Claims As Marketing, Part 2

Monday, April 15, 2002 | 0

In our last article we expounded on the virtues of the claims department as an extension of your company's marketing. However, it is clear that many claims persons do not make the connection between providing great customer service and making their jobs easier. Much worse than that, most do not really believe it should be their concern whether a customer stays.

The reason, quite simply, is that no one has ever demonstrated this. Therefore, some conclude that providing quality customer service in claims would take more time, and since there is not have enough time as it is, this aspect gets ignored. Even worse is the erroneous belief that their company wants them to ignore it (right?). The proof that this belief exists: Why else would the company give them so much work and talk to them only about the number of claims closed if customer service was really a concern?

Claims personnel cannot do a better job without changing something specific in what they do in their jobs. The persons designated to perform this training are typically ex-claims adjusters. Guess what - the trainers were likewise never trained on customer retention and work improvement techniques. Thus the vicious cycle that undermines claims continues.

Try this simple experiment. If you are a claims supervisor, choose one adjuster. Tell that person, "Just a little advanced warning. In a few minutes you are going to be getting a call. This call is going to be the single most important claimant you will ever have to talk to. This is very important. In your entire career there will never be a more important call from a claimant that this person. Heads up!"

Watch what happens.

Your examiner is going to pay closer attention to what the claimant is saying. There will be a more empathetic response when the claimant talks about how difficult this process is. Your examiner will make a phone call, even if it is not his job, that might make the claim move along a little easier. The point is that he will do something differently than he does now.

Any change in behavior you see in your examiner is reflective of change you can imagine, and is your opportunity for improvement in your company. What your examiner did for this one person is something they can do for all claimants if they wanted to. But the paradox is that they don't want to. Because, "it would take too much time". The fallacy behind this thinking is that in fact this viewpoint is backwards - failing to provide great service right up front is what creates all of the extra work.

In the next article we will discuss what time management means to great customer service, and why the problem is not how to deal with angry claimants, but why they are angry in the first place.

Author Cyndi Koppany is Vice President in charge of Training for Cambridge International. She can be reached at ckcyndi_koppany@cisgi.com.