For readers of Insured to Fail, Appendix A
Answers to Get Before You Hire a Broker
The questions from the back of the book, to take into your next agent meeting.
When asking your questions, rule number one is to relax and take your time. Don't offer the answer you're looking for in the question. Watch their body language to see whether they're comfortable or struggling to answer. Treat this as an interview, as if you are deciding whether to hire this person, just like you would hire an employee.
- What would be your process of engaging with our company?
- What information do you need, and how would you gather the information you need to provide a proposal?
- How would you go about this process?
- What is the experience and background of your team: their years of experience, who with, and doing what?
- Explain your process for determining what coverages our organization should have.
- Walk us through how you determine our business income insurance needs.
- How do you help clients prepare for a disaster?
- How do you evaluate the quotes you receive for our business? How do you determine which one is best for us?
- What specific processes or programs will you put in place to help reduce our insurance costs?
If they mention loss control services
- What services does their prevention person provide?
- How often will we see their prevention person?
- What credentials does their loss prevention person have?
- How long have they been doing this?
- Are they a dedicated injury prevention person, or do they have other duties?
- How many clients does their prevention person currently work with?
If they mention claim services
- What involvement will their claims person have with a claim?
- What type of questions does their claims person ask to determine the severity or validity of a claim?
- How many claims is their claims person currently handling?
- Are they a dedicated claims person, or do they have other duties?
Then ask
- What is your best practice to make sure our audit is accurate?
- What is the best practice to make sure our experience modifier is accurate?
- What is the best practice to make sure an injury is mitigated?
- Does your process return injured workers in three days or less?
- Who typically establishes your panel of physicians?
- What criteria are used to determine who is on your panel of physicians?
- How would you improve the Risk Profile of our business?
- What steps or processes do you go through to do this?
- Can you show testimonials, or let us call references who are satisfied with their results? May we see or call them now?
- Can you send us a resume or bio for each of your team members?
Remember: take a test drive! See how well they can identify, analyze and help you improve your Risk Profile.