5 TIPS FOR GETTING YOUR CLAIM ISSUES RESOLVED MORE QUICKLY

When filing a claim, how can you get it resolved more quickly? Dealing with an insurance claims adjuster to get your claim taken care of is often frustrating and time consuming. Here are some tips to help you get the quickest response to any of your needs from your insurance adjuster:

1. Involve your agent at the beginning and throughout the life of your claim. Allow your agent to communicate with the handling adjuster, particularly on difficult issues. Your agent has access to communicate with the adjuster and their supervisor to get the quickest response.
2. When appropriate, and if possible, try to send emails. This will eliminate the aggravation of playing "phone tag". It will also create a "paper trail" by exchanging documents, invoices, etc., which often proves useful.
3. If phone contact is necessary, allow between 24 and 48 hours for a response. You are the client and the adjuster "works for you". This means the adjuster should promptly respond to all customer service needs. In reality, because of volume of inquiries, same day responses are often difficult to achieve. However, and depending on the nature/complexity of your request, if your adjuster doesn't respond within 24-48 hours, then contact his or her supervisor. Even better yet, let your agency representative make this contact. There is seldom an excuse for delays beyond 48 hours, and the supervisor should know about these types of delays from their staff.
4. Get to know your adjuster If you have multiple and ongoing claims requiring weekly or regular interaction. Coordinate schedules with one another. Ask questions (or discuss "the obvious") up front, which could save time for everyone in the long run and aid in avoiding misunderstandings. Discuss expectations and make sure your adjuster knows your time management goals and needs so he or she can accommodate you. Help your adjuster understand how to make your job easier.
5. Establish clearly understood timeframes or deadlines. Ask your adjuster when he or she anticipates something, such as settlement, to occur.

To quote the warden in the movie Cool Hand Luke, "What we have here is a failure to communicate." This classic line sums up many of the problems we face in business. It is not so much that we aren't communicating with each other, it's that we are communicating inadequately. We often use the wrong format (phone v. email), the wrong timing (conflicting schedules or time zones), or with wrong assumptions (waiting for a work associate to respond to you when they may in fact be waiting on you for something).

By taking a little time beforehand to plan how you communicate with your adjuster (especially regarding your expectations), you will save yourself and your adjuster the frustration of wasting time and resources.