How to support customers through complex commercial claims

Any claim is a high-stress period in a person’s life. A complex commercial claim has the potential to elevate stress to unprecedented heights. The customer must grapple not only with the immediate loss but its repercussions on employees, suppliers and customers – and the future viability of the business.

The number one consideration for insurers and brokers on any business claim is simple: How do we get the customer back to business as quickly as possible?

Achieving that goal requires collaboration, creativity and a deep understanding of the customer’s business.

Understand the business

Ideally, understanding the customer’s business is a process that both the broker and insurer begin well before the claim. The more complex the customer’s business, the more critical it is that brokers, insurers – and of course the customer – collaborate closely to arrive at the right insurance policy for the customer.

Broker’s role: Get the customer’s full story in front of the insurer when placing the policy.

Understand the business priorities

An effective insurer must understand the customer’s business priorities. If the goal is to get back to business as usual as quickly as possible – and the loss is large, the assessment complex and the rebuild process unknown – how can the insurer support the customer in the interim?

For manufacturing customers, getting productions lines back into operations is key –

Broker’s role: Reinforce your customer’s business priorities with insurer.

Get the file to the right expert at the right time

To properly manage a commercial loss, it’s critical to get the claim into the right hands as early as possible. Adjusters must have expertise in specific industries, and insurers need an effective triage and assignment process that connects the customer with the right adjuster.

You need the farm claim to go to the person who is experienced with farms and agribusiness and the manufacturing claim to go to the adjuster who lives and breathes manufacturing so that they can effectively support the customer from the first touchpoint.

Broker’s role: When placing a complex business account, check the insurer’s claims experience in your customer’s industry.

Get funds into customers’ hands ASAP

Businesses need to keep on paying their bills, even when an accident interrupts their revenues. At Intact, we proactively advance funds to help customers with immediate cash flow. It takes a while to sort out the specifics of a $5 million claim – but an experienced adjuster can provide a high level assessment and a business-focused insurer like Intact can pay out a substantial amount immediately so the business has enough funds to keep on functioning through the crisis.

Because of our close collaboration with brokers, at this point we know the business and its priorities. We can sort out the details later.

Broker’s role: Collaborate closely with insurers to reinforce your customer’s business priorities.

Move fast

Getting a business back on track is all about timing – and implementing a loss mitigation strategy. An asset may be repairable, but if it takes 10 months to repair it while a new one can be delivered much sooner, a customer-driven insurer like Intact chooses to replace the item. Similarly, when one vendor can replace a product or effect a rebuild in 10 months and another in two months at a higher price, a smart insurer does not choose the cheaper option. The shorter a customer’s business interruption, the better.

Broker’s role: Ask insurers what their business interruption and mitigation approach is. Are they focused on getting the customer back to business fast?

Get creative

Complex commercial claims require out of the box thinking such as leaning on competitors. A creative insurer will investigate the possibility of using a competitor’s plant or facility – a solution that also works well for smaller businesses. At Intact, we’ve had vet clinic customers for whom the business priority was maintaining relationships with their clientele. They could not afford to be non-operational while their building was repaired. The solution: finding space at other clinics so that they could continue to support their clients and run their business.

Broker’s role: Choose insurers who think outside the box and look at commercial claims through a business-focused lens.

Lean on experts

Complex business claims call for multi-disciplinary teams that may include engineers, accountants, cost consultants and lawyers. Having much of that expertise in-house, supplemented by a reliable roster of external experts, helps move things along quickly.

Broker’s role: Ask insurers about the inhouse resources they have to support complex commercial claims.

Collaborate every step of the way

The bigger and more complex a claim, the more important it is to keep a big picture view. A successful claims process gets the customer back to business and protects their client base, supply chain and overall business viability throughout the business interruption and rebuild.

Getting there – and maintaining that big picture, business-focused lens throughout – requires ongoing collaboration among insurers, brokers and customers.

This creative, collaborative, outcome-focused approach is part of the commercial lines value proposition we offer at Intact and how we get customers back to business.