Playbook, insurance broker
Coverage questions, and the only safe shape for the answer
Whether a loss is covered depends on the wording, the schedule, the endorsements, the excess, the conditions and whether they were complied with. Not one of those is on the marketing pages an assistant is reading, so a confident yes is a guess with the broker's name on it. What the assistant can do is explain what a class of cover is generally bought for, say plainly that cover is confirmed against the customer's own documents, and get them to somebody who holds those documents.
Why this is not the general answer
The handling pattern for insurance and coverage holds across every trade. What follows is the part that does not.
- The answer lives in a document the assistant does not have and must not be given, since the wording that decides the question is the customer's own schedule rather than anything on the website.
- A wrong yes here does not merely mislead, it creates an expectation the broker will be asked to honour after a loss has already happened.
- The question is often asked with a policy section quoted back at it, which makes the assistant look equipped to answer when it is not, so the refusal has to hold even when the customer supplies wording.
- Reassuring somebody that a detail probably does not need mentioning risks contributing to non disclosure, which can cost them the policy rather than just the claim.
How it arrives
- am i covered for accidental damage
- does my policy cover me if i work from home
- is my tool kit covered when it is in the van overnight
- would this policy cover a flood
- what is the excess on this cover
- does public liability cover me for subcontractors
What has to be indexed for this to work
| Product descriptions by class of business | What each type of cover is generally bought against, written in the words a customer uses rather than in the words a wording uses. This is what lets the assistant be useful about the shape of a product without going near whether a particular loss falls inside it. |
|---|---|
| What each document you issue is and what it proves | The difference between a summary document, the full policy wording, the schedule and a certificate, and which one carries the terms that decide a coverage question. Half of these enquiries end correctly with the customer looking at their own schedule. |
| How a customer gets a coverage question answered | Who checks it, what they need from the customer, how quickly it comes back, and the route for something that cannot wait. The value here is speed to the right person, so the route has to be as specific as your claims line. |
| Your statement that the assistant does not confirm cover | Written for a customer who has just had something happen, not for a compliance file. This wording appears more often than any other on a broker's site, and it should carry the claims route inside it. |
The reply
I cannot confirm whether that is covered, because it depends on your own wording, your schedule and any endorsements on the policy, and I do not have those. What I can tell you is what that class of cover is generally bought for, which is described on the product page. If something has already happened, use the claims line rather than waiting, and if you leave your name and email one of the brokers will check your documents and come back to you.
It refuses in the first clause and immediately says why, because a customer who has just had a loss reads an unexplained refusal as evasion. Naming the specific documents that decide the question tells them where the answer actually lives, which is genuinely useful. Putting the claims line before the contact form matters because a coverage question and a claim arrive in the same message more often than not.
Where it stops
The trigger. Any question about whether a specific thing, person, place or event falls within a policy, including one that quotes a policy section back at the assistant.
Cover has to be confirmed against your own policy documents by one of the brokers, so I am not going to guess at it. If this has already happened please use the claims line, and otherwise leave your name and email and we will check it for you.
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 something is probably covered, or that a policy of that type usually includes it.
- Never interpret a policy section a customer has pasted into the chat.
- Never tell somebody a detail is unlikely to be relevant to disclose.
- Never state an excess figure for a customer whose schedule the assistant has not seen.
Questions
- Our product pages describe cover. Will it answer from those?
- It answers from whatever you index, so keep the wordings out and the descriptions general. Raise the caution level so a coverage question falls below the match threshold and returns your refusal rather than the nearest product page, and check the citations on early conversations to see what it reached for.
- What if the customer insists?
- The refusal should not soften on repetition, which is a matter of how you word it rather than how many times it is said. Write it so the second reading still explains why the answer is in their documents, and make the route to a broker the easiest thing on screen.
- Is there anything useful it can say about excesses?
- It can explain what an excess is and where to find theirs on the schedule. It cannot state the figure, because that number is specific to a policy it has no access to, and a wrong one changes whether somebody bothers to claim.
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 insurance and coverage in generalWhether something is covered turns on the policy wording, so the assistant explains process and never adjudicates. Claims have to reach a person fast.
- Quote requests at a broker, and the underwriting that stands in the wayPremiums come out of underwriting, not out of a price list. What the assistant collects instead, and how it keeps an indication from becoming a quote.
- Cancellation questions a broker can answer without opening a policyCooling off rights, mid term cancellation, how a refund is worked out and why the assistant cannot calculate one for a named policy.
- Payment questions at a broker, and the one with cover attached to itHow instalment arrangements work, what a broker fee covers and why a missed payment is not just a billing problem but a cover problem.
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.