Day 3, 7, 14: The Follow-Up Sequence That Keeps Claims Moving

Most claims do not stall because of a dispute. They stall because nobody touched them. The insurer’s handler has forty files, yours is not the loudest, and a week passes. A follow-up sequence is the loudness, applied evenly to every claim without you having to remember any of them. This is the sequence loss assessors use, message by message, with the wording, the timing and the rules for stopping it.

The clock starts on a submission

A sequence needs a trigger, and the right trigger is you sending the insurer something that needs a response: notification of your appointment, the scope of works, a response to an offer, a request for a decision. Each of those starts a clock. The sequence runs against that clock, not against the date the claim opened.

Day 3: confirm and ask for a timescale

Subject: Claim [reference], [policyholder], [postcode]: scope submitted 14 October

“Could you confirm receipt of the scope of works submitted on 14 October and let me know when you expect to have reviewed it? If anything further is needed from the policyholder, I will arrange it straight away.”

Three working days is long enough for the document to have reached the right desk and short enough that the file is still on the top of the pile. The tone is service, not pressure.

Day 7: repeat the ask, set a date

Subject: Claim [reference], [policyholder]: response awaited on scope of 14 October

“Further to my note of the 17th, I have not yet had a response to the scope submitted on 14 October. The policyholder is without a usable kitchen, so I would be grateful for your review, or a date for it, by Friday 24 October.”

The date is the point. It converts an open question into a deadline, and a deadline missed is the ground for the next step.

Day 14: escalate, by name

Subject: Claim [reference], [policyholder]: escalation, no response since 14 October

“I am writing to [team leader / claims manager] as I have had no substantive response to the scope of works submitted on 14 October despite my notes of the 17th and 21st. Please let me have the insurer’s position, or the name of the person who will provide it, within five working days. I am copying the policyholder, who has asked to be kept informed of the delay.”

Copying the policyholder is a judgement call. It is appropriate once a reasonable period has passed and the delay is the insurer’s; it is not appropriate on day 3.

Stop rules

A sequence that keeps sending after the insurer has replied is worse than no sequence. Three stop rules:

• A reply stops it. Any logged response from the insurer or adjuster ends the current sequence. If the reply is itself a request for more information, your next submission starts a new clock.
• A stage change stops it. If the claim moves to negotiation because an offer arrived, the scope sequence is over.
• The escalation is a decision. Day 3 and day 7 can send themselves. Day 14 should land as a task for you, with the draft ready, so that the escalation is read and approved before it goes.

The other side: the policyholder

Run a parallel, gentler sequence to the policyholder on the same clock, so that they hear from you on the same days you chase the insurer: “I chased the insurer today and asked for a response by Friday.” They will not ring to ask what is happening; you have just told them.

Building it

In software, the sequence is three templates with placeholders for the reference, the names and the dates, attached to one trigger, with the stop rules above. Set up once, it runs on every claim, and the chasers appear on each claim’s timeline as if you had typed them. In ClaimFlow the insurer chasers and the policyholder updates are part of the automations on the Professional plan and above; the wording is yours, the schedule is this one, and you change either in a minute.

If you are still doing this by hand, do it by hand for one month with a diary, note how many chasers you actually sent against how many you should have, and decide from the number.

Further reading

• How to chase an insurer on a stalled property claim
• Handling a storm-season claims surge without dropping a file