ORLANDO, FLA.–In today's insurance world, claims adjusters need to keep brokers apprised of the status of claims in addition to their usual contact with carriers, a broker advised at an industry conference here.
Rose Kuba, area vice president, claims, and professional standards manager at Arthur J. Gallagher Risk Management Services, made her comments at the 12th Annual ACE (America's Claims Event).
Ms. Kuba said that competition among producers and an emphasis on servicing the customer has caused agents to become involved more than ever in the claims process.
Previously, she said, the extent of claims involvement for brokers consisted of getting information from a client and reporting the claim to a 1-800 number.
Today, though, Ms. Kuba said brokers are involved in the claims process from beginning to end. The reason, she said, is that servicing the customer has become such an important aspect of competition for brokers. And, she said, customer servicing "starts and ends with the broker."
Ms. Kuba said that satisfying the clients should be the goal for everyone within the insurance world because "without the client, we don't have a business." She said that clients expect claims service that is timely, efficient, effective and friendly.
To achieve timely and efficient service, Ms. Kuba said that adjusters should call clients within 24 hours of the filing of the claim. Adjusters should also make appointments with the clients immediately, and then keep those appointments.
If an adjuster cannot fulfill his or her obligations to the client, then Ms. Kuba said that it is important for the adjuster to contact the broker. This, she said, will ensure that the adjuster and brokers are presenting "a united front" to the client.
Friendly service is important, Ms. Kuba said, because it will affect the client's outlook on the adjuster and the company.
With respect to effective service, Ms. Kuba said the client needs to be able to make sense of the adjuster's decisions, regardless of whether or not the client agrees with the decision.
To that end, Ms. Kuba noted that insureds require a lot of explanation throughout the process because they generally know very little when it comes to insurance in general and their policies in particular.
She said that insureds know how much they paid for coverage, and to call the broker or agent with all problems. Beyond that, she said many of them do not know important information such as the deductible, the policy limits, the coverage areas, and their duties in the claims process other than simply reporting the claim.
To put the knowledge of typical clients in perspective, Ms. Kuba asked the claims professionals in attendance to think about how much they knew about their auto policies before they became involved in the insurance industry.
The client, Ms. Kuba concluded, is not the expert, but the client's perspective matters more than anything else in the claims process.
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