ part (all forms filled in? all pieces of paper in place? all questions answers, documented and vouchsafed?….sic transit gloria
There are two main reasons why the claim handling has been delayed as time go by. Most of carriers are hiring low wage inexperience adjusters to cut their expenses and the body shops are taking longer repairing the vehicles due to work overflow. Some of those adjusters just don’t have any basic commonsense. For example, I wouldn’t call insured at home during the daytime and leave message for the statement when most of people are not home. Why not calling at insured’s cell phone? Also, when insured returns call, it’s impossible to reach the adjuster unless agent get involve after insured file complaint, then, it will delay another 2 to 4 days. Adjusters should always follow up with messages or next procedures rather than keep waiting.
Hello.
Just adding my 2 cents..
You other folks are correct that the insureds/claimants need to contact their carriers first and not the agents.
Once you get past this issue, you then move onto the issue of insufficient claim staffing and, in some cases, out of date systems which tends to delay the entire process and lead to many of the reported negative consequences.
Also, the insureds sometimes seem to expect the carrier to do absolutely everything to fix their particular claim but often times this an unfair position which leads to reported negative consequences as well.
So..All of have things that we can work on getting better at so we’ll just continue to do our best.
Happy Holidays!
At least that’s what insurers advertise on the Teevee. Contrary to that, we tell our clients who call a claim into my agency that they need to be prepared to discuss their claim with our claims department, and that includes a list of questions they may have regarding their claim, who they might want to use for restoration or repairs, and any other questions they may have. In other words, be prepared to start the process. At three days we call the claimant to make sure they are on track. At ten days we call again to see if everything is OK. At 30 days we send a followup questionnaire from my agency with a tearoff reply regarding claims satisfaction. Not surprisingly we get an almost 100% positive response to the claims process. On difficult claims I go out and meet the insureds and claim rep to provide positive support to BOTH. I cheat a little by making sure the claim rep feels respected so I can develop a long term relationship with him. Then when something really tough comes up I have an ally who can drop everything to help my client. If all this sounds familiar it should – it’s what agents used to do for their clients and respective insurance organizations. Do they teach this to new agents? I really don’t know. Who has the lowest lapse/can in my district? Well who do you think?
Gill fin, you are what an agent used to be before greed and corporate takeovers ruined life. I am sitting here thinking that my parents State Farm agent was like that and I am guessing you are an about to retire State Farm agent. You explained how it used to be and how it should be. As corporations grew and became ever more powerful and greedy they lost sight of what made them truly successful. Look at State Farm today. It is a shell of its former self because it lost sight of its moral obligation to its customers-as have all the insurance companies. It is better for the bottom line financially if they forego proper training and just make new hires instead of teaching the proper way to run a business. I congratulate you, Gill Fin, for keeping your morals high and doing whats right, not whats expedient.
I do what I do because I don’t know any other way to do what I do. But if I only wanted to maximize profits I would still do the same thing. Quality is where the money is. Service is where the money is.
Separating yourself from the also-rans is where the money is. I have been encouraged to go with the flow on every cockamamee idea thats come down the pike for fifteen years. Mass mailings, cold calls, auto shows, street fairs, mutual funds, banking, variable products blah blah blah. None of those things is near as important as answering the phone with a smile in your voice during business hours. Its not popular to know much about property and casualty insurance these days, even thought 95% of my paycheck comes from property and casualty insurance. If 95% of my paycheck comes from P & C, shouldn’t I allocate most of my time to that aspect of agency? That includes claims. How often do we discover that a client is unhappy due to some preventable matter that could be resolved with cheerful cooperation and better communication. Lastly, I don’t always tell my clients what they want to hear. But if they know I care enough to take the time to explain the contract then we rarely lose the client. Again, the money for all of us is in the quality of how we go about OUR business. Its ours anyway until we give it away by providing lousy service.
After 39 years in the insurance business, I feel qualified to state, as I have before,the insurance business is crooked. It wasn’t always this way;but,it is now.
these people are a menace. I had a risk that had a $20,000 contents claim, sprinkler leakage. Insured, thinking that insurance companies’ main objective is to rip people off, went to a public adjuster.
PA put the claim in at $81,000. Claim dragged on..and on..and on…Insured frantically called his broker…broker could do nothing…insured frantically called the wholesaler, your truly….my hands were tied. It took about a year to settle the claim due to the shenanigans of the public adjuster. I think it ended up being settled for $25,000.
As an agent I can wholeheartedly agree that customers want and expect to be treated with some consistency and timeliness. Once in awhile though you have a tug and pull between what a shop wants to repair and what the adjuster believes needs done to make the car whole again. That often is the issue and perhaps insurers need to communicate that better. http://www.phoenix-life-insurance.com
Boy, did you make a direct hit on what is wrong with adjusting today. Your blog sounded like it came right out of a company manual, without emotion, thought, or understanding. We are computer driven but this is going too far. Give a little personal thought to your blogs and contribute YOUR thoughts, not the writings of emotionless automatons who have no feelings except for their glee when they see how much money they made last year.