It’s policy renewal time for a client you’ve been working with for several years. The incumbent carrier you’ve inherited is good — but not great. Service times are slow, claims management is disjointed, and underwriting isn’t particularly accommodating either.
To you, switching carriers is the nature of the business. But for your client, leaving an incumbent carrier they’ve known for years — even a carrier who has caused service issues in the past — can feel complicated and uncertain. They may not be aware of how seamless, efficient, and cost-effective a change can be. As their partner in this transaction, it’s your job to make a case for making a change. Your “pitch for the switch” should focus on easing the pain points and the problems created by the current carrier and the overall impact on your client’s finances and time.
Making the case for a switch to a new carrier is about much more than shopping for lower rates. It’s about looking for an insurer that will support your client in the long term, and offer services that create a safer workplace.
When is it Time to Switch Carriers?
Swapping workers compensation carriers isn’t something you should encourage clients to do on a whim. Your client trusts you, and you need to trust that the carriers you recommend have the credibility and service that stand up to your client’s specific needs. While it always pays to shop around, there are vast differences in service offerings, and they impact each client group differently.
The best place to start your evaluation of service amongst carriers is with claims.
Claims are where the rubber meets the road in the insurer and insured relationship. A negative claims experience affects more than the injured employee; the morale of the organization can suffer. If employees don’t feel cared for when they’re hurt, they won’t want to work for your client. Reputational harm to an organization’s brand that can follow.
The workers compensation claims process should put the worker first. So, review what your incumbent carrier provides for an injured worker. Do they have a network of recommended medical specialists? What’s the return to work program? A return to work plan is vital for the employee and employer. The carrier’s claims team should be working with key stakeholders to create a plan that meets everyone’s needs.
Running a claims process that gives workers the care and resources they need and helps them back to work is the bare minimum. Why not look further and consider how a carrier works to prevent claims before they happen?
The Case for Going Insurtech
It’s not enough for a carrier to simply offer coverage. A strong, valuable insurer-insured relationship is a partnership, and carriers need to play an active role in improving your client’s business.
Many traditional carriers have yet to adapt to a partnership role. They manage large portfolios, are encumbered by complicated corporate processes, and avoid high-risk business. Much of their technology is outdated because of their size and the complexity of updating to newer models and resources. These qualities don’t just impact underwriting. The traditional carrier’s low appetite for high-hazard industries limits their ability to create incentivized safety solutions.
High-hazard, middle-market clients aren’t served well by traditional insurers: they not only overpay in workers comp premiums, but they don’t get the service that empowers them to lower claims frequency and operate safer workplaces.
Insurtechs have an edge on the competition because they use current, innovative technology to help clients lower risk, enabling the insurtech to better serve clients who tend to fall through the cracks. Using technology, insurtechs provide data and insights that are not available in loss reports, and the information is often available in real-time. That means you and your customer can tackle problems before they happen.
By working with a partner like Foresight, your client can record observations, report incidents, and start the claims process. That kind of power results in fewer injuries on the job. It also cuts down lag time in the claims process, meaning employees get the treatment and support they need to get back to work faster.
How to Pitch New Insurers to Your Clients
When you sit down with your client to discuss a carrier switch, have data in your hands that show the average claims processing time, the average cost per incident, and the cost of a premium during the duration of the relationship with the incumbent carrier. Highlight how these costs affect the client’s bottom line. Share the measurable progress other customers made when they switched carriers. Describe what the new carrier was able to do for them in the quote process, and how that made a difference in their safety management and their bottom line.
Offer a side-by-side comparison of what an insurtech can do as opposed to the incumbent. Is there a dedicated team that will work exclusively with your customer on all issues? Or are their processing times are much quicker than the current insurer? Put this in front of your client so that they can see the information for themselves.
Change Can Be Good for You
You prioritize your customer’s needs. You need an insurer who will work alongside you with that same mindset.
An insurtech like Foresight makes safety a priority in each part of the workers comp process by empowering your clients to create a safer work environment. Each policy and the risk management technology behind it is focused on helping the insured. For your customers that work in high-risk industries, an insurtech can address problems in a new way.
