Life Happens
Claims are no fun. However, this is where it is time for the insurance carrier to put their money where their mouth is, and deliver a positive claim experience.
What can cause a negative claim experience?
This is a tricky one, as what defines a “negative experience.” In our mind a negative experience is one where you are left upset, angry, and even frustrated at how your claim was handled. In our experience – 40+ years of experience – the vast majority of “negative experiences” stem from two categories: timeliness and education.
Timeliness
“I want my check today!” Well, that is not going to happen. What I am referring to is the timeliness of the insurance carrier’s response to your claim. How quickly they reach out, how often they reach out, and how aware you are of the timeline.
In today’s world everyone expects everything to be resolved instantaneously. There are some simple things you can do to make this part of the process a positive one:
- Turn the claim in yourself. Absolutely call us to ask questions, get policy info, etc. However, after some extensive research on our side we found that claim resolution time is sped up by as much as 20% when the insured calls in the claim themselves!
- Check out our Claims Resource page for contact information for certain carriers.
- Download your carrier’s app, and set up your online account.
- Ask your adjuster when to expect a call back, what the next steps are, etc. That way you know what to expect and when to expect it.
- If there is a problem – reach out to our office. While we want you to turn in the claim yourself; this is only to speed up the process. If there is a problem you need to let us know, so we can help!
Education
The second biggest problem we run into on claims is that people expect insurance to “cover everything.” As an agency our primary focus is educating our clients, so please read the emails we send you, follow our News Site, and take us up on meeting to go over your renewals.
We have a wealth of knowledge that we want to share with you. Take advantage of that. If you understand your policies I can assure you that your claim experience will be a positive one. In our 40+ year history we have never had a claim denied where there was coverage. On the flip side of that very same coin; we have had several claims denied where there was NO Coverage. The insurance carrier was not picking on the insured. They were abiding by their contractual obligations. Insurance carriers are in the business to make money. They will pay only when they have to.
Make sure you check out our Claims Resource page as we try to update that often with quick links to carriers. At the end of the day we are here for our clients, and we want you to have the best Claims Experience you can.
Thank you very much for your business!
