Claim professionals–like most business people–are drowning in a tsunami of e-mail. They get e-mail from agents, brokers, co-workers, underwriters, defense attorneys, policyholders, and vendors. Staying on top of e-mail without becoming its slave is a key skill for professional survival and productivity. Whether you are a new claim person or a home office claim executive, it's all you can do to keep your head above water and not drown in a sea of electronic correspondence. To tame the e-mail beast, implement the following nine steps:
1. Liberally use the "DELETE" key! Do you need to do anything in response to the e-mail? Is it actionable? Does it contain a task you must delegate to someone else? If the answer to these questions is "no," hit DEL. Were you copied in just as a "CYA" gesture? Press DEL. Put your e-mail inbox on Slim-Fast by adopting the maxim, "When in doubt, delete it out."
2. Observe the three D's–do, delegate, or ditch. For each e-mail you receive, decide quickly whether to do it, delegate it, or discard it. Let's look at each in turn.
- Do. Does the e-mail include an action item — a request for you to do something? Issue the settlement check. Mail out a release or medical authorization form. Call the underwriter to clarify a coverage endorsement. Contact the agent to answer a question about a reserve. Reply to a request for conference call, or meeting dates to discuss reserves. If the e-mail includes something you need to do, drag it over in Outlook and make it a task. Assign a due date. Discard the e-mail.
- Delegate. Maybe the e-mail includes a task, but you are not the person who should be doing it. If so, forward or assign the task to someone else. If the task can be done competently by someone at a lower pay grade, delegate it. This is not "dumping." Call it . . . uh, employee development! Quick-hit requests for claim information, file status updates, loss runs, numbers, etc., lend themselves well to this. Forward the e-mail request to CSR's or assistants. Have them handle it. Ask them to cc you on the reply and/or e-mail you when the task is done. Additionally, create a file titled "WAITING FOR" and drag a copy of your e-mail delegation request over to this or drag it over into TASKS and assign a date for follow-up.
- Ditch. If the e-mail contains no next action for you and nothing you need to delegate, then delete it.
3. Use SPAM blockers and other features which automatically delete junk. If you're like me, about 15 percent of the day's e-mail touts cures for pattern baldness or male "virility" enhancements. (Are they trying to tell me something?) Or a Nigerian diplomat wants to wire transfer $15 million to me if only I will give him my banking information. (This is not part of my retirement plan.) Solution: Install spam filter software. Tag each piece of junk e-mail so that it will divert straight to the electronic trash bin next time you're pinged.
4. Work from "zero base." This means that at the end of each work day, you leave with zero e-mails in your in-box. Fantasy? Maybe not! Where are you now? If your e-mail in-box fills up more than one computer screen, this is a sign you need help in managing e-mail. Keeping the in-box empty is like trying to bail out the ocean with a bucket, but you will feel so much better seeing the blank space. Trust me – it's liberating!
5. Use your auto-response to boost productivity. When you are out of the office due to meetings, claim work, other business travel, or vacation, turn on your "Out of Office" message. Include the following information: when you will return and the name, phone extension, and e-mail address of your backup. Your backup should be able to help field calls or questions in your absence, lightening your load when you return to the office. The more such items that get knocked out this way while you are gone, the clearer the launch pad you have for quick take-off when you return to the office
6. Turn off the chimes. Many adjusters set up their Outlook or e-mail program to emit a sound or chime when new e-mails arrive. This is distracting. It heightens the temptation to drop everything to check the e-mail. When you check on it, you get engrossed in it. Maybe you start composing a reply and, before you know it, you are completely derailed from what you wanted to accomplish today. Solution: turn off the chime or noise that alerts you to an e-mail's arrival! Western civilization will not grind to a halt because you fail to respond to an e-mail in two minutes.
7. Only check e-mail at certain times of day. Adjusters are tempted to drop everything when they get a new e-mail. (They are not alone, so we are not picking on them.) This makes for an interruption-plagued work day. Discipline yourself to block out specific times of day to check e-mail and to handle it. Say, 10:00 AM and 3:30 PM. Exit out of Outlook or whatever e-mail manager you use so that you won't be distracted. Chances are, the e-mail can wait. Reserve specific time blocks during the day to focus on e-mail and do nothing else during that time.
8. Use the SUBJECT caption wisely. When sending e-mail, flag your message with labels such as reply requested, urgent, action requested, FYI, humor, etc. This helps receivers triage your e-mail better and gets to the point. This is much better than receiving an e-mail with the caption, Re: Re: Re: Re: Coach your staff and service vendors–law firms, rehab vendors, etc.–to improve captions to help you triage your incoming e-mail more efficiently. This saves you time and makes their written work products much more user-friendly.
9. Switch media–pick up the damn phone! There is a time to save time and another time to throw away the stopwatch. Know when e-mail is not the best way to communicate. Sensitive or touchy discussions or areas of disagreement have no place being addressed in e-mail. E-mail has the virtue of time-efficiency. It has the drawback, though, of brusqueness and the inability to convey tone, nuance, and mood. Misunderstandings and antagonisms can quickly ignite over e-mail. Have the good sense to know when it's time to pick up the phone or walk down the office corridor to say, "Can we talk?"
Love it or hate it, e-mail is here to stay as a constant feature of claim professionals' lives. Read and heed these tips to boost your productivity and tame the e-mail beast!
Kevin Quinley CPCU is an insurance executive and business writer. He is an expert, speaker, and trainer on claim productivity and the author of Time Management for Claim Professionals (www.nuco.com). You can reach him at kquinley@cox.net.
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