Insurance Matters™

Loss of the Week!

On September 3, 2010 in News by GH

This week, our thoughts are with all in the path of Hurricane Earl, and the men and women who will provide aid and assistance (if needed) in the days and weeks to come. From first responders whose initial focus will be the safety and wellbeing of people living in the effected regions, to the adjusters and examiners who will work diligently to assess the damage in order to allow property owners to restore their lives and their property as efficiently as possible.

As we all know from prior experience, these events make headlines immediately prior to and during the event itself, but in the weeks, months and sometimes years that follow, real people struggle with the impact of the storm, and must work to return to what they once knew as normal.

As those of us in regions unaffected by Earl embark on our weekends, please think of those less fortunate and hope that the damage is minimum, and that which is damaged, is restored as quickly as possible.

Reduce the Risk of Damage to Vacant Properties

On September 2, 2010 in Agency Marketing, Claim Prevention, Home Maintenance, Homeowners insurance, Insurance by GH

Came across an excellent blog post thanks to a Tweet from Disaster Safety providing some excellent insights for anyone with vacation or other unoccupied properties. You can link to the article here.

While the article is geared towards property owners, carriers and agents would benefit by sharing this information with policyholders. Most policies have specific conditions that apply to homes that are unoccupied or vacant and failure to adhere to these might result in a loss not being covered.

Life Insurance Ownership at an Historic Low

On September 1, 2010 in Life Insurance, News, Trends by GH

Typically I blog predominantly about property insurance, and specifically homeowners on these pages, but I found this following tidbit striking.

According to LIMRA, individual life ownership is at 50-year low. Only 44% of U.S. households own an individual life insurance policy — a figure that represents a 50-year low, a new study by LIMRA shows.

While this is potentially devastating for families, the ramifications on the banking and insurance industry can’t be overlooked as survivors may be left with limited means to cover mortgage expenses and other debts causing further damage to housing markets and banks.

Perhaps enforcing a minimum term life policy rule for homeowners, much like a mandatory mortgage by lien holders would protect families against the devastation of losing a loved one and then losing one’s home and ability to pay for the things they need to live.

Monday’s USA Today contained a story stating that 50 million Americans are on some sort of government aid program . Clearly these trends must be reversed.

The Hidden Costs of Going Green

On August 31, 2010 in Auto Insurance, Claims, Insurance, News by GH

In the past few days I have seen a number of indications that the cost to save our environment will be much greater than anticipated.

On Saturday Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert wrote a piece in the Wall Street Journal entitled: “How I (Almost) Saved the Earth”. The article basically chronicles the many challenges and expenses he faced trying to save the planet.

I found the article interesting, but didn’t considering blogging about it since it had little to do with insurance.

Then today I see not one but two insurance related articles suggesting that going green may cost a bunch of green.

The first entitled: “Why The Cost of Insuring Your Hybrid Car Is Going To Rise”, and the second entitled: “Black Mold Found in ‘Green’ Fire Station in Arkansas”.

Many carriers have added “green” endorsements to their homeowner’s policies. Given the limited data associated with going green, it will be interesting to see the impact on underwriting in the years ahead.

I’m not suggesting that going green is bad by any means, however, like anything else that is so new, we still don’t know what we don’t know, and there may be some unintended consequences.

What Consumers Are Being Taught About Insurance

On August 30, 2010 in Agency Marketing, Homeowners insurance, Insurance by GH

I came across these two videos on Youtube and thought it interesting to hear what consumers are being taught about insurance.

This first one is from Kimberly Lankford, Contributing Editor, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine.

While I am not really a fan of the way she starts it off – using a scare tactic and contributing to the negative portrayal of insurance companies, the 5 issues she outlines are all solid. She could have accomplished the same thing in terms of educating the consumer without the scare tactics.

This second video from June Walbert, a USAA Certified Financial Planner does a nice job educating without the scare tactics.

I am always interested to see how people explain and describe homeowner’s insurance. The truth is that many consumers don’t really want to understand until it’s too late and they have an uncovered loss or are displeased with a settlement. But the bottom line is there are plenty of resources negligence is not an excuse.

Loss of the week!

On August 27, 2010 in Claims, Homeowners insurance, Insurance, Liability, News, Underwriting by GH

Last week the Insurance Information Institute (III) released a report highlighting the fact that the cost of dog bites is up for P & C insurers costing the industry $412 million in 2009. One of the many articles about this can be found on ClaimsJournal.com. The article points out that the cost of these claims has increased over 30% over the past 6 years.

While there is little that the P & C insurance industry can do to combat rising medical costs, settlements, judgments & jury awards, it is important that carriers update their records to reflect the current status of the risk, including whether their policyholders have acquired pets during the term of the policy.

One way to do this is through renewal letters, and asking homeowner’s to specifically report whether the family has acquired any new pets during the term of the policy. Another way is to thoroughly document claims files.

At Service247 we include detailed findings and photographs of the risk in its entirety as part of our inspection process. If pets are observed these are included. We thoroughly document both damaged caused by the covered peril, as well as the overall condition of the risk including areas not damaged. By doing so carriers wishing to update their files to more accurately reflect the risk may do so at their prerogative.

The potential to more accurately manage risk through increased and formalized collaboration between claims and underwriting represents a potential area of improvement for many carriers.

The Power of Social Networking in the Insurance Industry

On August 24, 2010 in Claims, Service, Social Media, Trends by GH

Anyone still doubting the power of social networking in the insurance industry should think again!

Last week @TomKelly75 sent the following message on Twitter at 6:54 pm “Wife has repeatedly asked @TRV_Insurance to call her mobile line while handling a claim. Calling home # has added delays to repair process.”

The next day at 11:02 am @TRV_Insurance sent the following reply over Twitter “Hi @TomKelly75 we forwarded your tweet to @TRV_Service; they will be contacting you shortly to help.”

A minute later the following response came across the wire, “Hi @TomKelly75 Please have your wife contact Customer Advocacy at 1-866-336-2077 and we will correct this for her.”

The only better response would have been something along the lines of “Hi @TomKelly75, we have corrected the problem. Your wife will be contacted on her mobile.”

That of course suggests that they are able to search their records for Tom Kelly (a fairly common name) and see which of their policyholders named Tom Kelly has an open claim. But even with that capability, there is a good chance that they might even have multiple Tom Kelly’s with open claims. Either way, I am pretty impressed with Travelers! Kudos!

The more ways insurance companies allow their customers and potential customers to communicate with them, the more likely they are to achieve continued success – especially as the Millennials become policyholders.

Great customer service means communicating when and how customers want to be communicated with.

What Constitutes Great Service?

On August 23, 2010 in Claims, Insurance, Service by GH

In an age where it is increasingly difficult to differentiate products or pricing, service or customer experience holds the greatest promise of delivering true market differentiation and brand equity.

But every company claims they have great service. This is especially true in the insurance industry and specifically in claims handling. For example, have you ever heard a company suggest that their service is anything less than excellent?

But the question is what really constitutes great service?

I’m not sure that this is such a difficult question to answer, but do believe it is exceedingly difficult to implement.

For example, in claims handling, great service means that the policyholder can submit a claim any time, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year through whatever means they prefer (phone, e-mail, Web).

It also means that the policyholder should get an immediate response with acknowledgement of the claim and what will happen next, including – and here is the clincher – when it will happen. In other words, not just that you will hear back from someone within the next 24 hours, or by the end of the day, but an appointed time that would be convenient for the policyholder.

It would also mean that there is always the option to speak to someone instantly – or have someone call within a reasonable amount of time – not to exceed 1 hour.

When it comes to claims, the policy specifies pretty clearly what is going to be paid. While there is some limited room for interpretation, if a policyholder is displeased with the settlement, there is very little that can be done. But in no case is there any reason to not be hyper responsive and overly communicative to the policyholder.

But great service is not a process, it is a culture. And even with these examples, without great people committed and focused on delivering a great customer experience, there is no way this will happen.

I finished a great book this weekend called Delivering Happiness: A Path to Passion, Profits, and Purpose by Tony Hsieh, founder & CEO at Zappos.com. While Zappos’ corporate culture and brand are unique for any industry, imagine a claims organization whose mission was to deliver happiness and WOW the policyholder.

At Service247 we aren’t there yet, but our goal is nothing short of this.

Insurance Matters™

Loss of the Week!

Reduce the Risk of Damage to Vacant Properties

Life Insurance Ownership at an Historic Low

The Hidden Costs of Going Green

What Consumers Are Being Taught About Insurance

Loss of the week!

What Constitutes Great Service?

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