“Hi, Karlyn. It is your sister. We have been evacuated. There is a big fire up in Paradise that may head down our way. Just wanted to show you we're going to our daughter's house. We only had 15 minutes to seize stuff, however it probably is just a precautionary alarm. Call when you are getting a chance.”
That was the voicemail I got Thursday afternoon once i had spent each day communicating with some insurance company about customer experience and the claims process.
The next voicemail said: “We're on the road again. My daughter’s place is now being evacuated. We will mom's.”
And after i got off the plane, the last one said: “Mom's evacuated now, too. We're all visiting your home.”
Sadly, she and her husband lost their home and business within the northern California wildfires. Fortunately, everyone is alive, I've enough room for everyone and I know a bit about insurance. Apparently , as being a bit bossy is also a great attribute when you are helping someone inside a disaster.
Now, usually, I cover the claims process by exploring the technologies that insurers deploy when handling a claim. But all of a sudden, Now i get to experience a totally different lens around the process. I helped my sister and her husband file their claim around the home and on the business. Both carriers are big named brand carriers which i know well. I know what systems they will use, I know their strategy as well as their commitments to customer experience, and that i know where their executives believe they're. But, so far, we've had mixed experiences. And so i have some advice-
The First Notice of Loss (FNOL)
- Both carriers had terrific after-hours intake staff. Although I understand their claims admin solution and could visualize the fields on the screen because the carriers were gathering information, the intake process did not seem like these were just filling out an application. It truly felt like these people cared. Both of them spoke slowly. Which, it turns out is essential. They were patient, plus they were clear concerning the next steps. I asked my sister afterward how she felt, and she said “I feel safe. I believe they'll be here to help me.”
Acknowledgment of Claim:
- Here's where we begin to see some stubbed toes. Both companies sent an e-mail after the FNOL. The commercial lines company came within hours and provided a message name and phone number. Literally 40 minutes later, the claim was reassigned to a different adjuster. No other information was provided other than a reputation and make contact with number. There was no details about that which was going to take place next or what to anticipate. The personal lines company’s first email came one full next day of the FNOL and said hello was “reminding” us to view conditions and terms to receive claims documents. It required us to setup an account around the company’s portal. This wasn't a real reminder, as nobody had mentioned a portal to us. The wording was such that we believed we had to setup the portal account before anything happens around the claim – especially because, at that time, no adjuster had been assigned, there have been not one other contact by the insurer. And also the process for creating a merchant account was really unclear even going to me. I had to spend multiple tries to just set up their account, and I'm not quite sure what we'll do with that site once something happens. The setup certainly did not need to be done before contact with the adjuster.
Adjuster Assignment and First Contact
- The business insurance company reached out the next business day to provide basic information and to explain the following steps. My sister and her husband were advised to put together an inventory and provide a monthly profit and loss statement returning two years. They weren't given any information about what happens next in the process. We believe that nothing is happening before the inventory is finished plus they find a way to recreate the P&L statements – each of which feel like pretty formidable tasks, especially for people who have just been through such a harrowing experience. The personal insurance company didn't even call. Not that day, or the following day or even the following day or even the day after that. Meanwhile, friends who also lost their homes have had money deposited within their accounts and have people looking for long-term housing. My sister is not. Finally, 5 days following the FNOL, I known as the personal lines insurer. The insurer claimed it had tried to call – but we show no record associated with a calls on my small sister’s phone or her husband’s – and there seemed to be no email outreach in the adjuster (even though the email on the terms and conditions did come through). I'll just tell, I'm already confident that I do not want this carrier as my insurer or as the insurer in my family and friends.
Immediate Support
- When we finally got hold of the personal lines company 5 days following the total loss of my sister’s home and office, the company offered $500 of emergency funds. I'll just tell – that's kind of a pathetic amount of money given that my sister and her husband had to buy clothing, toiletries along with other supplies immediately. With only 15 minutes to evacuate both a house along with a business, you don't take a lot with you. Fortunately, they did not have to rent expensive hotels, however they were already $2,200 into basic expenses. And the document that they received explaining the temporary bills – honestly, it seems like it assumes that we're likely to try to defraud the insurer. Sure, you might have fraudulent claims. But if you've got a trusted, long-term customer who has never filed a claim, you might want to treat that customer differently. My sister said, after that call – “I think they will scam me. I believe they're going to do everything possible to not pay me. Do you think we want an attorney?” Notice how fast she went from, “I think they'll be here to help me,” to, “Do I need a lawyer?”
Explanation of Benefits
- I happen to know a bit about insurance and thus requested copies of the policies and so i could understand all the coverages. The very first response from both companies provided only the jacket. I needed to create a second call to every insurer to obtain the underlying language, although I'd requested that in the initial call. And the commercial lines company sent me the incorrect person's policy. I got a duplicate of a insurance policy for another person's completely unrelated business. Not surprisingly, each policy provides extensive little sub coverages – like debris removal or coverage for fine arts. But both companies only told us about the limits of insurance for the major coverages. They didn't identify all of the little sub coverages – and without an insurance expert reading the contract, my sister and her husband wouldn't have known that there's coverage for their timber, so wouldn't have put them in the inventory. On the commercial policy, there's a difference of almost $400,000 of more coverage from those small sub coverages. Additionally, the insurer got the fundamental limits wrong, as there is a special endorsement that attaches to the policy that gives additional coverages and extends certain limits inside the policy. Basically hadn't requested the policies, and did not know how you can read and interpret them, there's lots of coverage that might have gone unclaimed.
What Comes Next
- Here's where being bossy comes in handy. It turns out there are plenty of products that have to be done whenever your home and business burn down. Things like rerouting landlines to some cell phone and setting up a P.O. Box to get the mail. Filing a FEMA claim and contacting the county to get your property taxes reduced. Determining how to get an inspector and the way to find a contractor. Simply determining who to call to see if the road has opened and whether you can get use of your house to begin some type of salvage. I bet that insurers know each one of these different steps. But neither carrier provided us a checklist of products to do or perhaps a checklist of what may happen next. Our instructions are: “Create an inventory and keep receipts.” My sister and her husband are sitting in limbo and wish to move forward. But they don't know what needs to be done.
Going through a major event like a firestorm is traumatic. Technologies are an awesome tool that enables carriers to deliver an excellent customer experience. But you will find aspects of the client experience that, currently, even both of these big brand-name carriers do not have right. Some of it could be automated, and some of it is about the human touch. Being an insurance industry, we can do better. And that we should.
