Customer Service Focus

Be ready in "crunch time"

Knowledge and preparation are the keys to effective customer service when disaster strikes

By Jill Haynes Gidge, CPCU, CIC, CISR

Scenario #1: The worst ice storm in recorded weather history has just struck your region. Tens of thousands of area residents and businesses are without power. Downed tree limbs and trees are everywhere. Everything is coated in inches of ice. Power will not be restored in some areas for two weeks—or more.

Scenario #2: Unusually heavy rains have pelted your area for days. Brooks, streams and rivers are now overflowing their banks, and many roadways have become impassable. Some bridges have been washed away or have collapsed from the force of the surging waters. Many homes and businesses are either cut off by the flood or are under water themselves. More rain is forecast, and it could be weeks before the floodwaters subside.

Scenario #3: Unseasonably warm weather has favored your region. But with the unusual warmth have come strong midday and evening thunderstorms and winds, as well as tornadoes, straight-line winds and microbursts associated with the storms. Many communities, homes and businesses have sustained damage, and power and communications have been disrupted.

The foregoing three scenarios are recent history, not fiction. For weeks, much of New England and New York felt the effects of the historic ice storm of early December 2008. The Pacific Northwest battled widespread flooding and the potential for mudslides. And the Southwest and lower Midwest states had intervals of unusual winter warmth which spawned sporadic—but damaging—heavy, summer-like storms. Both direct damage to property and indirect losses likely will be staggering.

These are your customers, and they will look to you, their insurance professionals, to meet their needs in these hard times. How will your service be evaluated?

Day-to-day vs. value-added service

As an industry, we are good at the basic implementation of the risk management process. We attempt to help our insureds assess their exposures, potential perils, and related hazards. We often describe ways to avoid, reduce, retain and/or transfer the risks that have been identified. We endeavor to structure insurance programs to address as many of those risks as possible and try to review these programs periodically to assure that they are, in fact, addressing the insured’s exposures. But even more, we promise them that we will be there to help if they experience a loss, by piloting them through the claims process as part of our valued-added professional service. We want them to know we will be one-on-one with them, if needed.

But in reality, when most agencies think about the quality and efficiency of their customer service, it is only in the context of routine daily agency operations. There are a manageable number of claims from a variety of causes on any given day or in a week. You and your personnel are trained and ready for that. But how would your service stack up if there were hundreds of claims in a day or a week? What if the agency itself were damaged or destroyed? Or what if the people working for your agency were to suffer damage to their homes as well? What if communications were down? What if you or your staff couldn’t get into the office even if it weren’t damaged? Would you and your staff still be able to be one-on-one and fulfill that value-added service promise?

We hear and read the victim interviews and unflattering media accounts that follow every large-scale claims or disaster situation. Our industry has been faulted repeatedly, sometimes fairly and many times not, for its impersonal or unprofessional service, slow action or apparent inaction in processing claims. Some sources have alleged that our industry sells products designed to protect our insureds but then looks for ways to decline that protection when it appears that profitability may be impacted.

Public perception plays a key role in customer service satisfaction, and negative publicity—whether warranted or not—makes it all the more difficult to be seen as providing good customer service. Most insurance carriers instituted catastrophe response programs, or CAT teams back in the 1990s in the wake of negative media publicity and feedback from their insureds following Hurricanes Andrew, Hugo and Iniki. But what about you or your agency? You will be, after all, the insured’s first resource and contact in a loss situation.

Education

Education, preparation, and self-assessment are vital to providing stellar customer service, whether on a routine basis or in a time of crisis. Service is based on our ability to correctly apply that risk management process and help insureds cover as many of their exposures as possible. Service is based on our being able to adequately and accurately explain the very complex and technical insurance contract to many different levels of consumers. Service is based on our ability to reinforce awareness of the insured’s duties in the event of loss, the need for timeliness, and accuracy. Service is based on our being able to correctly explain and potentially assist with the actual claims procedure following a loss. All members of an agency need to know and understand their professional function from both a technical and service perspective.

Ongoing education is a key component to providing effective, knowledgeable insurance customer service. The first basic tenet of the Sales Trilogy says, “You can’t sell what you don’t understand.” Insurance professionals at all levels must be informed and current on policy forms, products and carrier claims procedures. Only then can they properly advise clients and educate them about the products and services being purchased. State insurance laws enforce minimum learning requirements, but we need to recognize that sometimes “minimum requirements” are not sufficient to produce top-notch performance and must take it upon ourselves—as professionals—to go further. Education in our industry is not just a legal requirement; it’s a duty to our customers and it’s what being a professional is all about.

Contingency planning and self-assessment

Knowledge is vital, but inadequate disaster preparation can cause customer service to falter. Contingency planning is imperative! “Risk manage” the agency itself. Where are databases and files stored and accessed? Are they routinely duplicated and segregated in the event that primary records are damaged, destroyed or become inaccessible? What equipment will be needed to utilize the secondary database? Where and how quickly can it be procured if agency equipment becomes nonfunctional? Is there a plan for an alternate or temporary agency location if the existing site is destroyed or too badly damaged to be occupied? Create a plan to triage claims among agency personnel and know that everyone is well versed in the carriers’ claims procedures, which may differ from standard operating procedures in the event of a large-volume loss scenario. How will you cope with the psychological and emotional stresses that accompany disaster situations?

Knowledge and preparation aside, don’t forget self-assessment. Audit how your customer service is perceived and delivered routinely. When a high-volume situation occurs, ask for feedback on your performance. Did service meet expectations? Was service delivered the way you’d planned, and if not—why not? What could you do differently? What conditions were beyond your control?

Knowing the level of quality customer service you want to offer is a must. Work with everyone in your organization to assure that they all acquire the expertise necessary to provide that service. Finally, thoughtful planning for unique service contingencies will make delivering the level of desired professional service more likely in the face of adversity.

Your customers are counting on you because you told them you’d be there for them. When “crunch time” comes, make certain you’ve positioned yourself for customer service success.

The author
Jill Haynes Gidge, CPCU, CIC, CISR was an agency principal in an independent property and casualty agency for more than 30 years, overseeing the commercial lines department. She is the founder and owner of Insure-Ed, an independent insurance education consulting and training company. She has been instructing insurance education programs for more than 15 years and serves as a National Alliance instructor for both the CISR and CIC programs. For information on the CISR and CISR programs, call (800) 633-2165 or go to www.TheNationalAlliance.com.