Insurance claims can fill clients with trepidation. At C&C, we have a team of 18 dedicated claims staff who all place a huge emphasis on client service. Such a sizable Claims Team is a real stand-out benefit for clients, which in turn leads to great client retention.
We recently caught up with Joe Fay in our Claims Team to discuss the potential pitfalls of managing a claim and what we do for clients to help them avoid them. Here are his top five observations:
1. Start the claim as quickly as possible
The first few hours after the incident are absolutely critical, especially in the case of motor claims. If we use the example of a haulage vehicle damaging a car, the car is, unsurprisingly usually in worse shape than the wagon. This almost inevitably requires the car owner to need a temporary replacement vehicle. It’s essential that our client provides us with the third-party details as soon as possible so that we can pass them on to the insurer who in turn can contact the third-party insurer.
Our client’s insurer can then arrange for a replacement hire vehicle, as opposed to the third-party insurer arranging a credit hire vehicle which could be up to 60% more expensive. When you consider that a large logistics firm could have 100+ claims a year, these costs can seriously add up.
2. Obtain accurate details
This sounds obvious, but it’s so important for both parties to get full and accurate details of each other and each other’s insurers, as well as images of the damage. Again, any delay in a client insurer being able to contact a third-party insurer, due to missing or inaccurate information, will inevitably translate into avoidable costs. Either costs in managing the consequences of the incident, or for the client at renewal.
And crucially, if dashcam footage exists – make sure that we receive a copy of the file!
3. Understand the process of insurance claims
Initiating and managing a claim isn’t always a straightforward process. Every insurer operates differently and has its own processes for handling claims. We work very closely with all the main insurers, even undergoing training with them to ensure that we have a complete understanding of each unique approach to handling a claim, including how and when to escalate a claim if we begin to face issues.
Sometimes a claim may fall into a grey area, but we are afforded some degree of bargaining power to argue on behalf of our clients. Something our clients on their own, would struggle to achieve.
4. Understand the language of insurance and insurance claims
There’s no doubt about it – insurance is a language in itself! It has its own vocabulary, phrases, and in a way, even its own dialects, because different insurers word things in their own unique ways. Insurance policies are not written for clarity, they are written to be technically spelt out, which makes sense to those of us in the know. However, just like none of us can expect to be IT experts, (unless you work in IT!) we can’t expect our clients to understand the nature of insurance wording fully.
5. Knowing how and when to negotiate
This brings us to an interesting next point: we’re in a stronger position than a client to negotiate with an insurer. We want to ensure that a client gets what is due, and we may bring in third-party expertise to contribute to reasons why we believe an offer should be recalculated. It’d be understandable why a client operating independently of a broker, may just accept the first offer, not realising that there was any alternative.
A claim can be an emotional and stressful time for a client. Even more so if someone has been injured or worse. Understandably, they won’t be in the best position to accurately respond to every question thrown at them. We can sometimes handle much of this process.
In short, no two insurance claims are the same. Depending on the nature of a claim and how it’s handled by the parties involved, in the very early stages, it could be relatively straightforward or a very expensive minefield. Clients of C&C Insurance Brokers can rely on Richard, Steve, Joe and the rest of the Claims Team, to handle most aspects of on their behalf. Which, if ever called upon, can feel like a luxury compared to having to handle a claim on their own.
Image credit: Mikhail Nilov via Pexels
