“Claims is probably the best example in recent times of where we are showing our value as the broker,” said Adam Ware (pictured above).
Ware is director of Melbourne-headquartered BJS Insurance Brokers. In years past, the claims area belonged to insurers. Ware said this space has evolved since he started 15 years ago and brokers are playing an increasingly important role.
“I remember when I commenced that often the insurer would have a claim settled before we even had a chance to follow up with them,” he said. “You could lodge a claim back in 2008-2011 and the insurer would be chasing us for information.”
How times have changed.
Ware said phone hold times with insurers are usually between 30 minutes and one hour. That’s not the only problem.
“Claim expertise at insurer level is lacking severely,” said Ware. “There have been many occasions where we’ve had to do the work for the insurer to get an appropriate settlement.”
He gave the example of a storm damage claim to a holiday rental.
“The assessor and insurer had three attempts at calculating the loss of rent, which is quite different to a permanent rental loss of rent calculation, all of which were incorrect,” said Ware. “In the end we did the calculation for the insurer, they approved it and the client was very happy with the result.”
Daniel Berry (pictured below) is partner at Dudgeon Berry Insurance Group, a family-run brokerage firm in Lismore. His firm has also found itself spending more time working on claims.
One important claims duty Berry finds himself occupied with is interpreting policies.
“Being able to identify what entitlements are available to a client at claim time has shown that we can often provide better outcomes for clients,” he said.
However, another big commitment area in claims is simply chasing up customers and insurers.
“We’re becoming much more involved in the claim process, often because of communication delays between parties,” he said. “I’m finding that this process requires a lot of effective management to ensure that matters are actioned promptly and not left sitting in a queue.”
Berry said time delays of more than a month on very simple claims are quite often because the claim file is simply not being actioned and moved to its next step.
“That is where I’m finding that we have to consistently pursue parties to achieve an outcome that is in line with client expectations,” he said. “I’m not surprised that clients are relying on us much more for this process when, as a society, we’re able to order products online and have them delivered, sometimes the same day.”
Berry said claims management is now “a fundamental part of our role.”
“That’s when our clients need us most – to help them through that difficult moment in their lives where something has gone wrong,” he said. “I think that value shows for itself.”
He said insurance is a common discussion point in communities at the moment.
“When you get a person who has purchased a product directly from an insurer versus one that uses a broker – you hear first-hand the differing experiences that they have encountered and that information is often articulated very quickly through community forums on social media.”
In a recent interview, Danni Robson painted a dire picture of a not-uncommon broker experience during the motor claims process.
Robson is Arnie Software’s head of product.
“You’ve gone through the tedious process of lodging a claim for the incidents and now you’re logged into four different software systems,” said Robson. “You’ve been locked out of one of the systems and can’t see a status update on a loss adjuster heading out to the property anytime soon.”
Then, said Robson, comes the long wait.
“You’ve been on hold for almost an hour and no-one is replying to your emails,” she said. “Your customer is devastated.”
Arnie is a sponsor of the upcoming Claims Leaders Summit Australia in Sydney. Robson is hosting a panel discussion looking at how insurance companies can improve their claims processes and make cost savings without compromising the customer experience.
Are you a broker? What are you doing for clients when they have a claim? Please tell us below.
