Business interruption strife speaks to broader reputation issues
It's time the P&C industry told its good stories, rather than waiting for the next controversy.
Almost as soon as the pandemic forced portions of the economy to close last March, businesses began filing lawsuits to compel insurance companies to pay business-interruption claims they thought were covered. Insurers have denied these claims, arguing the policies in question had specific pandemic exclusions or, more broadly, were intended only to help businesses recover from fire and other events that cause property damage.
While insurers have won a majority of the cases, the resulting publicity has painted a familiar and damaging picture of the property & casualty insurance industry. In the eyes of many consumers and businesses, insurers are financial behemoths that are happy to take a customer’s premium but reluctant to pay claims.
This could also be one reason why public opinion surveys continue to rank insurance professionals as negatively as they do lawyers, politicians and some other maligned professionals. Driving these perceptions is the belief that insurers are not fair, open and transparent in how they conduct their business and do not always meet the needs of their customers.
“The current business-interruption controversy has damaged the reputations and relationships of insurance agents, whose clients trust them for advice,” says Tony Caldwell, author and CEO of One Agents Alliance. “If agents had carefully explained to businesspeople what business-interruption coverage was intended to provide at the time they purchased the policy, the chances are great they would not be angry now. They might be frustrated, but they could hardly point the finger at their agents.”
Caldwell and other insurance experts also point to the fine print and vague and obscure clauses in policies as a systemic problem, one which often leaves insurers explaining themselves in court, in the media, or both, well after the damage is done.
Changing the narrative
It seems clear the industry can help itself by changing some of its practices. However, insurers also need to change perceptions by sharing inspiring stories they have to tell, said Chris Winans, principal of Chris Winans Consulting and a veteran of insurance industry communications. This story goes back to 1752, Ben Franklin and the Philadelphia Contributorship, a mutual home insurer he helped establish.
“Franklin coined the phrase ‘Do well by doing good,’” Winans says. “The good that insurers do is paying policyholder claims for unexpected losses. Doing it well means doing it profitably enough to sustain the financial strength to pay claims far into the future. That’s the story the public seldom hears, even though paying claims and investing in businesses is how insurers contribute to a community’s financial stability.”
“Insurance is the economic safety net that lets people pursue their dreams,” Winans continues. “The popular perception, however, is that insurers make money by collecting premiums and rejecting claims. Until that changes, insurers won’t get much respect.”
It’s time the P&C industry told its good stories, rather than waiting for the next controversy. This is a reputation management process that goes beyond marketing and advertising and relies on communications and public relations expertise. It should start by identifying and prioritizing their stakeholders and then going beyond anecdotal evidence by studying public perceptions of these stakeholders. Gaining a deeper understanding of these perceptions can uncover not just the issues, but their impact on a company and the industry.
Next, clear and measurable reputational goals can be set, followed by a strategy that integrates reputation into the very heart of the organization’s communications and business practices. No matter how good a public relations or marketing campaign may be, it must be tied to reality. In this case, the industry should be working toward using plain English in policies, becoming trusted advisors for their clients and insisting on transparency to build trust.
Included in this process should be more recent issues, most notably climate change, economic empowerment and diversity and inclusion. These are not just important global issues, but also imperatives for insurers to address if they are to connect with the next generation of both customers and employees.
Speaking with one voice
A reputation management campaign is a significant undertaking. That campaign would be most effective if carried out across the industry, not just by large carriers on a case-by-case basis. Global efforts such as this typically fall to a trade association and can be very effective, both in good times and bad.
For example, several years ago, my firm was brought on by a long-term care insurer to stem the tide of bad publicity focused on its claims-paying record. An article in The New York Times examined the entire industry but focused on the one company, leading to more national coverage and congressional hearings. While we were able to stem the tide of bad publicity, it should be noted that we didn’t do it alone. A trade association that represented the entire long-term care insurance industry was already at work on an industry-wide reputation management campaign. That campaign provided us with valuable statistics and background, especially around claims and lives helped.
The P&C industry is different. It is larger, more complex and boasts numerous trade associations. Each of these many associations does a great job of providing members with educational resources, networking opportunities and, in some cases, advocacy on Capitol Hill and in state capitols. They provide valuable support for many different insurance professionals, but each only represents a part of the industry.
The reputational issues discussed in this article cross these association memberships. When it comes to perception, it could also be argued that whether some people are buying an insurance policy that covers their property, cars or their health and lives, insurance is insurance. The public at large doesn’t often distinguish among insurance types.
Nonetheless, within the P&C space, one could imagine an industry-wide effort to study the reputational issues, drive systemic changes and launch a reputation management campaign to drive better understanding of the important role the P&C industry plays in the world today. Such an effort could put important messaging in the hands of everyone in the P&C industry and tell the good story that dates back more than 250 years.
Gary Kimball is founder and president of Kimball Hughes Public Relations and can be reached at gkimball@kimballpr.com or 610-559-7585.
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