Playbook, insurance broker
The handover that starts with a phone number, not a form
Most handovers in this family collect a name and an email and hand the enquiry to somebody who will read it in the morning. This one cannot. A customer typing after an incident has notification conditions running against them, delay can prejudice the claim itself, and they are not in a state to read three sentences before finding the number. The whole design here is that the phone number arrives first and the form is the backstop rather than the destination.
Why this is not the general answer
The handling pattern for asking for a person holds across every trade. What follows is the part that does not.
- The output of the handover is a phone number rather than a captured enquiry, which is the reverse of every other page in this family.
- Claims carry notification conditions and time limits set by the policy, so the cost of a slow handover is measured against the claim rather than against customer satisfaction.
- The customer is often typing minutes after something happened, so the reply is being read by somebody distracted and upset, and it has to survive being skimmed.
- Anything the assistant says about the incident risks being treated as the broker's first view of the claim, so it takes no detail at all rather than taking a summary.
How it arrives
- i have had an accident what do i do
- how do i make a claim
- there has been a fire at the shop who do i call
- someone has hit my van and driven off
- is there an out of hours claims number
- i need to speak to somebody now
What has to be indexed for this to work
| The claims line, its hours, and the out of hours arrangement | The number itself, when it is staffed, what happens outside those hours, and whether any class of business has a different number. This belongs inside the refusal wording rather than in a document the assistant has to go and find. |
|---|---|
| What a customer should have ready when they call | Policy number, date and time, location, what happened in a sentence, other parties, any reference from an emergency service. Giving somebody something to do while they dial is the most useful thing on this page. |
| Notification requirements in general terms | That policies require notification promptly, that delay can affect a claim, and that a customer should notify even where they have not decided to claim. Stated as a general principle rather than as anybody's specific condition. |
| Emergency assistance arrangements you have in place | Any helpline for glass, escape of water, breakdown, legal expenses or property damage, and which policies include it. Customers ring the broker for things a helpline handles faster, and the assistant can redirect that in one reply. |
The reply
Ring the claims line now rather than waiting on this chat, and if it is out of hours the same number will take you to the emergency service. Have your policy number, the date and time, the location and a one line description ready when you call. Do not send me the details of what happened, because this is not a claims notification and I do not want it sitting here. If you cannot get through, leave your name and number and we will call you back.
The first word is an instruction, because a customer in this state reads the beginning of a reply and stops. It gives them a task while they dial, which is calming and shortens the call. Refusing the details is unusual in a handover and it is deliberate here, because a description left in a chat log can be mistaken by the customer for having notified the claim.
Where it stops
The trigger. Any mention of something that has already happened: an accident, a theft, damage, an injury, a loss, or a third party making a demand.
Please use the claims line straight away rather than waiting here, since claims have to be notified promptly. If you cannot get through, leave your name, number and policy reference and somebody will ring you back today.
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 suggest a claim can be notified by leaving a message in the chat.
- Never comment on whether the incident sounds like a claim worth making.
- Never say whether an excess will apply or how a claim will affect a renewal.
- Never ask the customer to set out what happened before they are told to ring.
Questions
- Why put the claims number in the refusal wording rather than in a document?
- Because the refusal is what appears when a question falls below the match threshold, and an incident message is exactly the kind of question that does. Putting the number there means the customer sees it in the first reply regardless of what the assistant matched.
- Should it take details as a backup?
- Only a name, a number and a policy reference, and only if the customer cannot get through. Taking a description of the incident invites the belief that notification has happened, and that belief is the one thing worse than a slow answer.
- What about a customer who is not sure whether to claim?
- Same handover. Whether to notify is a question with conditions attached, and telling somebody they probably do not need to bother is the version of this that ends with an uninsured loss.
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 asking for a person in generalThe design question at the centre of a support assistant. Offer early, offer once, collect what a reply needs, promise a time you can keep.
- Two different prices, and the assistant may quote only oneA premium is the insurer's number. The fee schedule is the broker's own, it is publishable, and disclosing it is not optional.
- Two complaint routes, and the assistant does not pick between themService by the broker and a decision by the insurer are two complaints with two routes. The assistant must not choose between them.
- 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.
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.