Claims handling as a marketing asset you already paid for

Aug 29
3 min read

Updated: 2 days ago

Introduction

A broker spends three weeks arguing a disputed claim, involves a loss adjuster, corrects an insurer's interpretation and recovers a substantial settlement for a client who would otherwise have received nothing.

The client is enormously grateful. Nobody outside that conversation ever hears about it. The brokerage's website describes competitive premiums and a personal service, in the same words as every competitor, while the thing that actually distinguishes it happens quietly and is never mentioned again. The single strongest piece of evidence the firm owns is treated as routine work.

1. Claims handling as a marketing asset uses the moment the product is tested

Recognise what a claim is.

Insurance is a promise until something happens, and a claim is the only occasion on which the promise is examined. Whatever a brokerage does at that point is the entire substance of what it sells.

2. Describe what you actually do at a claim

Specificity rather than reassurance.

Who they call, whether it is answered out of hours, who deals with the insurer, who challenges a declined claim, and who visits. Every brokerage says it supports clients at claim time and almost none explains what that means in practice.

3. Use anonymised examples

Evidence without breaching confidentiality.

A short account of a situation, what the difficulty was, what you did and what the outcome was, with identifying details removed. This is far more persuasive than any general statement about service.

4. Get permission where you can use the name

Considerably stronger with attribution.

Clients who were well served at a claim are often willing to be named or quoted, and asking shortly afterwards is the right moment. Record consent properly and confirm what may be said.

5. Publish your claims statistics if they are good

Verifiable and unusual.

Number of claims handled, proportion settled, average time, and how many declined decisions you successfully challenged. Very few brokerages publish anything of this kind, which is precisely why it stands out.

6. Ask for a review immediately after a claim is settled

The point of maximum goodwill.

A client who has just been helped through a difficult loss will write something meaningful. Waiting until renewal loses both the detail and the emotion, and most brokerages never ask at all.

7. Train everyone to notice a good story

The material exists and nobody collects it.

Claims staff resolve these situations constantly and do not think of them as anything unusual. A simple habit of flagging cases worth writing up builds a library over a year without any additional effort.

8. Stay within your regulatory and confidentiality obligations

A constraint on all of it.

Client confidentiality, data protection and the rules on financial promotions all govern what may be published and how outcomes may be described. Confirm the position before publishing anything, and have somebody check the material.

9. Use it where the decision is made

Placement determines value.

In new business proposals, on the pages people read before enquiring, and in renewal conversations. A claims story on a page nobody visits achieves nothing, and the same story in a proposal frequently wins the account.

Tell the client what you did. Brokers routinely resolve problems in the background and never report the effort, which means the client experiences a smooth outcome and attributes it to the insurer. A short note explaining what was involved converts invisible work into a reason to stay.

Conclusion

Use the claim, because it is the only moment your service is genuinely tested.

Describe specifically what happens at a claim rather than promising support, write up anonymised examples with outcomes, seek permission to use names where clients are willing, publish your claims statistics if they are strong, ask for a review immediately after settlement, build the habit of noticing cases worth recording, stay within confidentiality and promotion rules, place the material where decisions are made, and tell clients what you did on their behalf.