July 7, 2025 • 36 mins
In this episode of Adjusted, Stephanie Behnke from Hi Marley reveals how text messaging is revolutionizing communication in workers’ compensation. With injured workers responding to texts in just 2–3 minutes, adjusters are resolving claims faster and building deeper trust—without the delays of phone tag.
But it’s not just about speed. Stephanie shares how texting allows adjusters to show empathy, detect frustration through AI-powered sentiment analysis, and overcome language barriers with built-in translation. From document sharing to supervisor coaching tools, this episode explores how SMS is creating a more human, efficient, and connected claims experience.
Whether you're managing claims or leading a team, this conversation offers practical insights into how meeting injured workers where they are—on their phones—can transform outcomes.
🎧 Like, follow, and leave a five-star review to help us bring these insights to more listeners!
Season 9 is brought to you by Berkley Industrial Comp. This episode is hosted by Greg Hamlin and guest co-host Suzanne McAuliffe Vice president of claims for Key Risk.
Visit the Berkley Industrial Comp blog for more!
Got questions? Send them to marketing@berkindcomp.com
For music inquiries, contact Cameron Runyan at camrunyan9@gmail.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Greg Hamlin (00:10):
Hello everybody and welcome to Adjusted.
I'm your host, greg Hamlin,coming at you from Sweet Home,
Alabama and Berkeley IndustrialComp.
And I'm excited to share withyou this rebroadcast.
This episode is on texting andclaims with Stephanie Benke.
She is part of the High Marleycompany that is bringing texting
(00:36):
to the claims industry and thiswas a great, great episode.
It's wonderful to have thechance to think about ways to
reach our injured workers inways that maybe we haven't in
the past, and Hi Marley isdefinitely doing a great job at
that.
In this episode we talk aboutthe way people consume
information and how we make thatas easy as possible so that we
(00:58):
can gain cooperation and get thebest outcomes.
So I hope that you enjoy thisepisode and remind you to like,
follow and share the episode.
Also, we would love it if youwould leave us a five-star
review so that we have anopportunity to bring others to
this podcast series and sharethe content with them as well,
(01:23):
and with that, we remind you todo right, think differently and
don't forget to care.
Enjoy.
I'm your host, greg Hamlin,coming at you from beautiful
Birmingham, alabama and BerkeleyIndustrial Comp.
And with me as co-host for theday and first-time co-host is
Suzanne McAuliffe, vicePresident of Claims with Key
(01:45):
Risk.
Suzanne, I want you tointroduce yourself a little bit.
Where are you from, suzanne?
Suzanne McAuliffe (01:50):
Well, I'm currently in Fort Mill, south
Carolina.
Originally from Syracuse, newYork, so you'll probably notice
the accent that is not Southern,but I'm with Key Risk for 12
years now and love doing workerscomp.
I'm excited to be here for myvery first co-host experience.
Greg Hamlin (02:07):
I'm excited to have Suzanne here.
She's awesome.
So if you haven't met her,now's your chance.
But Suzanne was realinteresting.
We bumped into each other as weworked for fellow Berkeley
companies a while back and oneof the things that was funny in
that is I told a few people likeSuzanne really thinks the way I
think, like she's definitely mykind of person.
(02:28):
And then later on the managerwho trained me, who works for
another carrier, had reachedsome kind of milestone and I saw
Suzanne posted on LinkedIn hey,congratulations.
And I was like how in the worlddo you know her?
And she's like well, I trainedher.
And then I was like, oh, it allcame together.
I only think the way I dobecause of Suzanne.
I just didn't know it.
We have a long history anddidn't even know it.
(02:52):
That's right, that's right.
So we have a special guesttoday with us Stephanie Benke.
Did I say your last namecorrectly?
You did.
Thank you, all right.
She is the Director of SolutionConsulting at HiMARLI and we're
excited to have you with us,stephanie.
Stephanie Behnke (03:08):
Thank you, I'm happy to be here.
Greg Hamlin (03:10):
Well, stephanie, one of the things I always like
to start with is finding out howpeople started out in the
industry, and I'm guessing thatwhen you were in kindergarten
and they had career day, thatyou showed up in a suit ready to
go and you're like I am goingto do insurance, that's what.
That's what it was Right.
Stephanie Behnke (03:28):
Oh my gosh, it's like you were in my life at
the time.
You must've been Miss Jacobskindergarten class with me.
No, um, it's so funny Cause Ifeel like I know one gentleman
actually who grew up wanting tobe in insurance, but I think the
rest of us just sort ofstumbled right, stumbled our way
in.
So I was actually in the army,I was a diesel mechanic and I
was stationed at Fort Hood and Icalled a girlfriend I'm like
(03:49):
getting out of the army in aweek trying to figure out what
that next chapter looks like.
Do you know anyone who's hiring?
And she was working for MercuryInsurance in California at the
time.
She's like great company, yougot to come here.
So here I am 35 years later,right, looking back and going no
, I never, I didn't sign up forit.
(04:12):
But I always tell people andnow, with kind of college
graduations on the mind, Ialways tell people getting out
of school if you don't know whatyou want to do, take a look at
an insurance company.
Because I feel like in mycareer I have had the luxury of
being in underwriting, in ITI've been a CIO, I've been in
claims, innovation and strategyand operations, and there's so
much in the industry to keep youengaged and excited.
(04:34):
That's kind of a great place tojust get started, get some
experience under your belt.
You're going to learn a lot,but I also feel like it helps
root us and ground us and helpsus find what we really want to
do when we grow up.
Greg Hamlin (04:47):
That's awesome.
I have a daughter that justgraduated from high school and
is getting ready to go tocollege, so we're doing that
whole thing of what do I want todo now.
And she said, you know, I thinkshe's been nervous.
She's like oh, I think I wantto do nursing.
And I said you know what, startthere and then just see where
it goes and be open, because asyou start to try new things,
you'll never know what you mightlike.
(05:08):
So I thought that was goodadvice, stephanie.
Suzanne McAuliffe (05:10):
So, stephanie , how long have you been with
Highmarly?
Stephanie Behnke (05:14):
So I've been with Highmarly for just a little
over a year and I am in thesolutions, I run the solutions
consulting organization and sowe really introduce the product
to customers.
So I work with the growth andthe sales teams and just
introduce the product and thenmy team also manages any pilots.
So, suzanne, I know that yourteam piloted with Highmarly and
(05:36):
so it would be my organizationthat helped you do that.
Can you tell us?
Suzanne McAuliffe (05:39):
a little bit about Highmarly and what it
offers.
Stephanie Behnke (05:43):
Absolutely so.
Highmarly is a collaborationplatform powered by SMS and what
that really means is that it'sa communication platform that
allows adjusters to communicatedirectly to customers, prospects
, injured workers and alsocollaborate with other folks in
their organization.
So the way that this works is,say, I'm an adjuster working on
(06:04):
a workers' comp claim and I needto bring in a nurse case
manager.
So I can invite one of thenurse case managers in and now
when they're talking to thecustomer, it's all in one single
text thread.
So the customer has just oneconversation from the very
beginning of their claim to thevery end of the claim.
Super seamless for them.
A lot of times our customersstruggle with I have a question
(06:26):
I don't know who to ask.
Do I ask my nurse to getpractitioner this?
Do I ask somebody else?
That they just ask the questionin that text thread and then
they can get an answer fromanybody who's on that thread.
So really helpful way of justbringing adjusters and injured
workers together.
That's awesome.
Suzanne McAuliffe (06:41):
Yeah, absolutely.
I know that we definitelyexperienced the benefits of that
through the pilot and nowthrough the active integration
into our claims department.
It's been a wonderfultransition for us for
communications.
Stephanie Behnke (06:55):
Yeah, I don't think I realized how close
adjusters and injured workerscould get until I came to work
here at iMarley and I waslooking at some of the data and
just the ability to bond withsomebody to gain their trust and
that goes both ways right.
And then I see folks pouringout their hearts in how much
(07:16):
they appreciated the support anadjuster gave them or how much
they appreciate them comingalongside them and always
believing that they were goingto get back to work and they
were going to get better, andit's just.
It's just a wonderful thing tosee and to listen to.
Greg Hamlin (07:30):
Yeah, I think the way we communicate has changed
so much over the last I think Ican think of, you know, when I
was a kid and then now I havechildren.
I have six kids, so my oldestis 18 and my youngest is one.
So I'm experiencing all theforms of communication, from
like baby sign language to adultchildren now.
But one of the things that Ican remember, you know, when I
(07:53):
wanted to go to my friend'shouse, I picked up my phone and
I called him.
I didn't have a cell phone Injunior high.
I felt like I was pretty coolbecause I had a pager and, you
know, people could page me andthen I could go to a pay phone
and put a quarter in and callthem back, and that was pretty
awesome.
And it wasn't later until cellphones started taking off.
Probably when I was in collegethey were starting to become
(08:14):
more mainstream.
But I noticed with my kids theyhaven't really done some of
those same things.
They're more likely to texteach other, Like my daughter has
a boyfriend right now and Idon't know if she's called him
once.
Like they text all the time,right, but they don't actually
like have phone conversations.
You know, my wife and I joke.
When she was a teenager sheused to call the weather channel
(08:36):
and then her friend would callthe weather channel like, call,
like she'd be like call theweather.
I'm going to call the weatherchannel at 10 o'clock, then call
me and I'll bring you in so thephone doesn't ring and we can
have like a late nightconversation and anymore Like
it's not that way, obviously,with texting.
So, as you think about some ofthe ways technology is changing
(08:56):
communication, what are some ofthe things you're seeing in the
industry that are probablydifferent than what we're used
to?
Stephanie Behnke (09:02):
Yeah, I just I think the speed at which
everything happens has beensurprising and I think for a lot
of folks you know again, Imentioned in the relationship
that you can really build overtext and I'm not sure that folks
expected that to happen.
Right, that you could get closeto somebody just by texting.
And yet you can, right, you canbuild this again, you build a
(09:23):
relationship and build trust,which is so critical to our
success.
Right and what we do every day,and moving very quickly.
So we know that from HighMarley's data on average
customers are responding in twoto three minutes to text
messages.
So when you think about a claimand moving a claim along, think
about how quickly you can get aresponse from an injured worker
(09:45):
and then keep that claim moving.
So I think that is surprisingfor people.
And then we know we've done alot of studies, we have a lot of
data around customerexpectations and customer
satisfaction and the number onedriver of customer satisfaction
is actually the adjuster'sattitude, which is probably not
terribly surprising for those ofus who are actually the
(10:05):
adjuster's attitude, which isprobably not terribly surprising
for those of us who are in theindustry.
But the reality is again can apersonality come through in
texting and the answer isabsolutely, and again, I think
those are a little bitsurprising for folks sometimes.
Greg Hamlin (10:19):
I love that and I think what you're hitting on I
think is so important in thattechnology is a tool that lets
us do what we need to do and getwhere we want to go, but
ultimately what you were hittingon.
It's the attitude of the personwho's using the technology, so
they really go together insteadof being like separate concepts.
Stephanie Behnke (10:38):
Yeah, exactly Right.
It's just facilitating thathuman to human contact, but in
our industry, like it alwayscomes back down to the human
connection.
I love that.
Suzanne McAuliffe (10:48):
So I would just from my perspective, I just
probably want to just add tothat is just.
That's probably one of the bestthings that we've noticed with
High Marley.
The biggest plus is just thatenhanced and prompter, more
frequent communication.
Communication Because, as youalluded to, stephanie, it's just
(11:09):
the ability to havecommunication on an easy basis
and really the texting is almostlike a it's table stakes this
day and age as far as how peopleare communicating.
The High Marley has reallyeliminated that phone tag
situation or the situation wherean adjuster is trying to reach
an injured worker and theirvoicemail message is full or
it's not set up yet.
This way we can just send atext and say, hey, I need to
(11:29):
talk to you, and it just helpsus to move a claim forward
faster and ultimately resolve itat a quicker pace as well.
Stephanie Behnke (11:38):
Yeah, and you think about our workforce.
We're all texting right.
We're all texting all day,every day in our personal lives.
So even as we talk about theinjured worker, even the
adjusters are more comfortableand very comfortable in texting
right.
And so you know again, it'sjust the technology is just
facilitating that.
Greg Hamlin (11:56):
You're spot on.
And just as you were talking,suzanne, I was thinking about my
wife's parents.
Now that we live further away,they'll come stay with us for a
few weeks, and when they stay,if somebody calls their cell
phone, they like race across theroom and answer it, because
that's like they grew up in atime when landlines for you, if
you didn't answer it, theremight not have even been an
answering message.
(12:17):
And so for me, if I see a phonenumber and it comes up on
myself and it's not attached tosomebody's name, I know I'm not
answering it and, and I, and itcomes up on my cell and it's not
attached to somebody's name.
I know I'm not answering it.
And I think we have that sameproblem with our injured workers
is they see that phone numbercome across and they're like, oh
, I don't recognize that areacode or I don't recognize that
person, so I'm not going toanswer it.
And meanwhile we're missing anopportunity to connect.
(12:38):
And if they knew that we wantto talk to them about how we
could get them their benefits orhow we can get them to the
right doctor, they'd probablypick up the phone.
But they don't know that, andso texting kind of gives us
another way to reach out andconnect in a way that people are
communicating.
Now I think you've talked aboutthis a little bit, Stephanie,
but I wanted you to talk alittle bit more.
I think when we think abouttechnology, a lot of times we
(13:01):
think of it as this coldcomputer without emotions, and
then that makes people nervoussometimes when they think about
customer-focused industries likeinsurance.
How does technology, how canempathy, coexist with technology
?
And I think you've hit on thata little, but I would love for
you to talk a little bit moreabout that.
Stephanie Behnke (13:20):
Yeah, it's funny because I think that we
used to assume those were twovery separate entities.
Right, the gear andtechnologies is hardcore, and
we're finding that evenautomated messages can be
empathetic.
So the very beginning, if youstart a conversation right after
a worker has been injured atwork, you can say I'm so sorry
to hear about your accident.
Right, I'm so sorry to hearabout your claim.
(13:43):
I hope you're doing well andyou enter into the conversation.
So, even when we're creatingtemplates, one of the things
that the Heimerle product allowsis we know that adjusters have
similar conversations, kind ofover and over, and so we can
create templates around that.
When we're doing that, we'remaking sure those conversations
are still a point of connection,so the conversation is still,
(14:03):
again, empathetic.
I'm sorry that you experiencedthat.
If I'm doing a follow-up for anappointment hi, how did your
appointment go today?
I hope it went well.
Was the doctor able to clearyou to return back to work?
It can be just that friendlyand really meant and heartfelt
and genuinely heartfelt, reallysincere, and yet automated,
because I would have asked youthat same thing if I had reached
(14:25):
out to you personally manually,right, but I can do that
through technology and it makesmy day a little bit faster and
easier and you get a greatmessage that makes you feel good
, right, and that again it tearsdown that border between the
human and the technology.
Greg Hamlin (14:40):
That's great.
Stephanie Behnke (14:41):
Yeah.
Suzanne McAuliffe (14:42):
Stephanie can you talk a little bit about?
Because, like you mentionedbefore, the nurses can be
involved in a text conversation,supervisors can as well, and
Highmarly also offers theability for supervisors to run
various reports and one of thosefeatures that are highlighted
in the text and communicationsis the sentiment of the text,
(15:05):
and I believe that High Marleyhas the ability to kind of flag
if something, maybe somebody,seems frustrated or upset about
something, so the supervisor hasthe ability to maybe go in and
look at that chat and seewhether or not they're needing
to interact with the injuredworker.
Stephanie Behnke (15:23):
Yeah, absolutely so.
When I think about theevolution of the technology, I
think we're just getting betterat anticipating, we're getting
better at listening, and so oneof the things that Highmarly
offers in our platform is you'reabsolutely right, this
sentiment analysis, this idea ofhow is an injured worker
feeling right now, frustrated?
(15:47):
What we do is we put a littlebadge on that particular
conversation, we pop it to thetop of the adjuster's inbox,
also, kind of helping themprioritize their day.
If you think about theirvoicemails, they don't know what
they're walking into in avoicemail and they may have to
listen to five in a row, right,but with texting you can see the
conversation quickly and thenagain we have this artificial
intelligence running in thebackground.
Prioritize it for them, helpsthem understand that again, in
this example, customer isgetting frustrated or maybe
(16:10):
they're threatening litigationan attorney.
We also have an AI model thatidentifies delays, unusual
delays, and so to AI that soundsa little bit like my doctor has
rescheduled this appointmentfour times or I've left three
messages.
I can't get a response to myreturn to work question.
I've left three messages.
You know, I can't get aresponse to my return to work
question.
I've left three messages.
And if the AI detects any ofthat, again it alerts the
(16:33):
adjuster, pops up to the top oftheir inbox for prioritization
and then you're right, suzanne,anybody can go in.
A supervisor can go in and see.
You know, is Stephanie havingmaybe more of these difficult
conversations than somebody elseon the team, and is it the
nature of those claims thatshe's been assigned Really
(16:54):
importantly?
I think we knew adjusters weredoing this on a daily basis.
We knew they were overcomingthis adversity every day on the
phone, but we couldn't alwayshear how they were recovering
from it With text.
One of the great things is thatsupervisors and managers can
see exactly how they did thatservice recovery.
So, as an adjuster, there'sjust a lot of great information
on when an injured worker isupset, how am I coming alongside
(17:14):
them and making them feelbetter and getting them back on
track on that treatment plan orwhatever, and that's all visible
in texting, and so it's a greatopportunity for supervisors to
be able to call out justtremendous performance know,
tremendous performance byadjusters again and how they
come alongside those injuredworkers and support them.
Greg Hamlin (17:31):
That's.
That's huge, stephanie, and Ithink, as we move forward into
what I think we're, I mean,maybe this will change, but it
seems like more and more we'reseeing people work from their
homes and they're not in theoffice, and so, like when I
became, when I was an adjuster,I sat around people and I
learned so much by listening totheir phone conversations.
But that's happening less andless.
(17:52):
So the opportunity to maybeeven early identify some
opportunities of you know.
Here's a coaching situation onwhen somebody is upset.
Maybe try this instead nexttime and see how it goes.
You know where, when I wasdoing this, the person next to
me probably would have rolledback and said hey, greg, you're
in a pretty bad mood right now.
(18:12):
You might want to try thatagain.
So I think we're missing that,and this is a neat opportunity
to be able to see those and haveother people help.
Stephanie Behnke (18:21):
Yep, I love it .
So one of the things when I'mshowing folks the platform it's
one of my favorite things totalk about is, once you have
insight into the kinds ofconversations that are happening
on the platform, then you cango in and again you can
highlight those and say you know, here's the way that Greg
responded in a really empathetic, great way and he still managed
to move the claim along.
And so at a team meeting youcan bring up some of those
(18:43):
examples.
Right, You're not often insomebody's voicemail or
recording those phone calls andgoing back and listening to them
for training purposes, but youcan do that on a really regular
basis in the High Marleyplatform.
And also there's an abilitywithin the platform you can
leave notes for each other.
So let's say I'm a supervisorand I'm taking a look at a
conversation that's in flight.
I can leave a note for theadjuster and say, hey, just a
(19:03):
quick recommendation, or I havean observation I'd like to share
with you.
And they can do that all in theHighmarley platform.
The adjuster never has to leavethe platform.
So a lot of great toolsavailable for supporting
adjusters, and I think that thatis what makes me happiest in
technology right now is thatwhen I came into the industry so
many years ago, the technologythat I generally built was
(19:25):
around how do I process thepolicy faster?
How do I get details around aclaim?
And it was very functionalbased, and I feel like now
technology is getting us into aplace where it really is back
about the people how am Isupporting the injured worker?
(19:45):
And there was a time when Icame into the industry that
often the software that I wasdesigning served one of those
audiences but it didn't servethe other, and so I maybe was
making things easier for anadjuster at the cost of customer
experience, or this was allabout the customer and kind of
cyclical, and so we werefocusing maybe a lot on the
(20:05):
customer at the time, but theadjuster had four or five hoops
they had to jump through to makethat happen, and I feel like
technology today is serving bothof those audiences well.
So we're getting faster, we'regetting more accurate, but we're
not doing that at the cost ofpeople.
Greg Hamlin (20:24):
That's great and I think that's really the next
step, because I think both thoseexamples I've seen, where you
try to make something morecustomer-friendly and it becomes
not very employee-friendly, oryou create something to reduce
the process time, but now thecustomer has to press three,
press nine, hold, say the rightword to get transferred to the
right place.
(20:44):
The idea is great, but then thecustomer experience is bad.
So I think you hit the nail onthe head there.
Suzanne, I'd like to kind ofshift over to you.
So my operating unit hasn't yetgone on this platform yet we're
in the next wave to go onlineand start to have this.
But your operating unit alreadyhas had some experience in this
(21:05):
platform and I wanted you justto talk a little bit about what
your experience has been from,maybe both at the adjuster level
and then maybe at the managerlevel, and what your experience
has been.
Suzanne McAuliffe (21:17):
Yeah, so it's been a very positive experience
.
The team we had a pilot team offive adjusters to start.
We had three operating unitsactually that had participants
in the pilot.
The pilot participants loved it.
They immediately found theadvantages of faster
communication and some of thereally great features in HiMarly
(21:38):
that just make their lifeeasier.
But again, getting to what wewere just speaking about, also a
great customer service benefit,right.
So being able to communicatequickly and not having delays in
information transferring backand forth, so super easy to use
a platform, very user-friendly,intuitive.
(21:58):
We've had great response timeto text being sent.
So the back and forth is almostjust like if you were using
your phone.
People are responding promptly,information is getting
transferred.
It's been wonderful.
We've had situations this isprobably one of the highlights
that we've seen was we actuallygot a claim settled because we
(22:19):
were able to text.
The adjuster had injuredworkers.
She'd been trying to reach byphone and by email with no
response.
So she had sent me an IM andsaid, hey, is it okay if I
discuss settlement via text?
I was like, well, let's try tocall.
She's not responding tovoicemail.
So I said just don't put anypersonal information in the text
(22:41):
.
So all she did was send a texthey, your claim is ready to
resolve.
Are you interested in talkingabout settlement?
Injured worker?
Responds right away.
Said yes, I am.
She said great, I'm giving youa call right now.
We got the claim settled thatsame afternoon.
Had we not had that textingcapability, who knows, we
probably would have still beenchasing after the injured worker
, so things like that.
(23:03):
There's a wonderful translationservice feature in Highmarly.
That is fantastic.
You don't have to sit on thephone with a language line.
The ability to schedule textsout into the future has been a
huge time saver for the claimprofessionals.
And that's again.
You know claims is a tough job.
Anybody who's done it knowsit's busy.
(23:23):
Time management is key,organization is key and this is
a wonderful tool to help withthose necessary skills in the
claim adjusting world.
From the supervisory standpoint, management standpoint the
reporting capabilities onHighmarly is great.
We can see who's using it, howit's being used, the ability for
(23:45):
a supervisor or anotherco-worker to jump in on a text
in the event somebody's out ofthe office.
So there's no delay incommunication If somebody is in
need of something, whether it'syou know clarification on
whether or not somebody's checkhas been sent or what time?
can you confirm what time myappointment is?
It's just.
(24:06):
It's been a wonderful benefitto our injured workers, as well
as our clients and the adjusters.
Greg Hamlin (24:14):
You've got me excited, Suzanne, because we're
coming up soon.
Suzanne McAuliffe (24:18):
I'm telling you the feedback has been
fantastic.
I mean it's just it's been.
People are pretty excited aboutit.
Greg Hamlin (24:24):
You know our operating unit.
Our big push over the lastcouple of years has been to
create an empathetic resolutionmodel, and part of that is
gaining cooperation with ourinjured workers.
So we've looked at every avenueand this is one of the missing
pieces we knew we needed to workon, so I'm definitely excited
about that.
Suzanne McAuliffe (24:41):
And I guess I would probably be remiss if I
didn't mention you know there'ssome cost savings potential with
this.
One of the biggest examples isprobably the ability for us
because media can be transferredback and forth so getting a
prescription card to an injuredworker so we ensure they get
into network.
So anybody in the claims worldknows how important it is to
(25:02):
keep injured workers in network.
This way they have it, it's ontheir phone and they're able to
get to the pharmacy and getscripts filled within network.
That's fantastic.
Greg Hamlin (25:11):
I'm at the point I don't even have a wallet anymore
.
I just carry my phone and ithas like a little compartment
for a couple credit cards.
So all of those healthinsurance things they're
pictures I don't have.
I'm not carrying that aroundanymore.
So that's great.
That's great news, stephanie.
So as you think about,obviously in High Marley you're
(25:32):
working in technology, so yougot your.
I would assume your company isthinking about the next
challenges that you want totackle, or some of the areas
that you're still working at tomake even better.
What are some of thosechallenges your company is
working to solve throughtechnology today?
Stephanie Behnke (25:42):
So we have a lot of as you listen to
conversations it's sort of thesame questions kind of come up,
claims follow patterns, kind ofpredictable patterns, and so
what I'm most excited about isreally around how AI can come in
and help sort of predict what'snext.
But for this type of claim,here are the common questions
(26:03):
that people have and give thoseanswers to customers and injured
workers before they ask them.
So you know, the adjusters areso busy answering phone calls
and picking up voicemails ofquestions and very few of those
questions are the first time anadjuster has ever heard that
question right.
They get the same with all thetime.
So how can technology againcome alongside both the adjuster
(26:24):
and the injured worker and givethe injured worker the
information that he or she needsat the time they need it right,
and AI will help us do that.
Even in the existing sentimentmodels that we have today that I
mentioned, we first wanted tounderstand what was frustrating
injured workers and, as weobserved that data, what we
(26:45):
learned was that a lot of timesit's a question that's asked
that doesn't get answered in atimely fashion and that creates
frustration and that can lead tolitigation and all kinds of
additional expenses as well, andso the very next model we
rolled out was oh, there's aquestion waiting for you.
So now in the platform, if aninjured worker asks you a
question and it doesn't getanswered, within 30 minutes just
(27:07):
a little innocuous blue barpops up and just lets you know
that there's a question waitingfor you.
So, again, imagine an adjustertoday would have to go through
all their voicemails, listen toall the voicemail and now I can
see online a little blue linejust tells me that there's a
question that needs to beanswered.
So even if I'm just wrapping upmy day before I go to lunch, or
Friday before I take off forthe weekend, I can quickly scan
(27:31):
is anybody frustrated?
Does anybody have a question Ineed to answer at the last
minute, before we all shut downkind of for the weekend?
Again, just coming along andsupporting both the adjuster and
the injured worker.
And the more data that we have,the better that those AI models
are going to get right and themore accurate they're going to
get.
And instead of giving aninjured worker a 10-page
(27:53):
document on kind of what toexpect in the claim process, we
can actually feed them real-timeinformation.
Oh, they just went to thedoctor and got this message.
Then here's kind of the likelynext question they're going to
ask me Anticip, anticipate thatand answer it.
So if the adjuster is reallydoing that deep, meaningful work
that we all know that they doand not worrying about sort of
(28:14):
picking up messages, yeah, Ithink that's really big.
Greg Hamlin (28:17):
You know there's so many, like you said, of those
questions like where's my check,or very simple questions that
come up all the time.
I mean, we joke about that onebecause that's one of the more
frequent ones that people want,but there are very simple
answers that really I think agood AI system could learn to
anticipate.
I'm not an expert on chat GBTand I don't know a ton about it,
(28:39):
but I've heard enough becauseit's all over the media right
now.
So I know that we're kind ofthinking forward here, probably,
but do you see any places wherethis may enter the insurance
industry into the space?
I think you kind of talked alittle bit about it by talking
about AI.
Stephanie Behnke (28:57):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
So.
We are already using chat, gptand models like that right To
and again anticipate needs toask just the right questions.
So one of the products thatHighmarly has is a
conversational FNOL.
So if you can imagine, insteadof a chatbot that doesn't feel
(29:19):
very human right Having aconversation with AI that feels
empathetic, feels soundsempathetic, and I don't have to
ask all the questions, because Iask a customer or an injured
worker to just explain whathappened and once I know what
happened, I'm pulling all ofthat unstructured data into
(29:40):
structured fields.
And now that just eliminatedfour additional questions.
So the way that Suzanneanswered my you know what
happened explained to me whathappened.
Well, that just happened toanswer location and time of day
and a description, and so now Ino longer have to ask those
questions.
So just getting smarter, youknow AI continuing to feed that
and then also taking all of thedata that we all sit on and
(30:03):
putting that back into the modelso that they're constantly
learning right, and so thenature of claims.
It always evolves over time, butmaking sure that we stay on top
of that evolution by pumpingthe data that we receive back
into the models to just keepmaking them smarter and smarter.
Suzanne McAuliffe (30:18):
That's fantastic and it's so important
to where we are in this day andage, because we are so reliant
on technology and all that comesalong with it.
Is there anything currently?
Is there an issue or solutionout there that your company is
currently looking into to solveand you're excited about to
bring you into the future?
Stephanie Behnke (30:40):
You know what I really do get probably most
excited about AI and again Ifeel like it's talked about a
lot.
When we get really specific,again, it can do things like I
don't have to ask you fivequestions, maybe I ask you again
one and I get all those answersthat I needed.
But the ability to anticipateClaims are incredibly stressful
(31:01):
and when you have lost time atwork and you can't do your job,
the fear, the anxiety, thefrustration it comes out in
these claims and it comes outsometimes at the adjuster and it
can be very frustrating.
So any technology that we canleverage to make the experience
easier for that injured worker,to make them feel safe, to make
(31:24):
them feel confident that we havetheir best interest in mind and
we are going to do everythingwe can to get them back to work
on time.
However, ai can get us in frontof the customer again in a
meaningful, empathetic way.
I think is what drives me everyday.
How do we make theseexperiences more lovable?
Highmarly's tagline is makinginsurance more lovable, which
(31:47):
seems like a very lofty goal,but I think we do that one
conversation at a time.
And I think we do that oneinjured worker at a time, and AI
can help us predict what thatinjured worker is feeling and
again predict where that nextelement, sort of anxiety, might
be coming from.
Greg Hamlin (32:03):
That's fantastic.
Stephanie, you know I talkabout this a lot and I'm sure
Suzanne remembers this.
Early on in the insurance Ithink there was a lot, and I'm
sure Suzanne remembers this.
Early on in the insurance Ithink there was a lot of, and
we're probably still have someof this.
That use that I call the claimshammer technique.
When they want to get somethingdone.
It's well, if you don't go dothis, then I'm going to stop
your check or I'm going to cutyou off or I'm going.
(32:25):
You know any number of differentthings and having six children,
I can tell you like if you usethe hammer on your kids every
time, it doesn't work very well.
Like a lot of times pats on theback.
They're important to you.
You have to do all thedifferent things and if you want
to, if you want to gaincooperation and get where you
want to head.
I love how you talk aboutmaking insurance more lovable,
(32:47):
because there's definitely workto be done on that and it
shouldn't be a terribleexperience.
We're really there to helppeople have better lives and be
able to recover from somethingawful that happened.
That's the whole point of it.
So I love your message, one ofthe things that we're doing this
year to wrap up the year.
I always try to put good vibesin the universe because I figure
(33:08):
it will come back to me someday.
So there's so much negativityout there.
One of the things that I wantto do this season is have each
person share something they'regrateful for, as we wrap up the
season, the episode.
And so, stephanie, I wanted youto share something you're
grateful for today, as we wrapthings up.
Anything you want.
Stephanie Behnke (33:25):
Goodness, such a list.
Thank you for the question, bythe way.
What a great question.
I'm going to say I am mostthankful for the culture at High
Marley.
So I have worked in theindustry, as I mentioned, for 35
years.
I have never encountered agroup of people that were more
driven and more focused on agoal right, and our goal is to
(33:47):
make insurance lovable.
But just the way that we listento each other, the way that we
raise concerns, the way that weuse candor to kind of cut to the
chase and really get to anychallenges that we encounter, I
love it.
I'm so grateful for the companyand for our leadership because
they promote this culture allthe time.
And I will tell you, after beingin the industry where we can be
(34:09):
a little salty has anyone evermet a salty claims adjuster or a
salty underwriter?
We can be a little salty.
And so I come from that carrierbackground and to come into a
company where people are like sotell me, what's bothering you
about what I'm doing?
It's like are you serious?
You're serious, aren't you?
(34:29):
Well, let me tell you what Ithink we could do differently.
Right, and what it meant for mewas I didn't want to come into
a corporate culture and be thatguy that's negative or that guy
that's, and so it actuallychanged the way I approach my
work every day and the way Iinteract with my colleagues.
And yeah, it was a really longanswer, Greg, but I really
(34:52):
couldn't be more grateful forthe culture.
Greg Hamlin (34:55):
That's huge, and I've worked with a number of
different employers I'm sureSuzanne has too and we spent way
too much time at work to be ata place that we're miserable or
that people aren't taking thoseextra steps.
I think culture really doesmatter, and I think now, in a
world that is as competitive asit is in the insurance industry
for talent, if you don't havegood, great culture, someone
(35:16):
else will take that person andbe excited to have them on their
teams, and then you'll be leftwith a bunch of EORs that
complain.
So you've got to do the rightstuff.
So I love that.
Well, I've really enjoyed havingthis discussion with you,
stephanie.
I would just encourage any ofour listeners if you're
interested in texting or how toget texting implemented into
(35:38):
your platform to reach out to HiMarley's team.
I know that you guys do morethan workers comp.
You're involved in all thedifferent lines of insurance, or
quite a few anyway.
So if you're listening to thisthinking, is this something that
could work for me?
I'm sure they can go over thatwith you, and we definitely
appreciate you taking time outof your busy schedule to chat
with us this afternoon.
Stephanie Behnke (35:58):
Thank you so much.
It's been an absolute pleasure,so thank you for having me.
Greg Hamlin (36:02):
Thanks, stephanie.
I just remind all of ourlisteners to do right, think
differently and don't forget tocare.
And that's it for this week.
Thanks, guys, you.
Hello everybody and welcome to Adjusted.
I'm your host, greg Hamlin,coming at you from Sweet Home,
Alabama and Berkeley IndustrialComp.
And I'm excited to share withyou this rebroadcast.
This episode is on texting andclaims with Stephanie Benke.
She is part of the High Marleycompany that is bringing texting
(00:36):
to the claims industry and thiswas a great, great episode.
It's wonderful to have thechance to think about ways to
reach our injured workers inways that maybe we haven't in
the past, and Hi Marley isdefinitely doing a great job at
that.
In this episode we talk aboutthe way people consume
information and how we make thatas easy as possible so that we
(00:58):
can gain cooperation and get thebest outcomes.
So I hope that you enjoy thisepisode and remind you to like,
follow and share the episode.
Also, we would love it if youwould leave us a five-star
review so that we have anopportunity to bring others to
this podcast series and sharethe content with them as well,
(01:23):
and with that, we remind you todo right, think differently and
don't forget to care.
Enjoy.
I'm your host, greg Hamlin,coming at you from beautiful
Birmingham, alabama and BerkeleyIndustrial Comp.
And with me as co-host for theday and first-time co-host is
Suzanne McAuliffe, vicePresident of Claims with Key
(01:45):
Risk.
Suzanne, I want you tointroduce yourself a little bit.
Where are you from, suzanne?
Suzanne McAuliffe (01:50):
Well, I'm currently in Fort Mill, south
Carolina.
Originally from Syracuse, newYork, so you'll probably notice
the accent that is not Southern,but I'm with Key Risk for 12
years now and love doing workerscomp.
I'm excited to be here for myvery first co-host experience.
Greg Hamlin (02:07):
I'm excited to have Suzanne here.
She's awesome.
So if you haven't met her,now's your chance.
But Suzanne was realinteresting.
We bumped into each other as weworked for fellow Berkeley
companies a while back and oneof the things that was funny in
that is I told a few people likeSuzanne really thinks the way I
think, like she's definitely mykind of person.
(02:28):
And then later on the managerwho trained me, who works for
another carrier, had reachedsome kind of milestone and I saw
Suzanne posted on LinkedIn hey,congratulations.
And I was like how in the worlddo you know her?
And she's like well, I trainedher.
And then I was like, oh, it allcame together.
I only think the way I dobecause of Suzanne.
I just didn't know it.
We have a long history anddidn't even know it.
(02:52):
That's right, that's right.
So we have a special guesttoday with us Stephanie Benke.
Did I say your last namecorrectly?
You did.
Thank you, all right.
She is the Director of SolutionConsulting at HiMARLI and we're
excited to have you with us,stephanie.
Stephanie Behnke (03:08):
Thank you, I'm happy to be here.
Greg Hamlin (03:10):
Well, stephanie, one of the things I always like
to start with is finding out howpeople started out in the
industry, and I'm guessing thatwhen you were in kindergarten
and they had career day, thatyou showed up in a suit ready to
go and you're like I am goingto do insurance, that's what.
That's what it was Right.
Stephanie Behnke (03:28):
Oh my gosh, it's like you were in my life at
the time.
You must've been Miss Jacobskindergarten class with me.
No, um, it's so funny Cause Ifeel like I know one gentleman
actually who grew up wanting tobe in insurance, but I think the
rest of us just sort ofstumbled right, stumbled our way
in.
So I was actually in the army,I was a diesel mechanic and I
was stationed at Fort Hood and Icalled a girlfriend I'm like
(03:49):
getting out of the army in aweek trying to figure out what
that next chapter looks like.
Do you know anyone who's hiring?
And she was working for MercuryInsurance in California at the
time.
She's like great company, yougot to come here.
So here I am 35 years later,right, looking back and going no
, I never, I didn't sign up forit.
(04:12):
But I always tell people andnow, with kind of college
graduations on the mind, Ialways tell people getting out
of school if you don't know whatyou want to do, take a look at
an insurance company.
Because I feel like in mycareer I have had the luxury of
being in underwriting, in ITI've been a CIO, I've been in
claims, innovation and strategyand operations, and there's so
much in the industry to keep youengaged and excited.
(04:34):
That's kind of a great place tojust get started, get some
experience under your belt.
You're going to learn a lot,but I also feel like it helps
root us and ground us and helpsus find what we really want to
do when we grow up.
Greg Hamlin (04:47):
That's awesome.
I have a daughter that justgraduated from high school and
is getting ready to go tocollege, so we're doing that
whole thing of what do I want todo now.
And she said, you know, I thinkshe's been nervous.
She's like oh, I think I wantto do nursing.
And I said you know what, startthere and then just see where
it goes and be open, because asyou start to try new things,
you'll never know what you mightlike.
(05:08):
So I thought that was goodadvice, stephanie.
Suzanne McAuliffe (05:10):
So, stephanie , how long have you been with
Highmarly?
Stephanie Behnke (05:14):
So I've been with Highmarly for just a little
over a year and I am in thesolutions, I run the solutions
consulting organization and sowe really introduce the product
to customers.
So I work with the growth andthe sales teams and just
introduce the product and thenmy team also manages any pilots.
So, suzanne, I know that yourteam piloted with Highmarly and
(05:36):
so it would be my organizationthat helped you do that.
Can you tell us?
Suzanne McAuliffe (05:39):
a little bit about Highmarly and what it
offers.
Stephanie Behnke (05:43):
Absolutely so.
Highmarly is a collaborationplatform powered by SMS and what
that really means is that it'sa communication platform that
allows adjusters to communicatedirectly to customers, prospects
, injured workers and alsocollaborate with other folks in
their organization.
So the way that this works is,say, I'm an adjuster working on
(06:04):
a workers' comp claim and I needto bring in a nurse case
manager.
So I can invite one of thenurse case managers in and now
when they're talking to thecustomer, it's all in one single
text thread.
So the customer has just oneconversation from the very
beginning of their claim to thevery end of the claim.
Super seamless for them.
A lot of times our customersstruggle with I have a question
(06:26):
I don't know who to ask.
Do I ask my nurse to getpractitioner this?
Do I ask somebody else?
That they just ask the questionin that text thread and then
they can get an answer fromanybody who's on that thread.
So really helpful way of justbringing adjusters and injured
workers together.
That's awesome.
Suzanne McAuliffe (06:41):
Yeah, absolutely.
I know that we definitelyexperienced the benefits of that
through the pilot and nowthrough the active integration
into our claims department.
It's been a wonderfultransition for us for
communications.
Stephanie Behnke (06:55):
Yeah, I don't think I realized how close
adjusters and injured workerscould get until I came to work
here at iMarley and I waslooking at some of the data and
just the ability to bond withsomebody to gain their trust and
that goes both ways right.
And then I see folks pouringout their hearts in how much
(07:16):
they appreciated the support anadjuster gave them or how much
they appreciate them comingalongside them and always
believing that they were goingto get back to work and they
were going to get better, andit's just.
It's just a wonderful thing tosee and to listen to.
Greg Hamlin (07:30):
Yeah, I think the way we communicate has changed
so much over the last I think Ican think of, you know, when I
was a kid and then now I havechildren.
I have six kids, so my oldestis 18 and my youngest is one.
So I'm experiencing all theforms of communication, from
like baby sign language to adultchildren now.
But one of the things that Ican remember, you know, when I
(07:53):
wanted to go to my friend'shouse, I picked up my phone and
I called him.
I didn't have a cell phone Injunior high.
I felt like I was pretty coolbecause I had a pager and, you
know, people could page me andthen I could go to a pay phone
and put a quarter in and callthem back, and that was pretty
awesome.
And it wasn't later until cellphones started taking off.
Probably when I was in collegethey were starting to become
(08:14):
more mainstream.
But I noticed with my kids theyhaven't really done some of
those same things.
They're more likely to texteach other, Like my daughter has
a boyfriend right now and Idon't know if she's called him
once.
Like they text all the time,right, but they don't actually
like have phone conversations.
You know, my wife and I joke.
When she was a teenager sheused to call the weather channel
(08:36):
and then her friend would callthe weather channel like, call,
like she'd be like call theweather.
I'm going to call the weatherchannel at 10 o'clock, then call
me and I'll bring you in so thephone doesn't ring and we can
have like a late nightconversation and anymore Like
it's not that way, obviously,with texting.
So, as you think about some ofthe ways technology is changing
(08:56):
communication, what are some ofthe things you're seeing in the
industry that are probablydifferent than what we're used
to?
Stephanie Behnke (09:02):
Yeah, I just I think the speed at which
everything happens has beensurprising and I think for a lot
of folks you know again, Imentioned in the relationship
that you can really build overtext and I'm not sure that folks
expected that to happen.
Right, that you could get closeto somebody just by texting.
And yet you can, right, you canbuild this again, you build a
(09:23):
relationship and build trust,which is so critical to our
success.
Right and what we do every day,and moving very quickly.
So we know that from HighMarley's data on average
customers are responding in twoto three minutes to text
messages.
So when you think about a claimand moving a claim along, think
about how quickly you can get aresponse from an injured worker
(09:45):
and then keep that claim moving.
So I think that is surprisingfor people.
And then we know we've done alot of studies, we have a lot of
data around customerexpectations and customer
satisfaction and the number onedriver of customer satisfaction
is actually the adjuster'sattitude, which is probably not
terribly surprising for those ofus who are actually the
(10:05):
adjuster's attitude, which isprobably not terribly surprising
for those of us who are in theindustry.
But the reality is again can apersonality come through in
texting and the answer isabsolutely, and again, I think
those are a little bitsurprising for folks sometimes.
Greg Hamlin (10:19):
I love that and I think what you're hitting on I
think is so important in thattechnology is a tool that lets
us do what we need to do and getwhere we want to go, but
ultimately what you were hittingon.
It's the attitude of the personwho's using the technology, so
they really go together insteadof being like separate concepts.
Stephanie Behnke (10:38):
Yeah, exactly Right.
It's just facilitating thathuman to human contact, but in
our industry, like it alwayscomes back down to the human
connection.
I love that.
Suzanne McAuliffe (10:48):
So I would just from my perspective, I just
probably want to just add tothat is just.
That's probably one of the bestthings that we've noticed with
High Marley.
The biggest plus is just thatenhanced and prompter, more
frequent communication.
Communication Because, as youalluded to, stephanie, it's just
(11:09):
the ability to havecommunication on an easy basis
and really the texting is almostlike a it's table stakes this
day and age as far as how peopleare communicating.
The High Marley has reallyeliminated that phone tag
situation or the situation wherean adjuster is trying to reach
an injured worker and theirvoicemail message is full or
it's not set up yet.
This way we can just send atext and say, hey, I need to
(11:29):
talk to you, and it just helpsus to move a claim forward
faster and ultimately resolve itat a quicker pace as well.
Stephanie Behnke (11:38):
Yeah, and you think about our workforce.
We're all texting right.
We're all texting all day,every day in our personal lives.
So even as we talk about theinjured worker, even the
adjusters are more comfortableand very comfortable in texting
right.
And so you know again, it'sjust the technology is just
facilitating that.
Greg Hamlin (11:56):
You're spot on.
And just as you were talking,suzanne, I was thinking about my
wife's parents.
Now that we live further away,they'll come stay with us for a
few weeks, and when they stay,if somebody calls their cell
phone, they like race across theroom and answer it, because
that's like they grew up in atime when landlines for you, if
you didn't answer it, theremight not have even been an
answering message.
(12:17):
And so for me, if I see a phonenumber and it comes up on
myself and it's not attached tosomebody's name, I know I'm not
answering it and, and I, and itcomes up on my cell and it's not
attached to somebody's name.
I know I'm not answering it.
And I think we have that sameproblem with our injured workers
is they see that phone numbercome across and they're like, oh
, I don't recognize that areacode or I don't recognize that
person, so I'm not going toanswer it.
And meanwhile we're missing anopportunity to connect.
(12:38):
And if they knew that we wantto talk to them about how we
could get them their benefits orhow we can get them to the
right doctor, they'd probablypick up the phone.
But they don't know that, andso texting kind of gives us
another way to reach out andconnect in a way that people are
communicating.
Now I think you've talked aboutthis a little bit, Stephanie,
but I wanted you to talk alittle bit more.
I think when we think abouttechnology, a lot of times we
(13:01):
think of it as this coldcomputer without emotions, and
then that makes people nervoussometimes when they think about
customer-focused industries likeinsurance.
How does technology, how canempathy, coexist with technology
?
And I think you've hit on thata little, but I would love for
you to talk a little bit moreabout that.
Stephanie Behnke (13:20):
Yeah, it's funny because I think that we
used to assume those were twovery separate entities.
Right, the gear andtechnologies is hardcore, and
we're finding that evenautomated messages can be
empathetic.
So the very beginning, if youstart a conversation right after
a worker has been injured atwork, you can say I'm so sorry
to hear about your accident.
Right, I'm so sorry to hearabout your claim.
(13:43):
I hope you're doing well andyou enter into the conversation.
So, even when we're creatingtemplates, one of the things
that the Heimerle product allowsis we know that adjusters have
similar conversations, kind ofover and over, and so we can
create templates around that.
When we're doing that, we'remaking sure those conversations
are still a point of connection,so the conversation is still,
(14:03):
again, empathetic.
I'm sorry that you experiencedthat.
If I'm doing a follow-up for anappointment hi, how did your
appointment go today?
I hope it went well.
Was the doctor able to clearyou to return back to work?
It can be just that friendlyand really meant and heartfelt
and genuinely heartfelt, reallysincere, and yet automated,
because I would have asked youthat same thing if I had reached
(14:25):
out to you personally manually,right, but I can do that
through technology and it makesmy day a little bit faster and
easier and you get a greatmessage that makes you feel good
, right, and that again it tearsdown that border between the
human and the technology.
Greg Hamlin (14:40):
That's great.
Stephanie Behnke (14:41):
Yeah.
Suzanne McAuliffe (14:42):
Stephanie can you talk a little bit about?
Because, like you mentionedbefore, the nurses can be
involved in a text conversation,supervisors can as well, and
Highmarly also offers theability for supervisors to run
various reports and one of thosefeatures that are highlighted
in the text and communicationsis the sentiment of the text,
(15:05):
and I believe that High Marleyhas the ability to kind of flag
if something, maybe somebody,seems frustrated or upset about
something, so the supervisor hasthe ability to maybe go in and
look at that chat and seewhether or not they're needing
to interact with the injuredworker.
Stephanie Behnke (15:23):
Yeah, absolutely so.
When I think about theevolution of the technology, I
think we're just getting betterat anticipating, we're getting
better at listening, and so oneof the things that Highmarly
offers in our platform is you'reabsolutely right, this
sentiment analysis, this idea ofhow is an injured worker
feeling right now, frustrated?
(15:47):
What we do is we put a littlebadge on that particular
conversation, we pop it to thetop of the adjuster's inbox,
also, kind of helping themprioritize their day.
If you think about theirvoicemails, they don't know what
they're walking into in avoicemail and they may have to
listen to five in a row, right,but with texting you can see the
conversation quickly and thenagain we have this artificial
intelligence running in thebackground.
Prioritize it for them, helpsthem understand that again, in
this example, customer isgetting frustrated or maybe
(16:10):
they're threatening litigationan attorney.
We also have an AI model thatidentifies delays, unusual
delays, and so to AI that soundsa little bit like my doctor has
rescheduled this appointmentfour times or I've left three
messages.
I can't get a response to myreturn to work question.
I've left three messages.
You know, I can't get aresponse to my return to work
question.
I've left three messages.
And if the AI detects any ofthat, again it alerts the
(16:33):
adjuster, pops up to the top oftheir inbox for prioritization
and then you're right, suzanne,anybody can go in.
A supervisor can go in and see.
You know, is Stephanie havingmaybe more of these difficult
conversations than somebody elseon the team, and is it the
nature of those claims thatshe's been assigned Really
(16:54):
importantly?
I think we knew adjusters weredoing this on a daily basis.
We knew they were overcomingthis adversity every day on the
phone, but we couldn't alwayshear how they were recovering
from it With text.
One of the great things is thatsupervisors and managers can
see exactly how they did thatservice recovery.
So, as an adjuster, there'sjust a lot of great information
on when an injured worker isupset, how am I coming alongside
(17:14):
them and making them feelbetter and getting them back on
track on that treatment plan orwhatever, and that's all visible
in texting, and so it's a greatopportunity for supervisors to
be able to call out justtremendous performance know,
tremendous performance byadjusters again and how they
come alongside those injuredworkers and support them.
Greg Hamlin (17:31):
That's.
That's huge, stephanie, and Ithink, as we move forward into
what I think we're, I mean,maybe this will change, but it
seems like more and more we'reseeing people work from their
homes and they're not in theoffice, and so, like when I
became, when I was an adjuster,I sat around people and I
learned so much by listening totheir phone conversations.
But that's happening less andless.
(17:52):
So the opportunity to maybeeven early identify some
opportunities of you know.
Here's a coaching situation onwhen somebody is upset.
Maybe try this instead nexttime and see how it goes.
You know where, when I wasdoing this, the person next to
me probably would have rolledback and said hey, greg, you're
in a pretty bad mood right now.
(18:12):
You might want to try thatagain.
So I think we're missing that,and this is a neat opportunity
to be able to see those and haveother people help.
Stephanie Behnke (18:21):
Yep, I love it .
So one of the things when I'mshowing folks the platform it's
one of my favorite things totalk about is, once you have
insight into the kinds ofconversations that are happening
on the platform, then you cango in and again you can
highlight those and say you know, here's the way that Greg
responded in a really empathetic, great way and he still managed
to move the claim along.
And so at a team meeting youcan bring up some of those
(18:43):
examples.
Right, You're not often insomebody's voicemail or
recording those phone calls andgoing back and listening to them
for training purposes, but youcan do that on a really regular
basis in the High Marleyplatform.
And also there's an abilitywithin the platform you can
leave notes for each other.
So let's say I'm a supervisorand I'm taking a look at a
conversation that's in flight.
I can leave a note for theadjuster and say, hey, just a
(19:03):
quick recommendation, or I havean observation I'd like to share
with you.
And they can do that all in theHighmarley platform.
The adjuster never has to leavethe platform.
So a lot of great toolsavailable for supporting
adjusters, and I think that thatis what makes me happiest in
technology right now is thatwhen I came into the industry so
many years ago, the technologythat I generally built was
(19:25):
around how do I process thepolicy faster?
How do I get details around aclaim?
And it was very functionalbased, and I feel like now
technology is getting us into aplace where it really is back
about the people how am Isupporting the injured worker?
(19:45):
And there was a time when Icame into the industry that
often the software that I wasdesigning served one of those
audiences but it didn't servethe other, and so I maybe was
making things easier for anadjuster at the cost of customer
experience, or this was allabout the customer and kind of
cyclical, and so we werefocusing maybe a lot on the
(20:05):
customer at the time, but theadjuster had four or five hoops
they had to jump through to makethat happen, and I feel like
technology today is serving bothof those audiences well.
So we're getting faster, we'regetting more accurate, but we're
not doing that at the cost ofpeople.
Greg Hamlin (20:24):
That's great and I think that's really the next
step, because I think both thoseexamples I've seen, where you
try to make something morecustomer-friendly and it becomes
not very employee-friendly, oryou create something to reduce
the process time, but now thecustomer has to press three,
press nine, hold, say the rightword to get transferred to the
right place.
(20:44):
The idea is great, but then thecustomer experience is bad.
So I think you hit the nail onthe head there.
Suzanne, I'd like to kind ofshift over to you.
So my operating unit hasn't yetgone on this platform yet we're
in the next wave to go onlineand start to have this.
But your operating unit alreadyhas had some experience in this
(21:05):
platform and I wanted you justto talk a little bit about what
your experience has been from,maybe both at the adjuster level
and then maybe at the managerlevel, and what your experience
has been.
Suzanne McAuliffe (21:17):
Yeah, so it's been a very positive experience
.
The team we had a pilot team offive adjusters to start.
We had three operating unitsactually that had participants
in the pilot.
The pilot participants loved it.
They immediately found theadvantages of faster
communication and some of thereally great features in HiMarly
(21:38):
that just make their lifeeasier.
But again, getting to what wewere just speaking about, also a
great customer service benefit,right.
So being able to communicatequickly and not having delays in
information transferring backand forth, so super easy to use
a platform, very user-friendly,intuitive.
(21:58):
We've had great response timeto text being sent.
So the back and forth is almostjust like if you were using
your phone.
People are responding promptly,information is getting
transferred.
It's been wonderful.
We've had situations this isprobably one of the highlights
that we've seen was we actuallygot a claim settled because we
(22:19):
were able to text.
The adjuster had injuredworkers.
She'd been trying to reach byphone and by email with no
response.
So she had sent me an IM andsaid, hey, is it okay if I
discuss settlement via text?
I was like, well, let's try tocall.
She's not responding tovoicemail.
So I said just don't put anypersonal information in the text
(22:41):
.
So all she did was send a texthey, your claim is ready to
resolve.
Are you interested in talkingabout settlement?
Injured worker?
Responds right away.
Said yes, I am.
She said great, I'm giving youa call right now.
We got the claim settled thatsame afternoon.
Had we not had that textingcapability, who knows, we
probably would have still beenchasing after the injured worker
, so things like that.
(23:03):
There's a wonderful translationservice feature in Highmarly.
That is fantastic.
You don't have to sit on thephone with a language line.
The ability to schedule textsout into the future has been a
huge time saver for the claimprofessionals.
And that's again.
You know claims is a tough job.
Anybody who's done it knowsit's busy.
(23:23):
Time management is key,organization is key and this is
a wonderful tool to help withthose necessary skills in the
claim adjusting world.
From the supervisory standpoint, management standpoint the
reporting capabilities onHighmarly is great.
We can see who's using it, howit's being used, the ability for
(23:45):
a supervisor or anotherco-worker to jump in on a text
in the event somebody's out ofthe office.
So there's no delay incommunication If somebody is in
need of something, whether it'syou know clarification on
whether or not somebody's checkhas been sent or what time?
can you confirm what time myappointment is?
It's just.
(24:06):
It's been a wonderful benefitto our injured workers, as well
as our clients and the adjusters.
Greg Hamlin (24:14):
You've got me excited, Suzanne, because we're
coming up soon.
Suzanne McAuliffe (24:18):
I'm telling you the feedback has been
fantastic.
I mean it's just it's been.
People are pretty excited aboutit.
Greg Hamlin (24:24):
You know our operating unit.
Our big push over the lastcouple of years has been to
create an empathetic resolutionmodel, and part of that is
gaining cooperation with ourinjured workers.
So we've looked at every avenueand this is one of the missing
pieces we knew we needed to workon, so I'm definitely excited
about that.
Suzanne McAuliffe (24:41):
And I guess I would probably be remiss if I
didn't mention you know there'ssome cost savings potential with
this.
One of the biggest examples isprobably the ability for us
because media can be transferredback and forth so getting a
prescription card to an injuredworker so we ensure they get
into network.
So anybody in the claims worldknows how important it is to
(25:02):
keep injured workers in network.
This way they have it, it's ontheir phone and they're able to
get to the pharmacy and getscripts filled within network.
That's fantastic.
Greg Hamlin (25:11):
I'm at the point I don't even have a wallet anymore
.
I just carry my phone and ithas like a little compartment
for a couple credit cards.
So all of those healthinsurance things they're
pictures I don't have.
I'm not carrying that aroundanymore.
So that's great.
That's great news, stephanie.
So as you think about,obviously in High Marley you're
(25:32):
working in technology, so yougot your.
I would assume your company isthinking about the next
challenges that you want totackle, or some of the areas
that you're still working at tomake even better.
What are some of thosechallenges your company is
working to solve throughtechnology today?
Stephanie Behnke (25:42):
So we have a lot of as you listen to
conversations it's sort of thesame questions kind of come up,
claims follow patterns, kind ofpredictable patterns, and so
what I'm most excited about isreally around how AI can come in
and help sort of predict what'snext.
But for this type of claim,here are the common questions
(26:03):
that people have and give thoseanswers to customers and injured
workers before they ask them.
So you know, the adjusters areso busy answering phone calls
and picking up voicemails ofquestions and very few of those
questions are the first time anadjuster has ever heard that
question right.
They get the same with all thetime.
So how can technology againcome alongside both the adjuster
(26:24):
and the injured worker and givethe injured worker the
information that he or she needsat the time they need it right,
and AI will help us do that.
Even in the existing sentimentmodels that we have today that I
mentioned, we first wanted tounderstand what was frustrating
injured workers and, as weobserved that data, what we
(26:45):
learned was that a lot of timesit's a question that's asked
that doesn't get answered in atimely fashion and that creates
frustration and that can lead tolitigation and all kinds of
additional expenses as well, andso the very next model we
rolled out was oh, there's aquestion waiting for you.
So now in the platform, if aninjured worker asks you a
question and it doesn't getanswered, within 30 minutes just
(27:07):
a little innocuous blue barpops up and just lets you know
that there's a question waitingfor you.
So, again, imagine an adjustertoday would have to go through
all their voicemails, listen toall the voicemail and now I can
see online a little blue linejust tells me that there's a
question that needs to beanswered.
So even if I'm just wrapping upmy day before I go to lunch, or
Friday before I take off forthe weekend, I can quickly scan
(27:31):
is anybody frustrated?
Does anybody have a question Ineed to answer at the last
minute, before we all shut downkind of for the weekend?
Again, just coming along andsupporting both the adjuster and
the injured worker.
And the more data that we have,the better that those AI models
are going to get right and themore accurate they're going to
get.
And instead of giving aninjured worker a 10-page
(27:53):
document on kind of what toexpect in the claim process, we
can actually feed them real-timeinformation.
Oh, they just went to thedoctor and got this message.
Then here's kind of the likelynext question they're going to
ask me Anticip, anticipate thatand answer it.
So if the adjuster is reallydoing that deep, meaningful work
that we all know that they doand not worrying about sort of
(28:14):
picking up messages, yeah, Ithink that's really big.
Greg Hamlin (28:17):
You know there's so many, like you said, of those
questions like where's my check,or very simple questions that
come up all the time.
I mean, we joke about that onebecause that's one of the more
frequent ones that people want,but there are very simple
answers that really I think agood AI system could learn to
anticipate.
I'm not an expert on chat GBTand I don't know a ton about it,
(28:39):
but I've heard enough becauseit's all over the media right
now.
So I know that we're kind ofthinking forward here, probably,
but do you see any places wherethis may enter the insurance
industry into the space?
I think you kind of talked alittle bit about it by talking
about AI.
Stephanie Behnke (28:57):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
So.
We are already using chat, gptand models like that right To
and again anticipate needs toask just the right questions.
So one of the products thatHighmarly has is a
conversational FNOL.
So if you can imagine, insteadof a chatbot that doesn't feel
(29:19):
very human right Having aconversation with AI that feels
empathetic, feels soundsempathetic, and I don't have to
ask all the questions, because Iask a customer or an injured
worker to just explain whathappened and once I know what
happened, I'm pulling all ofthat unstructured data into
(29:40):
structured fields.
And now that just eliminatedfour additional questions.
So the way that Suzanneanswered my you know what
happened explained to me whathappened.
Well, that just happened toanswer location and time of day
and a description, and so now Ino longer have to ask those
questions.
So just getting smarter, youknow AI continuing to feed that
and then also taking all of thedata that we all sit on and
(30:03):
putting that back into the modelso that they're constantly
learning right, and so thenature of claims.
It always evolves over time, butmaking sure that we stay on top
of that evolution by pumpingthe data that we receive back
into the models to just keepmaking them smarter and smarter.
Suzanne McAuliffe (30:18):
That's fantastic and it's so important
to where we are in this day andage, because we are so reliant
on technology and all that comesalong with it.
Is there anything currently?
Is there an issue or solutionout there that your company is
currently looking into to solveand you're excited about to
bring you into the future?
Stephanie Behnke (30:40):
You know what I really do get probably most
excited about AI and again Ifeel like it's talked about a
lot.
When we get really specific,again, it can do things like I
don't have to ask you fivequestions, maybe I ask you again
one and I get all those answersthat I needed.
But the ability to anticipateClaims are incredibly stressful
(31:01):
and when you have lost time atwork and you can't do your job,
the fear, the anxiety, thefrustration it comes out in
these claims and it comes outsometimes at the adjuster and it
can be very frustrating.
So any technology that we canleverage to make the experience
easier for that injured worker,to make them feel safe, to make
(31:24):
them feel confident that we havetheir best interest in mind and
we are going to do everythingwe can to get them back to work
on time.
However, ai can get us in frontof the customer again in a
meaningful, empathetic way.
I think is what drives me everyday.
How do we make theseexperiences more lovable?
Highmarly's tagline is makinginsurance more lovable, which
(31:47):
seems like a very lofty goal,but I think we do that one
conversation at a time.
And I think we do that oneinjured worker at a time, and AI
can help us predict what thatinjured worker is feeling and
again predict where that nextelement, sort of anxiety, might
be coming from.
Greg Hamlin (32:03):
That's fantastic.
Stephanie, you know I talkabout this a lot and I'm sure
Suzanne remembers this.
Early on in the insurance Ithink there was a lot, and I'm
sure Suzanne remembers this.
Early on in the insurance Ithink there was a lot of, and
we're probably still have someof this.
That use that I call the claimshammer technique.
When they want to get somethingdone.
It's well, if you don't go dothis, then I'm going to stop
your check or I'm going to cutyou off or I'm going.
(32:25):
You know any number of differentthings and having six children,
I can tell you like if you usethe hammer on your kids every
time, it doesn't work very well.
Like a lot of times pats on theback.
They're important to you.
You have to do all thedifferent things and if you want
to, if you want to gaincooperation and get where you
want to head.
I love how you talk aboutmaking insurance more lovable,
(32:47):
because there's definitely workto be done on that and it
shouldn't be a terribleexperience.
We're really there to helppeople have better lives and be
able to recover from somethingawful that happened.
That's the whole point of it.
So I love your message, one ofthe things that we're doing this
year to wrap up the year.
I always try to put good vibesin the universe because I figure
(33:08):
it will come back to me someday.
So there's so much negativityout there.
One of the things that I wantto do this season is have each
person share something they'regrateful for, as we wrap up the
season, the episode.
And so, stephanie, I wanted youto share something you're
grateful for today, as we wrapthings up.
Anything you want.
Stephanie Behnke (33:25):
Goodness, such a list.
Thank you for the question, bythe way.
What a great question.
I'm going to say I am mostthankful for the culture at High
Marley.
So I have worked in theindustry, as I mentioned, for 35
years.
I have never encountered agroup of people that were more
driven and more focused on agoal right, and our goal is to
(33:47):
make insurance lovable.
But just the way that we listento each other, the way that we
raise concerns, the way that weuse candor to kind of cut to the
chase and really get to anychallenges that we encounter, I
love it.
I'm so grateful for the companyand for our leadership because
they promote this culture allthe time.
And I will tell you, after beingin the industry where we can be
(34:09):
a little salty has anyone evermet a salty claims adjuster or a
salty underwriter?
We can be a little salty.
And so I come from that carrierbackground and to come into a
company where people are like sotell me, what's bothering you
about what I'm doing?
It's like are you serious?
You're serious, aren't you?
(34:29):
Well, let me tell you what Ithink we could do differently.
Right, and what it meant for mewas I didn't want to come into
a corporate culture and be thatguy that's negative or that guy
that's, and so it actuallychanged the way I approach my
work every day and the way Iinteract with my colleagues.
And yeah, it was a really longanswer, Greg, but I really
(34:52):
couldn't be more grateful forthe culture.
Greg Hamlin (34:55):
That's huge, and I've worked with a number of
different employers I'm sureSuzanne has too and we spent way
too much time at work to be ata place that we're miserable or
that people aren't taking thoseextra steps.
I think culture really doesmatter, and I think now, in a
world that is as competitive asit is in the insurance industry
for talent, if you don't havegood, great culture, someone
(35:16):
else will take that person andbe excited to have them on their
teams, and then you'll be leftwith a bunch of EORs that
complain.
So you've got to do the rightstuff.
So I love that.
Well, I've really enjoyed havingthis discussion with you,
stephanie.
I would just encourage any ofour listeners if you're
interested in texting or how toget texting implemented into
(35:38):
your platform to reach out to HiMarley's team.
I know that you guys do morethan workers comp.
You're involved in all thedifferent lines of insurance, or
quite a few anyway.
So if you're listening to thisthinking, is this something that
could work for me?
I'm sure they can go over thatwith you, and we definitely
appreciate you taking time outof your busy schedule to chat
with us this afternoon.
Stephanie Behnke (35:58):
Thank you so much.
It's been an absolute pleasure,so thank you for having me.
Greg Hamlin (36:02):
Thanks, stephanie.
I just remind all of ourlisteners to do right, think
differently and don't forget tocare.
And that's it for this week.
Thanks, guys, you.
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