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D.I.R.T.Y. Claims Adjusting

In 2000, Karl Van, President and CEO of the International Insurance Institute, was the key note speaker at the Annual Claims Exposition. He did an awesome presentation on providing customer service. One of the things he pointed out in the beginning is that customer retention drops once an insured has had a claim. In other words, they are happier with their insurance company when they are not receiving any service from the claims department. But once they get what they have dutifully paid for, they are more likely to find a new insurance company.

I have spoken with hundreds of claims professionals since then and most of them want to, and believe, they are doing a good job. The fact is, most adjusters are conducting their day to day activities in accordance with their companies “best practices.”

Here in lies the challenge. If we were to compare the claim audit forms from several different companies, I am sure that the substance of those things being audited would be almost exactly the same: time to first contact, reserve adequacy and timeliness, coverage evaluation, etc. Doing well in these areas is crucial, but when everyone is measuring the same things, one company may be better than the other, but they are not D.I.R.T.Y.!

D.I.R.T.Y. stands for …
• DIFFERENT—provide a unique engagement experience
• INVITING—give your customers the chance to feel special
• RELEVANT—your customer must feel the difference in a way that matters to them
• TRUTHFUL—walk the walk
• YOURS—it must be an expression of who you and your people truly are rather than a corporate initiative with an acronym forced from the top down

Being a little bit better at “best practices” or in being polite is not DIFFERENT or INVITING to customers and may not be RELEVANT. You may have heard, “good is the enemy of great.” In this case, good is the enemy of D.I.R.T.Y.!

Start with DIFFERENT. For some companies it is easy to be DIFFERENT because of their niche. For example, GuideOne Insurance, my former employer, is a niche carrier in the church market. There are only a few competitors who can provide the same expertise that they can when it comes to managing the unique liability and property claims associated with churches.

Progressive is another example of DIFFERENT. They have established their Concierge service that allows you to drop your car off at their service center, get into a rental, and drive away in about 15 minutes. You come back to the same place to pick up your repaired vehicle. Wow! In the standard auto market, they have something which is unique (for now).

So if you are not extremely niched or if you don’t have the resources to copy progressive, what can you do on the frontline of claims to be D.I.R.T.Y.?

You must promote a culture of providing an extraordinary customer experience. This is the kind of culture where your adjusters are more than just fast and efficient at following the steps in the claims process and it is more than just being polite to customers. It is the kind of culture where adjusters recognize the situations where following “best practices” and being fast, efficient, and polite is not good enough. They need to be and do more for the customer.

For example, Johh, an adjuster I interviewed from Seattle told me the following story. A restaurant that his company insured had a serious fire. He did everything according to his company’s best practices such as timely contact, quickly meeting with the insured and scoping the loss. He estimated that it would take six weeks for the restoration and he informed them of what they needed to do and what was covered including Business Interruption. John could have written them a check to get started and then just followed the progress of the claim properly documenting everything along the way until he could close the file. He was properly protected from any complaints from the agent or insured and was on his way to a high score if this file were audited.

However, John listened to the insured’s concern that being closed for six weeks would devastate the customer following they had built up. He got an idea and contacted the general contractor. He proposed that the general contractor run crews 24/7 so that they could get the job done in just a few weeks. They determined that the additional cost of this would be offset by the savings in business interruption costs. This was hardly any more work for the John and his file audit score would not be significantly higher, but he did something very D.I.R.T.Y. for the insured.

Get the idea! Opportunities to be D.I.R.T.Y. come along all the time. They can be big or small things. Every couple of weeks for a while I will post D.I.R.T.Y. claims experiences that my interviews and reference checks have uncovered. Hopefully these will inspire you and your staff to look for opportunities to be D.I.R.T.Y.! I hope that you will share your D.I.R.T.Y. stories with me or post them on the blog.

For more information about being D.I.R.T.Y., visit REL Productions .

Recommended reading: The 8 Characteristics of the Awesome Adjuster by Karl Van.

Jim Jones:

I wanted to point out that most of the client companies the Katie School has worked with have not experienced reduced customer retention after paying claims. Most will tell you that customers who have had claims stick, because they understand the value of the claim service. Prior to experiencing a claim, insurance is viewed as a commodity. No difference between one and the other.

I would make a general statement that if the customer retention rate for people who have made claims is lower than the customer retention rate overall then there are issues which need to be addressed in the claim service areas. Thery would suggest that customer satisfaction leads to customer loyalty. Common examples of things which have adverse effects on customer satisfaction include too many handoffs, too long a cycle time, poor communication, and an emphasis of check box adjusting over customer care).

Jeff Garrison:

I agree with what Jim is saying. What I find to be a common element to all of those things mentioned above is the adjusters ability to make fast decisions. The day I became a supervisor, I gathered my new staff and told them that nobody in the room has the settlement authority to bankrupt the company, so don't be afraid to made a decision.

Of course, it became incumbent on me to constantly train and discuss the basics of blocking and tackling with my staff so that they knew what decisons needed to be made and when.

Getting back to my original blog however, basic blocking and tackling makes you competitive, but to go to the next level, you must become a "play maker." (Sorry, I can't get away from the football analagy.) Ask yourself on each claim you handle, is there anything else I can do for this person to improve the experience?