Build trust to lower claims costs

If you are a CEO of an insurance company—anywhere in Kenya or across Africa—I have a challenge for you: Make claims payment your boldest strategy. Not marketing. Not promotions. Not clever campaigns. Claims. Make a decision—today: Pay every genuine claim quickly, fairly, and consistently Remove unnecessary friction, delays, and excuses Stop looking for reasons not to pay—start focusing on delivering on the promise And here’s the shift most won’t make: Elevate claims to the top of your executive agenda. Not as a department. Not as a process. But as a strategic growth engine. Hold these teams to a higher standard: Claims managers — speed, fairness, zero unnecessary disputes Underwriters — clarity of cover; no surprises at claim stage Customer experience — proactive, transparent communication Legal & compliance — enable fair settlement, not technical avoidance Operations — eliminate internal bottlenecks Then do something even more radical: Be visible while doing it. Let the market see it. Let your clients experience it. Let your agents and brokers talk about it everywhere. I challenge you: Go so hard on paying legitimate claims that it becomes your reputation. Let people say: "That company pays claims without drama." Because here’s the uncomfortable truth: Insurance is not trusted—not because people don’t understand it, but because too many have not seen it work when it matters most. And I’m not speaking from theory. I’m speaking from a grounded research standpoint—and from the field. Every week, I engage with 20+ institutional leaders (HR, procurement) and multiple retail clients. I listen. I observe. I hear the same question repeatedly: “Will it really pay when I need it?” Global industry evidence consistently shows: Claims experience is the strongest driver of trust and retention Customers who receive fair, timely payouts are significantly more likely to renew and refer You don’t grow insurance in Africa by shouting louder. You grow it by honoring the promise—consistently and visibly. Commit to this for six months—then evaluate the outcome: 📈 Stronger retention 📈 Increased referrals 📈 Improved market confidence Growth stops being forced—and starts becoming natural. Stay consistent for a year, and something powerful happens: You won’t need to push marketing as hard. Your claims reputation will start doing the marketing for you. Trust becomes your distribution channel. Six months from today, come back to this post and tell us what changed. No gimmicks. No noise. Just doing the one thing insurance was created to do: Pay claims.

A client came to me this morning (not happy) and said that their MSP gave them a document to sign stating that the MSP is absolving themselves of all risk because she wouldn't approve the security operations solution they pitched... If your idea of “risk management” is having your client sign a document that says “you tried to sell them a tool or service, and they said no” … ->you're not managing risk. You’re managing your liability. And it shows. This is one of the fastest ways to create distrust, kill rapport, and get fired. It instantly turns the relationship adversarial. You’re no longer a partner or trusted advisor, and they see you as someone shifting blame just in case something goes wrong. That’s not leadership. That’s fear. Let me ask you something, How do you think it makes your client feel when you hand them a paper to sign that says, 'This one’s on you'?” You don’t need a signature to prove they own the risk. They already do. What they need is clarity, collaboration, and leadership. Here’s a better way: -Put the risk on a shared Risk Register. -Document the conversation in context, not as a threat, but as a roadmap. -Identify compensating controls you can implement. -Make the risk visible to decision-makers...NOT to blame, but to educate. -Revisit it periodically. Shrink it over time. That’s how you build trust. That’s how you protect the relationship. And that’s how you lead clients through risk & not around it. If you frame risk as a “you didn’t buy the thing, so you’re at fault” moment, you’re losing the negotiation before it even starts. But if you treat it like a shared challenge that you’ll solve together, you build a long-term partnership. One built on truth, not transactions. Stop asking for signatures. Start showing leadership. Your clients won’t forget it...and neither will your churn rate. #msp #ciso #riskmanagement #business

Claims Advocacy is Replacing Claims Management Vocabulary dictates behavior. For 40 years, our industry has called it "Claims Management." The word management implies controlling a liability. It puts the adjuster, the employer, and the technology in a defensive, adversarial posture against the worker. The industry is finally waking up. The new standard we are building toward is Claims Advocacy. The word advocacy implies guiding a human. When you treat an injured 24-year-old like a fraud suspect, they will hire a lawyer to protect themselves. When you treat them like a valued team member who had a bad day, they partner with you to get better. Management Workflow: Mails a dense, 14-page legal packet outlining the worker's obligations and waits for them to make a mistake. Advocacy Workflow: Triggers an automated sequence that sends a $50 DoorDash gift card on day one (so the family doesn’t have to cook), followed by a phone call from a triage nurse to explain the medical process in plain English. Empathy Pays. The companies adopting the advocacy model aren't just being nice; they are being ruthlessly effective. According to data from Willis Towers Watson, advocacy-based claims models reduce litigation rates by 30% to 50% and lower overall claim costs by up to 20%. You don't need to fight your employees. You need to guide them. Build workflows that trigger empathy, not just compliance.

I hear this question WAY too many times. “Can I talk to my injured employee?” Yes. You can. And you should. Silence doesn’t protect you. Silence drives up costs. Silence destroys trust. When employees get hurt, they feel isolated. No updates. No contact. No clarity. That gap fills with fear. Then lawyers. Then inflated claims. In Illinois, you can check in directly. You can ask how they’re healing. You can review return-to-work options. You can explain their benefits. And you should. Because workers’ comp isn’t paperwork. It’s culture. Here’s how to do it right: Call within 24 hours of the injury. Lead with care. Listen fully. Document clearly. Offer modified duty early. Schedule weekly check-ins until cleared. Keep them engaged. Loop in HR and supervisors. Track every step for consistency. Before the next injury: Build light-duty roles. Train managers how to talk. Make this the norm, not the exception. Communication lowers costs. It speeds recovery. It keeps people close. If you care about your team, Don’t wait for the adjuster. Pick up the phone. That’s not risk management. That’s leadership. __________ Enjoy this? ♻️ Repost to share with your network and follow me. If you want to learn how we help companies build a better claims culture, join 5k+ professionals and sign up for our FREE newsletter. Link in my bio → Vince DiBenedetto

"Don't rock the boat!" Someone called it out from the left of the room. The whole room laughed. The kind of laugh that happens when people recognise themselves. I had just asked a hall full of claims professionals one question. Have you ever sat in a meeting, wanted to say something, and decided to stay quiet? The laughter was the answer. It is the same instinct I saw years ago. A room where everybody knew, and nobody said. Speaking up felt more dangerous than staying silent. That instinct is human. In claims, it is also expensive. Insurance is a trust business. A claim is a trust transaction. It runs on information arriving accurate, fast, and in time. The moment people decide silence is safer than the truth, the information stops moving. The adjuster waits. The small problem grows in the dark. The fraud signal gets spotted and never voiced. The escalation arrives too late to be cheap. When trust falls, claims cost rises. We keep answering this with more process and more technology. Very little goes to the people who carry the trust. And a values poster has never made a single human being tell the truth. We confused compliance with trust. You can mandate compliance. You can only earn trust. The research backs it. In the Harvard hospital studies, the best teams reported more mistakes. Not because they made more, but because they felt safe enough to surface them while they were still small enough to fix. Google studied 180 teams for two years and found the same thing. The top factor was psychological safety. The room echoed with me "Safety is not comfort." Comfort avoids tension. Safety holds it. Comfort protects feelings. Safety protects dignity and still goes after the truth. The audience was having fun with hand gestures as they learnt about how we project ourselves. People watch a leader far more than they listen to one. Long before anyone hears your plan, they have already read whether it is safe to speak. Three things any leader can start to build trust: #1. Steady yourself before you steady the room. The room mirrors the leader. #2 Make truth safer than silence. Thank the person who surfaces a problem, out loud, before you rush to fix it. #3 Repair faster than you break. Move first on the relationship that has gone quiet. One line stayed with the room. Silence is not safety. Sometimes silence is just survival. The work of a leader is to make it safe enough that survival is never the reason someone stays quiet. Grateful to Andreea Ilie ACMA, CGMA for her leadership at MDD Forensic Accountants and the Jakarta Claims Conference and to Ben Lovell for the welcome to the stage in Jakarta. Great to meet the team Tracy Chung and speakers Wina Marita AGMA, CGMA, CFE Graham Copland and Ts. Vanesha Ganeson. More names tagged in comments. #PsychologicalSafety #Insuranceindustry #Leadership AYANA Midplaza Jakarta

A recent Business Today feature highlights a painful truth — mistrust in health insurance is growing. Claim delays, unclear policy terms, and inadequate coverage leave many Indians feeling unprotected even when insured. This trust gap can be closed — with: ✅ Clear, jargon-free policy explanations so customers know what’s covered and what’s not. ✅ Curated, needs-based plan recommendations — not one-size-fits-all. ✅ Proactive claims support so customers aren’t left navigating the maze alone. ✅ Long-term focus on renewals and adequate cover, not just first-year sales. Insurance is a promise — and a promise is only as strong as the trust behind it. https://lnkd.in/dcmnY3bM

I've seen worker's comp claims turn into lawsuits over one simple thing.   How the company handled the injured employee after the incident.   Most safety managers focus on preventing claims. But what happens AFTER someone gets hurt determines whether a $5,000 claim becomes a $50,000 lawsuit.   Here are 6 steps to reduce claims costs before they spiral:   1. Build positive relationships with your employees at all levels.   Create an environment of teamwork and that we are all working towards a common goal. This shifts perception from a BIG uncaring company, to a small close-knit team.   2. Have first aid and comfort products easily available.   And have plenty of first aid trained staff and employees available on all shifts. This signals that you will go out of your way to help when it's needed in any capacity and that you have the skills to help.   3. Follow clear accident response procedures every time.   Train your staff on what to do following an incident, and always focus on the well-being of those involved FIRST and not on how it happened or what they did wrong.   4. Use a tele-nurse triage system when possible.   Allowing your staff to speak privately to a healthcare professional will give them peace of mind and reduces occupational health visits for minor injuries.   5. Front-Line Supervisors and Managers check in regularly.   If treatment is needed and it's not an emergency, their boss should be the one taking them to Occ. Health. If they are out of work, their boss should be calling or visiting regularly.   6. Include employees in your incident investigation and interviews.   The focus of the investigation needs to be what the company could have done to prevent the incident. Having employees there sets the tone that we are not blaming, but searching. 7. Allow the Employee to come back on light duty   When they are able, bring them back into the work environment. Keeping it to the same shift and team, but with modified duty. Give them meaningful tasks that add to the success of the team. This will get them to full duty quicker. When employees feel supported and cared for, they don't call lawyers.   Start with #1 today. Build those relationships before you need them.   ----- Enjoy this? ♻️ Repost it to your network and follow Brye Sargent, CSP for more.   Want to learn more Safety Leadership Strategies? Transform your Safety Career in just 3 minutes a day.   Subscribe to The Safety Leadership Newsletter: https://lnkd.in/e6Q-5axb 

I earned a 95% NPS score as a claims handler. Here's how you can too ⬇️ Many customers go into the claims process expecting to be let down. But claims professionals have the power to change the narrative. Here’s how I consistently maintained a high customer experience score while juggling the demands of the job: 1. Streamlined communication. I created standardized email templates in Outlook using Quick Parts, outlining everything I needed from the customer to start the claim process. This meant spending more time LISTENING than explaining. 2. Educate with empathy. Even when delivering bad news, I focused on education. I made sure they knew more about their policy than they did before the claim and also explained how the VTL states they cannot brake check as a form of retatliation for being cut off. 3. Set clear expectations. Customers value transparency. I made it a point to proactively update them throughout the claims process. If a deadline was approaching, they’d get a quick text or email update (using another template). These small actions built trust and avoided confusion. 4. Invest in investigative excellence. By saving hours each month with communication templates, I could dedicate more time to thorough investigative work. This helped ensure fair outcomes, which customers (sometimes) appreciate—even in tough situations. 💡 TLDR; Pro Tips for Claims Professionals: - Build templates for repetitive tasks to save time and reduce errors. - Educate customers, even if it means delivering tough news—they’ll respect your honesty. - Be proactive with updates; silence builds frustration. - Remember: empathy and clarity go hand in hand. Claims work is tough, but small changes in how you communicate and connect with customers can make a huge difference for them and for you. #claimsprofessional #customerexperience #insurance

What if we’ve been glorifying the wrong function in insurance? For years, we celebrated underwriting brilliance. Pricing sophistication. Growth ratios. But customers don’t remember any of that. They remember one sentence: “I’ve had a loss.” That moment, not underwriting defines your brand. Underwriting wins policies. Claims wins loyalty. Loyalty wins profitability. Yet claims remains one of the most under led functions in our industry. A senior claims executive told me recently: We digitized submission. But inside, it’s still manual. That’s the illusion of transformation. A benchmark across 190+ insurance processes in the DACH region shows: Up to 70% of straightforward claims can be automated Up to 31% reduction in total claims servicing cost 38% savings in FNOL & triage 14% in reserving 31% in settlement This is beyond AI hype. It’s operational math. And it doesn’t require ripping out legacy core systems. Earlier we were talking about Old model : which is effectively big bang replacement. High risk. High cost. Slow value. New model? Modular platforms of intelligence. They sit on top of existing systems. Connect via APIs. Orchestrate workflows. Deploy task specific AI. Progressively hollow out legacy complexity. What changes? FNOL becomes real time and priorities. Reserving becomes dynamic and data driven. Settlement becomes automated, connected, and fraud aware. Most insurers are investing in AI where it looks impressive. But the real P&L leverage is where it hurts: claims. Just think about this: Insurance was built on handshake trust. Yet customers still wait weeks for decisions AI can support in minutes. Mid sized insurers can unlock up to 31% annual savings within months with lower risk and faster time to value. Five years from now, discussion would not be around: who priced best. It would be around insurers customers trusted most when everything went wrong. Ultimately in insurance, trust compounds faster than capital. Refer attached report for detailed insights.⬇️ #Insurance #InsurTech #AI #ClaimsTransformation