Playbook, insurance broker
A loss, a chat window, and the first hour
Somebody typing after a break in or a burst pipe is not asking a question, they are looking for a number. There are usually two, and the one on the certificate for emergencies is not the one that opens a claim. Alongside that there are a few things they can get wrong in the first hour, mostly clearing up what has been damaged. Everything else, including the only question they actually want answered, belongs to somebody holding the policy.
Why this is not the general answer
The handling pattern for lost or damaged goods holds across every trade. What follows is the part that does not.
- The visitor is describing a loss rather than asking about a product, so a reply that opens by explaining a class of cover has already failed them.
- Policies commonly require notification to the insurer within a set time, and telling a broker in a chat window is not notification, so the reply has to move somebody onto the insurer's own route instead of absorbing the report.
- Most documents carry two numbers doing different jobs, an emergency assistance line that will send somebody out tonight and a claims line that opens a claim, and sending a person to the wrong one wastes the hour that mattered.
- Damaged property is evidence, and somebody who clears up before anybody has looked at it can weaken their own claim, which is a practical warning that goes nowhere near whether the loss is covered.
How it arrives
- we have been broken into what do i do first
- a pipe has burst and there is water everywhere
- my van has been stolen who do i ring
- do i need a crime reference number
- can i throw out the damaged stuff
- is there someone i can call tonight
What has to be indexed for this to work
| The claims route, with hours and an out of hours arrangement | The number, who answers it, when, and what happens outside those hours. This is the most important thing indexed on a broker's site, and it belongs inside the fallback message as well as on a page. |
|---|---|
| The emergency assistance arrangement | Which policies carry one, what it will do, and the fact that it is a different number from the claims line. Somebody standing in water tonight needs this one, and it is usually buried inside a wording. |
| What to have ready, and what not to do | Details of what happened and when, a crime reference where the police were involved, photographs, and a plain instruction not to dispose of damaged items or authorise repairs before the insurer has been told. |
| Notification time limits, stated generally | That policies require prompt notification and that delay can affect a claim, without quoting a period out of any particular wording. The purpose is urgency, not a number the assistant cannot support. |
The reply
Ring the claims line first, the number and the hours are here [1]. If you need somebody out tonight that is a different number, the emergency assistance line, and it is on your documents [2]. Two practical things in the meantime: keep the damaged items and photograph them rather than clearing up, and if the police were involved get the crime reference [3]. I cannot tell you whether this is covered and I am not going to guess, because that is read off your own policy. And nothing you type here counts as telling the insurer, so please make the call.
The first sentence is the whole reply for somebody skimming. The two numbers are separated because a customer who rings the claims line at midnight about a leak reaches an answerphone. The refusal on cover comes after the practical help rather than before it, so the reader does not stop at a no. The last sentence exists because people genuinely believe a message in a chat window has reported something.
Where it stops
The trigger. The visitor describes an incident, a theft, damage or an injury, in any tense.
Please use the claims line rather than waiting on this. If you would also like somebody here to ring you, leave your name, an email and your policy reference, but do not let that hold up the call.
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 loss is likely to be covered, or that this sort of thing usually is, because the wording, the schedule and the excess decide it and the assistant has none of them.
- Never state an excess figure, since it sits on the customer's own schedule and often has a compulsory part and a voluntary part.
- Never take the details of an incident as though a claim has been reported, because a message here reaches nobody at the insurer.
- Never tell somebody to get the repair done and claim it back, as most policies require the insurer to be told before work is authorised.
Questions
- Should the fallback message carry the claims number?
- Yes, and it is the highest value sentence on the whole widget. Somebody who has just had a fire types before they read, so the number has to be in the first reply whatever they asked.
- Can it take the claim details to save us time?
- No, and it should not look as though it might. It cannot pass anything to an insurer, and somebody who has typed a full account believes they have reported it. Taking a name and an email as a follow up is fine, provided the call remains the instruction.
- What about somebody asking whether to claim at all?
- That is a coverage and excess question in different clothes, and it goes to a broker. The assistant can say the decision depends on their own excess and their policy, which is true and gives them the shape of the answer without supplying it.
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 lost or damaged goods in generalThe claim window, the photographs needed, the carrier's role, and why this reaches a person sooner than almost anything else in support.
- Three sets of hours, and only one of them is the broker'sThe office opens at nine, but nothing goes on risk until an insurer is open, and the claims line keeps hours the broker does not set.
- What can be adjusted, and the request that is something elseA wording in large print is an adjustment. Letting a relative deal with the policy is a change of authority, and not the same request.
- Coming to a broker for the first timeThe first conversation is a fact find with a duty attached. What to have ready, what the broker must tell you, and who it searches.
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.