When it comes to insurance, many customers feel they have no control over their price, product, how incidents happen, losses, etc. A properly constructed service plan mitigates this frustration.
James Misselwitz, CPCU, vice president at ECBM, says a service plan is something business owners should be asking their broker about upfront.
“They should say, ‘OK, you’ve given me this spiel on all the wonderful things you’re going to do. Now show me how you’re going to deliver it to me,’” he says. “‘Show me how you deliver it to your existing customers, and show me what happens when something doesn’t get done. Give me that blueprint, so I know I can depend on you.’
“There’s no question that somebody who doesn’t follow an active service plan with a broker will ultimately pay the highest premium out in the marketplace.”
Smart Business spoke with Misselwitz about effective service plans that help manage risk.
How do service plans create fail-safe procedures?
Although most brokers use some version of a service plan, many do not monitor and control it. A service plan is a client-driven method where business owners determine, along with a broker or agent, what services they need, how often they need it and who is responsible for delivering it to them.
Some services might be a review of market conditions before renewal; a review of the loss experience and current claim activity; a review of the outstanding reserves on claims that have already occurred; a review of information for the renewal like the current automobile schedule or payroll; and a tentative experience modification factor review that shows the impact of workers’ compensation on your renewal.
The service plan helps manage the insurance throughout each cycle of the policy. Both the company and broker know the expectations, and the plan can operate as a safeguard. When the broker doesn’t complete a claim review at six months, for example, a fully automated, computerized service plan notifies the underwriter by triggering an alert at the brokerage firm. At the same time, executives have a copy of the plan and can ask the broker about it.
What happens when service plans aren’t properly executed?
Things fall through the cracks. The insurance business is a deluge of paper and electronic messages, so it’s easy to lose a due date or report that needs to be run. If companies don’t actively manage insurance with the help of their brokers, they give up control of pricing, coverage, and losses to the whims and vagaries of the insurance companies and marketplace.
For instance, if your company doesn’t have a regular claim review on workers’ compensation activity, you could have a few large claims on reserves. You might not be working on action plans to mitigate those claims. So your renewal comes up, and it’s running a temperature with a poor loss ratio. Your insurer might ask for 40 percent more to underwrite the risk or send out a notification of cancellation. Now, you and your broker are scrambling to put together a response that will allow the underwriter to stay on a reasonable price.
With what types of insurance is a service plan most important?
With a commercial account, service plan diligence is most critical with insurance lines that have loss activity and when there is anticipated change. You want to automatically stay in control of critical items like losses, payroll, premiums, sales, etc.
Also, you need a service plan if there’s an anticipated change, such as a merger or expansion. It’s important to have the right coverage at the inception, as well as coordinating existing coverage so you’re not being overcharged because of overlap.
Why is flexibility key?
As a commercial insurance purchaser, it is important to develop a system with your broker that will deliver the service that you want and need. A service plan is one such system that can help you control costs and deal effectively with change, both in your operations and in the insurance marketplace. While flexibility is the key to tailoring a service plan for each business owner, it is the ability of the broker to audit the process that seems to be the critical element in making the program work extremely well.
James Misselwitz, CPCU, is a vice president at ECBM. Reach him at (888) 313-3226, ext. 1278, or [email protected].
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