19 Mar How Is Your Internal Communication?
As you all know, the resolution of many E&O cases is heavily influenced by the presence (and degree of quality and detail) of an issue called documentation. I trust you are well aware of it. Documentation provides evidence that something, such as a discussion, occurred. The alleged discussion will be considered hearsay without quality documentation because it cannot be substantiated.
For those who have been to E&O classes or have had the benefit of an E&O session during your annual review, the phrase “document, document, document” has no doubt been mentioned numerous times. Proper documentation includes not only the essence of the discussion being noted in the proper place in the agency management system but also memorialized back to the client (or to your carriers and wholesalers) to not only ensure there are no misunderstandings but also to have an official record that the discussion occurred and what it consisted of.
Communication with people and organizations outside your agency is probably in good shape. How about your internal communication, which is between two agency staff? Is this at the same level?
When a procedure (that impacts all staff) changes, are all staff notified? Does that include the producers? When a carrier underwriting guideline changes, are all staff (including the sales staff) notified? These internal conversations, as with external discussions) may be communicated verbally. If so, they should be memorialized in writing and sent to all staff. This way, nobody can “I didn’t know.” I imagine some of you have heard that phrase once or twice in your careers (maybe in the last week).
I bring this subject up because this is an area where some agencies (or just some people in these agencies) need to be more diligent in ensuring their internal communication is documented and memorialized back to their agency colleagues.
Whether agencies like it or not, texting is becoming more of a means for clients to communicate with the agency. Hopefully, your agency has a procedure for properly handling text messages to ensure the message is stored in the agency management system (or document management platform). So, imagine that one of the producers gets a text message from a client with some information that is key to a particular policy. The producer responds, “We’ll get this taken care of,” or something to that effect. The producer verbally advises the internal person (client executive/client manager) of the information. As with many CEs and CMs, these are very busy people with a million things on their minds (ok, maybe not a million, but a lot), and the information never gets acted upon. A problem develops, and the lack of updated information impacts the coverage. The producer states, “I gave you the information,” while the CE/CM states, “I don’t remember. Did you send me something?”
The bottom line is that there is a text from the client, but that is where everything ends. When the producer advises the CE/CM (or alleges they advised them), the best procedure is to ensure that the information (including the text message) is provided in writing to the appropriate staff so the matter can be acted upon.
The above scenario is not a made-up story. It has happened, probably more than once, in the recent past. Has this happened in your agency? Do you have an expectation / a process to ensure your internal communication is handled just as diligently as your external communication?