ReSource Pro’s Policy Insights team checked 1.1 million policies in 2018, uncovering a total of 4.5 million discrepancies, all in one year. Policy errors are incredibly common and extremely risky. In addition to financial loss, insurance agencies can lose their reputation with clients. Improving the quality of your policies can unlock new doors, including better relationships with insureds as well as others in the industry.
In a previous post, we revealed three of the most common policy errors and how they happen. Today, we’ll share five best practices that can help you achieve greater policy accuracy while reducing liability.
1. Agency training
Given the dynamic nature of risk and the complexity of insurance, training is a constant process in any insurance organization. In particular, training in risk assessment tends to pose the most significant challenge for agents and can lead to some of the worst outcomes for insureds, such as coverage gaps and inadequate limits.
2. Human verification
When it comes to policy checking, don’t bet all your chips on the machine. It’s great to have a bot that can do a large amount of work in a short period of time, but humans need to be looped in to ensure 100% accuracy.
3. Documentation
If a customer is offered coverage, but refuses for any reason, the interaction should be documented. Doing so can help protect against E&O and other liabilities, as the customer could suffer damages and later claim they received improper coverage.
4. Technical training
Producers need to understand how to make the most out of opportunities. Training can help producers conduct better leadership conversations with customers, piquing their interest in current and emerging risks and providing them with other industry insights they may not know about.
5. Insight
Training your producers and agents won’t go far unless you’re constantly taking a temperature of their individual sales processes, habits, and other patterns. In other words: take a close look at what your people are doing. Are they providing the ideal experience for insured? Are they creating the right expectations?
Try to keep track of data such as an agent’s policy accuracy or number of closed deals and sales meetings. Many companies track premium growth, but this doesn’t always equate to business growth. For instance, an agent who signs on six clients worth $2 million combined is growing the business more than an agent who signs on two clients worth the same amount.
Take the guesswork out of improving policy accuracy with ReSource Pro’s Policy Insights solution and unique training offerings through our Growth Solutions.