In the first article of this series we outlined the many challenges being faced by insurers in property claims. But where to start? The simple answer is to benchmark. Take a good look at your supply chain, identify gaps, and identify improvements.

Start by revisiting your strategy. You can’t address everything at once so what are your priorities? Alternatively, are there areas that you feel you should have a stronger grip on but don’t?

When it comes to understanding the effectiveness and performance of a property claims supply chain there are many variables to analyse such as:

• Average FNOL call handling, the hold length and abandonment rates
• Indemnity spend across the board or on specific areas such as loss of water
• Customer satisfaction
• Claims fraud
• Analysis of cashing out to fixing things
• Digital capability

Alternatively, you could choose to benchmark your suppliers, find out who is best, why they are best and in what areas? You may want to address the performance (or under-performance!) of your third-party administrators such as claims management and loss adjusting services.

Benchmarking provides you with an independent and in-depth view of your supply chain against that of your peers. It will bring to life any operational issues that you need to know about and conversely can highlight where you are a strong performer. Benchmarking identifies risks and opportunities which you can use to improve your operational resilience (especially now that the FCA have mandated it) and claims costs.

Related reading

Benchmarking tells you where the gaps are, but acting on them requires a clear view of what good supplier performance actually looks like and how to hold your supply chain to it. Our article on why the right suppliers are essential for your reputation sets out the six dimensions that property insurers should be evaluating across their supplier base, from customer journey integration and operational resilience through to indemnity control and digital capability, and explains why supplier performance is ultimately a brand and customer satisfaction question as much as a cost one.

How Procurato can help

The benchmarking exercise this article recommends is most valuable when it draws on data from across the market rather than from within a single insurer’s own book. Our Claims Opportunity Assessment gives property insurers exactly that: a structured, data-led review of their claims costs, supplier performance and operational metrics set against external benchmarks from across the sector. We identify where performance is strong, where it has drifted, and where the most material opportunities to reduce indemnity spend and improve outcomes sit. If you are not confident your current view of the supply chain reflects where you actually stand relative to the market, we are happy to talk through what that assessment would look like.

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