Playbook, insurance broker
Two complaint routes, and the assistant does not pick between them
The person typing is angry about one thing and it is usually a number: the renewal came in higher, a claim settled for less than expected, a fee appeared after a change of address. Behind those sit two firms and two procedures, because a broker answers for its own conduct and an insurer answers for its own decisions. Sorting which is which is a judgement, and the assistant is not the one to make it.
Why this is not the general answer
The handling pattern for complaints holds across every trade. What follows is the part that does not.
- The complaint splits by who did the thing complained of: the broker answers for its service and its charges, while a claim decision or the premium itself belongs to the insurer and follows that firm's procedure.
- Guessing wrong sends somebody down the wrong route while their time limits run, which turns a complaint about a fee into a complaint about the handling of a complaint.
- A large share of these arrive at renewal, because the invitation prints last year's premium next to this year's and the increase is the trigger, even though the broker set neither figure.
- Any sympathetic remark about whether the outcome was fair reads as the firm conceding the point, and it will be produced later when the file is looked at.
How it arrives
- my renewal has gone up loads and nobody will explain why
- i want to complain about how my claim was settled
- who do i complain to about a broker
- how long do you have to answer a complaint
- i was charged a fee i was never told about
- can i take this further if you say no
What has to be indexed for this to work
| Your complaints procedure, written as steps with times against them | Where to send it, how long acknowledgement takes, how long you take to reach a final response, and the external route available after that. Publish it as your own document rather than as a summary of what the rules require, because the customer is following your steps. |
|---|---|
| The split between your conduct and an insurer's decision | Which categories come to you and which go to the insurer, with a contact route for each. This is the whole of the page: an assistant that cannot tell them apart sends a claims complaint to your inbox, where it sits. |
| What renewal correspondence actually contains | That the invitation shows the previous premium next to the new one, what tends to move it, and how somebody asks for the market to be searched again. Most renewal complaints are answered by explaining the document the customer is holding. |
| The fee position when a complaint is upheld | Whether your charges are returnable, and who decides. Customers assume a complaint reverses every charge on the account, and having the honest answer written down keeps it out of an improvised first reply. |
The reply
I am sorry it has reached this, and I am not going to try to settle it here. There are two routes, and which applies depends on who made the decision you are unhappy with. If it concerns our service or a charge of ours, our complaints procedure says where to send it and how long we take [1]. If it concerns how a claim was dealt with, or the premium the insurer set, that goes to the insurer under their own procedure and the contact is on your schedule [2]. Leave me your name and an email and somebody here will make sure it reaches the right place.
It apologises for the position without agreeing that anybody did anything wrong, which is the only apology a firm can afford before it has read the file. The split comes first because everything after it depends on which side the complaint sits. And it does not announce the split itself, it explains it and then puts the message in front of a person.
Where it stops
The trigger. The visitor says they are making a complaint, names an outcome they are unhappy with, or asks how to take it further.
A complaint should not be left sitting in a chat window. Give me your name, an email and a line about what happened, and it goes to the person here who handles complaints, who will also tell you if it belongs with the insurer instead.
It stops answering before it guesses, says who will pick it up, and asks for the one thing that makes a reply possible. Nothing about it reads as a dead end.
Never say this here
Out of bounds
- Never say a decision was wrong, unfair or a mistake, because that is the firm accepting a position it has not investigated.
- Never tell somebody a renewal increase is normal or affects everybody, since the premium is the insurer's and the reason for it is on no page here.
- Never state a deadline for taking a complaint further, as those periods vary and a wrong one can cost somebody the route entirely.
- Never promise a refund of a fee or a premium to calm somebody down, because only a broker can agree that and the promise will be produced later.
Questions
- Should the assistant try to resolve the small ones?
- No, and the reason is that it cannot see what happened. It has no file, no correspondence and no account, so anything it settles is settled on one side of the story. Its job here is to route accurately and quickly.
- Can it work out whether the complaint is ours or the insurer's?
- It can explain the split and let the person place themselves, which most do correctly. It should not announce the answer, because a misrouted complaint costs somebody time they may not have.
- Does taking complaints through chat create a record we have to keep?
- Treat one that arrives this way exactly as you treat one that arrives by email, and set the handover to collect an address so the file has somewhere to go. That is a process decision on your side rather than a product setting.
Keep reading
- Everything for a insurance brokerProduct information is safe ground. A personal recommendation is regulated, and no assistant may confirm whether a loss is covered.
- Handling complaints in generalThe job is to route, not to resolve. Acknowledge without conceding, name the escalation route, and get it to a person fast.
- Getting a meeting with a broker, and whether the caller needs oneA review is scheduled backwards from a renewal date, and half the people asking for a meeting only need a document today.
- A deletion request, and the three records it lands onMarketing contact, client record and claims file are deleted on different terms, and the insurer holds a copy the broker cannot touch.
- Three separate sums, and why the refund looks wrongA return premium, a broker fee and a credit agreement settle separately, which is why the amount never matches what was expected.
Try it on your own material
Upload a document or point it at your site, paste one line of HTML, then ask it something only your business could answer.