Claims As Marketing, Part 1

Saturday, March 30, 2002 | 0

Most insurance companies spend a lot of money on attracting new customers, yet few do much to retain the customer. The claims department is in a unique position to provide valuable customer retention services. When executed properly, the claims department becomes another part of the marketing equation. This next series of articles will review quality claims experiences, and how the claims department can be converted from an operational necessity to a pro-active component of revenue generation.

Industry statistics reflect that twenty-five percent of the people who terminate their relationship with an insurance company after a claim do so because of some disagreement on the amount paid, or a concern of a rate increase. More importantly, seventy-five percent leave because of the way they were treated in the claims process. The work comp claims department is geared to deal with the injured worker, yet the premium is paid by the employer. Wouldn't it make sense to gear the claims department to deal with the employer?

Dealing with the employer doesn't mean ignoring the injured worker. Remember that the biggest asset of ANY company are the people doing the work - the employed work force. In claims we talk about the "triage" in working up a claim and performing an investigation. We also need to think of the triage of customer service in work comp: the claims department, the injured worker, and the policy holder. The interaction between these three is extremely important not only to the successful resolution of a claim, but also in providing a positive impression to the injured worker and the employer.

Another important consequence of great service in the claims department is that in fact the job of the claims person actually is made easier. How is this so?

In our training sessions we are always asked about how to handle angry customers or claimants. This is not the issue. The question should really be, how do we prevent people from getting upset in the first place?

After management talks to staff about the importance of customer service and holding onto customers, after the speeches, and after the question-and-answer session, claims personnel go right back to their jobs to fight the daily battle of too much work and not enough time, wishing they could do a better job, but knowing they can't.

The next series of articles will deal with the specifics of providing the training to ensure quality claims experiences, and ensure customer retention.

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