A productive claims department is more than just the ability to close a high number of claims. It’s about how well you manage department priorities. It’s the level of service that claimants receive when working with adjusters.
But with so many competing priorities and increasing caseloads, how can you stay focused and keep your team productive? Here are 6 tips to help you manage your claims department:
1. Measure & Optimize Team Performance
How are your adjusters spending their time? Do they follow company policies and protocols? Do they respond to claims within 24 hours? How they engage in their role directly impacts the customer experience.
With a clear understanding of where your team stands today, you can start to plan for tomorrow.
Having clear goals is great, but knowing how your team measures up against them will show you just how far you’ve got to go.
From there, you can begin to plan to optimize. Know individual adjusters’ strengths and play to them, provide ample training, and implement the processes and technology that can help you streamline the claims process.
2. Use Data and Technology to Guide You
Processing claims creates a lot of data, but it means absolutely nothing if it can’t be used to glean actionable insights.
The right technology can put that power at your fingertips. You can build dashboards that provide different high-level views on your department or allow you to drill down into the data. It’s the ability to distill key information that can provide direction and help you make powerful decisions. The ability to seamlessly report to and communicate with leadership.
What are the most important metrics to you and your team? How often do you review them? And most importantly, how do the insights provided guide the direction of your team and department?
3. Get Organized
While we’re on the topic of technology, be sure to institute a comprehensive task-management system. The claims management process can be complicated, to say the least - between the amount of data associated with a claim (adjuster notes, police reports, etc.) and the number of people who have to review that information throughout the claim’s lifecycle.
This will help your team know where a claim is in the process, what needs to get done next, who’s responsible for it, and to make sure they have all the information available to them to get the job done.
This not only helps adjusters with individual claims but helps you keep track of progress across your department.
4. Give Every Claim the Attention it Deserves
Often, a focus on claims volume will come at the cost of customer service. In an effort to stay productive, adjusters will rush through claims to hit their numbers. It may even cause them to miss important details.
Give adjusters room to spend more time with insureds so they can address their concerns, explain coverage, and take the time to evaluate the claim appropriately. The last thing you want is the claimant feeling like the adjuster doesn’t have time for them or that they simply don’t care.
Balance must always be struck between claim volume and quality of service.
5. Be a Team Leader and Mentor
Spend more time with your adjusters. Be hands-on and serve as a mentor for them.
Each individual adjuster brings a unique skill set to your team. Getting to know them individually will help you learn how they can best contribute to the team. Assign tasks that suit their skillsets and behaviors. Know who to assign to which claims based on complexity and experience.
Ongoing coaching and mentoring not only ensures consistency and productivity but will help you strengthen relationships within your team. Furthermore, it gives them an opportunity to provide feedback and allows them to contribute to the direction of the department.
6. Build a Strong Vendor Network
Attorneys, contractors, medical professionals, independent adjusters - each play an important role and serve as an extension of your team. Leveraging these relationships can help you balance workloads, control costs, and increase efficiency.
When you need to bring in outside help, having the right relationships in place is crucial - whether it be to manage increasing caseloads, add expertise, or find an adjuster who is geographically closer to the claimant.
And that’s exactly how US Claims Solutions can help! We’ll service your claims needs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, nationwide.
We bring extensive knowledge and expertise in both field and desk adjusting. Email us at customerservice@usclaimsolutions.co or give us a call at (888) 701-1153.
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