Insurance Integrity – One Easy Way to Stand Out
How does one establish and keep their insurance integrity? I have been asked during my four decades in the insurance industry about the one thing that causes trust from the start. The group that asked this question the most was the college interns (heavily recommended) who had been working for J&L since 2001.
Most of the college interns went into industries other than insurance. So, this would apply to other industries. Keeping up your insurance integrity starts with one simple recommendation.
Time is of The Essence
You may have seen this clause in insurance policies and other types of contracts. Recently, I had to deal with two insurance companies on a personal matter. One kept their insurance integrity with me by only doing one thing. The other, not so much.
I called one insurance company and was told by a bot that I should log in to my account and use the chatbot for questions. I did leave a message with a “Central Desk” and emailed their generic email address. That was over two weeks ago. By the way, the chatbot actually gave me incorrect info. Insurance integrity – not so much.
I called another insurance company of the same type. I left a message with an answer chatbot that told me to leave my phone number, and someone would return my call. The person who was supposed to answer my v/m called me back within one business day, even though the person who was supposed to return my call was on extended medical leave. The overloaded temporary fill-in handled my question and concern – boom! – insurance integrity in place.
Simple Way to Insurance Integrity
Returning a phone call within 24 hours was all that was required for me to view one company as better than the other. My renewal date on the first company’s policy is 10/1. Would I move my business elsewhere?
Finally, let us look at the definition of integrity.
Ethics remains a big topic in the insurance and financial industry. From an ethics standpoint – (substitute the company in place of person)
A person is said to possess the virtue of integrity if the person’s actions are based upon an internally consistent framework of principles. These principles should uniformly adhere to sound logical axioms or postulates. A person has ethical integrity to the extent that the person’s actions, beliefs, methods, measures, and principles align with a well-integrated core group of values. A person must, therefore, be flexible and willing to adjust these values to maintain consistency when these values are challenged—such as when observed results are incongruous with expected outcomes. Because such flexibility is a form of accountability, it is regarded as a moral responsibility as well as a virtue.
A person’s value system provides a framework within which the person acts in ways that are consistent and expected. Integrity can be seen as the state of having such a framework and acting congruently within it.
