July 24, 2023 • 35 mins
In this episode, ADJUSTED welcomes Stephanie Behnke Solution Consulting Director with Hi Marley. Stephanie discusses the Hi Marley platform and the benefits of texting capabilities for adjusters.
Season 5 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 (00:12):
Hello everybody and welcome to adjusted. I'm your
host Greg Hanlon coming at youfrom beautiful Birmingham,
Alabama and Berkeley industrialcomp. And with me as co host for
the day and first time co hostis Suzanne McAuliffe vice
president of claims with keyrisk. Susanna want you to
(00:32):
introduce yourself a little bit?
Where are you from Suzanne?
Suzanne McAuliffe (00:35):
Well, I'm currently in Fort Mill, South
Carolina, originally fromSyracuse, New York. So you'll
probably notice the accent thatis not southern. But I'm lucky
rest for 12 years now. And lovedoing workers comp. I'm excited
to be here for my very first cohost experience.
Greg Hamlin (00:52):
I'm excited to have Suzanne here. She's awesome. So
if you haven't met her, now'syour chance. But Suzanne was
real interesting. We bumped intoeach other as we worked for
fellow Berkeley companies awhile back. And one of the
things that was funny in that asI told a few people like Suzanne
really thinks the way I thinklike she's definitely my kind of
(01:12):
person. And then later on, themanager who train me who works
for another carrier hadn'treached some kind of milestone,
and I saw Suzanne posted onLinkedIn. Hey, congratulations.
And I was like, How in theworld? Do you know her? And
she's like, well, I trained her.
And then I was like, Oh, it allcame together. I only think the
way do you because Suzanne,because of Suzanne, I just
didn't know it. So
Suzanne McAuliffe (01:34):
we have a long history and didn't even
know. That's right.
Greg Hamlin (01:37):
So we have a special guest today with us.
Stephanie Behnke. They say yourlast name correctly? You did.
Thank you. All right. She is theDirector of solution Consulting
at high Marley. And we'reexcited to have you with us,
Stephanie.
Stephanie Behnke (01:53):
Thank you. I'm happy to be here.
Greg Hamlin (01:56):
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 amgoing to do insurance. That's
what that's what it was right?
Stephanie Behnke (02:13):
Oh my gosh, it's like you were in my life at
the time. You must miss Jacobskindergarten class with me
though. It's so funny, because Ifeel like I know one gentleman
actually, who grew up wanting tobe an insurance. I think the
rest of us just sort ofstumbled, right stumbled our
way. And so I was actually inthe Army. I was a diesel
mechanic, and I was stationed atFort Hood. And I called a
(02:34):
girlfriend. I'm like, gettingout of the army and a week
trying to figure out what thatnext chapter looks like. Do you
know anyone who's hiring and shewas working for Mercury
Insurance in California at thetime, just like great company,
you got to come here. So here Iam. 35 years later, right?
Looking back and going No, Inever I didn't sign up for it.
But I always tell people and nowwith you know, kind of college
(02:55):
graduations on on the mind. Ialways tell people, if you're
getting out of school, if youdon't know what you want to do,
take a look at me insurancecompany. Because I feel like in
my career, I have had the luxuryof being in underwriting in it.
I've been a CIO, I've been inclaims, innovation and strategy
and an operations and there's somuch in the industry to keep you
(03:18):
engaged and excited. That's kindof a great place to just get
started, get some experienceunder your belt, you're going to
learn a lot. But I also feellike it helps route us and
ground us and helps us find whatwe really want to do when we
grow up.
Greg Hamlin (03:32):
That's awesome. I have a daughter that just
graduated from high school andgetting ready to go to college.
So we're doing that whole thingof what do I want to do now? And
she said, You know, I thinkshe's been nervous, because
she's like, Oh, I think I wantto do nursing. And I said, You
know what, start there, and thenjust see where it goes and be
open. Because as you start totry new things, you'll never
know what you might like. So Ithought that was good advice.
(03:54):
Stephanie.
Suzanne McAuliffe (03:56):
So Stephanie, how long have you been with high
Marley?
Stephanie Behnke (03:59):
So bear with high Marley for just a little
over a year. And I am in thesolutions that I run the
solutions consultingorganization. And so we really
introduced the product tocustomer so I work with the the
growth in the sales teams justintroduced the product and then
my team also manages any pilots.
So Suzanne, I know that yourteam piloted with Hi Marilee.
And so it would be myorganization that helped you do
(04:22):
that. Can you tell us a littlebit about home early and what it
offers? Absolutely. So hi barleyis a collaboration platform
powered by SMS and and what thatreally means is that it's a
communication platform thatallows adjusters to communicate
directly to customers,prospects, injured workers, and
also collaborate with otherfolks in their organization. So
(04:44):
the way that this works is sayI'm an adjuster working on a
worker's comp claim, and I needto bring in a nurse case manager
so I can invite one of the nursecase managers in and win now
when they're talking to thecustomer. It's all in one state
single text thread. So thecustomer has just one
conversation from the verybeginning of their claim to the
(05:04):
very end of the claim superseamless for them. A lot of
times our customers strugglewith it. I have a question. I
don't know who to ask my nursepractitioner this way, ask
somebody else that they justasked the question in that text
thread, and then they can getthe answer from anybody who's on
that threat. So really helpfulway of just bringing adjusters
and injured workers
Suzanne McAuliffe (05:24):
together.
That's awesome. Yeah,absolutely. I know that we
definitely experienced thebenefits of that through the
pilot. And now through the actof integration into our claims
department. It's been, it's beena wonderful transition for us
for communications.
Stephanie Behnke (05:40):
Yeah, I don't think I realized how close
adjusters and injured workerscould get until I came to, you
know, work here i Marley and Iwas looking at some of the data.
And just the ability to, to bondwith somebody to gain their
trust. And that goes both ways,right. And then I see folks
pouring out their, their heartsin how much they appreciated the
(06:02):
support an adjuster gave them orhow much they appreciate them
coming alongside them and, andalways, you know, believing that
they were going to get back towork and they were going to get
better. And it's just, it's justa wonderful thing to see and to
listen to.
Greg Hamlin (06:15):
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
oldest is 18. And my youngest isone. So I'm experiencing all the
forms, you can like baby signlanguage to adult children now.
But one of the things that I canremember, you know, when I
(06:38):
wanted to go to my friend'shouse, I picked up my phone and
I called him I didn't have acell phone. In junior high, I
felt like it was pretty coolbecause I had a pager. And you
know, people could page me andthen I could go to a payphone
and put a quarter and then callthem back. And that that was
pretty awesome. And it wasn'tlater until cell phones started
taking off. Probably when I wasin college, they were starting
(06:59):
to become more mainstream. But Inoticed with my kids, they
don't, they haven't really donesome of those same things,
they're more likely to text eachother. Like my daughter has a
boyfriend right now. And I don'tknow if she's called him once.
Like they taxed all the time,right. But they don't actually,
like have phone conversations.
You know, my wife, and I jokewhen she was a teenager, she
used to call the WeatherChannel. And then her friend
(07:21):
would call the Weather Channel,like call it like, she'd be
like, call the weather, I'mgoing to call the Weather
Channel at 10 o'clock, then callme and I'll bring you into the
phone doesn't ring. And we canhave like a late night
conversation anymore. Like, it'snot that way, obviously with
texting. So as you think aboutsome of the ways technology is
changing communication, what aresome of the things you're seeing
(07:43):
in industry that that areprobably different than what
we're used to?
Stephanie Behnke (07:47):
Yeah, I just I think the speed at which
everything happens has beensurprising. And I think for a
lot of folks, you know, weagain, I mentioned the
relationship that you can reallybuild over text. And I'm not
sure that folks expected that tohappen, right? That, that you
could get close to somebody justby texting, and yet you can
right you can build this, again,you build relationship build
(08:09):
trust, which is so critical toour success, right in what we do
every day. And you know, thatmoving very quickly. So so we
know that from home wirelessdata, on average, customers are
responding in two to threeminutes to text messages. So
when you think about a claim andmoving a claim along think about
how quickly you can get aresponse from an injured worker
(08:30):
and then keep that claim moving.
Right. So I think that was Thatis surprising for people. And
then we know, you know, we'vedone a lot of studies, we have a
lot of data around customerexpectations and customer
satisfaction. And the number onedriver of customer satisfaction
is actually the adjustersattitude, which is probably not
terribly surprising for those ofus who are in the industry. But
(08:52):
the reality is again, you know,kind of personality come through
in texting. And the answer isabsolutely. Right. And again, I
think those are those are alittle bit surprising for folks
sometimes.
Greg Hamlin (09:04):
I love that. And I think you know what you're
hitting on, I think so importantin that. Technology is like a
tool that lets us do what weneed to do and get where we want
to go. But ultimately what youare hitting on it's the attitude
of the person who's using thetechnology. So they really go
together instead of being likeseparate concepts.
Stephanie Behnke (09:23):
Yeah, exactly.
Right. It's just facilitatingthat human to human contact, but
in our industry, like it alwayscomes back down to the human
connection.
Suzanne McAuliffe (09:32):
I love that.
So I wouldn't just from myperspective, I just probably
want to just add to that. It'sjust that's probably one of the
best things that we've noticedwith high Marley, the biggest
pluses just that enhanced inprompt or more frequent
communication. Because as youalluded to Stephanie is just the
ability to have communication onan easy basis. And really, the
(09:53):
texting is almost like a it'stable stakes this day and age is
hard. As how people arecommunicating, the high Marley
has really eliminated that phonetag situation or the situation
where an adjuster is trying toreach an injured worker and the
voicemail messages fall or it'snot set up yet this way, we can
just send a text and say, Hey, Ineed to talk to you. And it's
(10:14):
just helps us to move a claimforward faster, and ultimately
resolve it at a quicker pace aswell.
Stephanie Behnke (10:24):
Yeah, and you think about our workforce, we're
all texting, right? We're alltexting all day, every day in
our personal lives. So even aswe talk about the injured
worker, even the adjusters aremore comfortable and very
comfortable in texting, right.
And so, you know, again, it'sjust the technology is just
facilitating that
Greg Hamlin (10:41):
you're spot on. And just as you were talking,
Suzanne, I was thinking about mywife's parents now that we live
further away, they'll come staywith us for a few weeks. And
when they say, if somebody callstheir cell phone, they like race
across the room and answer it.
Because that's like they grew upin a time when landlines for
you, if you didn't answer it,there might not have even been
an answering message. And so forme, if I see a phone number, and
(11:03):
it comes up on myself, and it'snot attached to somebody's name,
I know, I'm not answering it.
And, and I think we have thatsame problem with our injured
workers is they see that phonenumber come across, and they're
like, oh, I don't recognize thatarea code or don't recognize
that person. So I'm not going toanswer it. And meanwhile, we're
missing an opportunity toconnect. And if they knew that,
(11:25):
we want to talk to him about howwe could get them their
benefits, or how we could getthem to the right doctor, they
probably pick up the phone, butthey don't know that. And so
texting kind of gives us anotherway to reach out and connect in
a way that people arecommunicating. Now, I think
you've talked about this alittle bit, Stephanie, but I
wanted you to talk a little bitmore. I think when we think
about technology, a lot of timeswe think of it as as cold
(11:48):
computer without emotions, andthen that makes people nervous.
Sometimes when they think aboutcustomer focused industries like
insurance, how does technologyhow can empathy coexist with
technology? And I think you'vehit on that a little bit. I
would love for you to talk alittle bit more about that.
Stephanie Behnke (12:06):
Yes, let me because I think that we, we used
to assume those were two veryseparate entities, right? The
current technologies ishardcore. And we're finding that
even automated messages can beempathetic. So the very
beginning if you start aconversation right after an IT
worker has been injured at work,you can say I'm so sorry to hear
about your accident, right? I'mso sorry to hear about your
(12:28):
claim, I hope you're doing wellor you know, and you do enter
into the conversation. So evenwhen we're creating templates,
one of the things that thehyperlink product allows us we
know that adjusters have similarconversations kind of over and
over. So we can create templatesaround that, when we're doing
that we're making sure thoseconversations are still a point
of connection. So theconversation is still again,
(12:49):
empathetic, I'm sorry that youexperienced that. If I'm doing a
follow up for an appointment.
Hi, how did your appointment go?
today? I hope it went well, youknow, was the doctor able to
clear it and return back towork, it can be just that
friendly, and and really meantand heartfelt, and genuinely
heartfelt, really sincere. Andyet automated, because I would
have asked you that same thingif I had reached out to you,
(13:11):
personally manually, right. ButI can do that through
technology. And it makes my daya little bit faster and easier.
And you get a great message thatmakes you feel good. Right? And
that, again, it tears down thatborder between the human and the
technology.
Greg Hamlin (13:26):
That's great. Yeah, it's
Suzanne McAuliffe (13:27):
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 hi,
Marley also offers the abilityfor supervisors to run various
reports. And one of thosefeatures that are highlighted in
the texting communications isthe sentiment of the tax. And I
(13:51):
believe that Hi, Marley has theability to kind of flag if
something maybe somebody seemsfrustrated 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. Yeah, absolutely.
Stephanie Behnke (14:09):
So So when I think about the evolution of the
technology, I think we're justgetting better at anticipating
we're getting better atlistening. And so one of the
things that Hi, Marley offers inour platform is you're
absolutely right, this sentimentanalysis, this idea of how is it
How's an injured worker feelingright now. And if they're
getting frustrated, what we dois we put a little badge on that
(14:31):
particular conversation, we popit to the top of the adjusters
inbox, also kind of helping themprioritize their day, you know,
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 seethe conversation quickly. And
then again, we have thisartificial intelligence running
in the background, prioritize itfor them helps them understand
that again, in this example,customers getting frustrated or
(14:52):
maybe they're threatening alitigation attorney. We also
have an AI model Oh, thatidentifies delays, unusual
delays. And so to AI that soundsa little bit like, my doctor is
rescheduled this appointmentfour times, or I've left three
messages, you know, I can't geta response to my return to work
question, I've left threemessages. And if the AI detects
(15:14):
any of that, again, it alertsthe adjuster pops up to the top
of their inbox forprioritization. And then you're
right, Suzanne, anybody can goin a supervisor can go in and
see you is Stephanie havingmaybe more of these difficult
conversations in somebody elseon the team? And is that the
nature of those claims thatshe's been assigned? Really
importantly, I think, you know,we knew adjusters were doing
(15:36):
this on a daily basis, we knewthey were overcoming this
adversity every day on thephone, but we couldn't always,
you know, hear how they wererecovering 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, so just a lot of greatinformation on when injured
workers upset, how am I comingalongside them and making them
(15:58):
feel better, and getting themback on track on that treatment
plan or whatever. And that's allvisible in in texting. And so
it's a great opportunity forsupervisors to be able to call
out just, you know, tremendousperformance by adjusters again,
and how they come alongside thisinjured workers and support
them.
Greg Hamlin (16:16):
That's, that's huge Stephanie. And I think as we
move forward into what I thinkwe're, I mean, maybe this will
change, but it seems like moreand more, we're seeing people
work from their homes, andthey're not in the office. And
so like when I became when I wasan adjuster, I sat around
people, and I learned so much bylistening to their phone
conversations. But that'shappening less than less. So the
(16:38):
opportunity to maybe even earlyidentify some opportunities of
you know, here's a coachingsituation on when somebody's
upset, maybe try this instead,next time 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
pretty bad mood right now, youmight want to try that again. So
(17:01):
I think we're missing that. Andthis is a neat opportunity to be
able to see those and have otherpeople help.
Stephanie Behnke (17:06):
Yep, I love it. So So one of the things when
I'm showing folks, the platform,it's one of my favorite things
to talk about is once you haveinsight into the kinds of
conversations that are happeningon the platform, then you can go
in and again, you can highlightthose and say, you know, here's
the way that that Greg respondedin a really empathetic, great
way, and you still managed tothe claim along so at a team
(17:27):
meeting could bring up some ofthose examples, right? You're
not often in somebody'svoicemail or or recording those
phone calls and going back andlistening to them for training
purposes. But you can do that ona really regular basis in the in
the high Marley platform. Andalso, there's an ability within
the platform, you can leavenotes for each other. So let's
say I'm a supervisor, and I'mtaking a look at a conversation
that's in flight, I can leave anote for the adjuster and say,
(17:48):
hey, just a quickrecommendation, or I have an
observation I'd like to sharewith you. And they can do that
all in the high Marley platform.
And it just never has to leavethe platform. So a lot of great
tools available for supportingadjusters. And I think that that
is what makes me the happiest intechnology right now is that
when I came into the industry,so many years ago, the
technology that I generallybuilt was around how do I
(18:10):
process the policy faster? Howdo I get the clay? You know, how
do I get details around a claimand it was very functional base.
And I feel like now technologyis getting us into a place where
it really is back about thepeople? How am I supporting the
adjuster? How am I supportingthe injured worker. And there
was a time when I came into theindustry that often the software
(18:32):
that I was designing, served oneof those audiences, but it
didn't serve the other. And so Imaybe was making things easier
for an adjuster at the cost ofcustomer experience, or this was
all about the customer. And youknow, it kind of cyclical and so
we were focusing maybe a lot onthe customer at the time. But
the adjuster had four or fivehoops they had to jump through
(18:53):
to make that happen. And I feellike technology today is serving
both of those audiences. Well,so we're beginning we're getting
faster, we're getting moreaccurate. But we're not doing
that at the cost of people.
Greg Hamlin (19:09):
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 more customerfriendly, and it becomes not
very employee friendly, or youcreate something to to reduce
the process time. But now thecustomer has to press three
press nine polled say the rightword, you know, to get
transferred to the right place.
So like the idea is great, butthen the customer experience is
(19:30):
bad. So I think you hit the nailon the head there. Suzanne, I'd
like to kind of shift over toyou. So my operating unit hasn't
yet gone on this platform yet.
We're in the next wave to goonline and start to have this
but your operating unit alreadyhas had some experience in this
platform. And I wanted you justto talk a little bit about what
(19:54):
your experience has been frommaybe both at the adjuster
level, and then maybe at themanager level and And what your
what your experience is
Suzanne McAuliffe (20:01):
back? Yeah, so it's been a very positive
experience the team, we had apilot team of five adjusters to
start, we had three operatingunits actually, that had
participants in the pilot, thepilot participants loved it,
they immediately found theadvantages of faster
communication, and some of thereally great features in high
(20:23):
Marley that just make their lifeeasier. But again, getting to
what we were just speakingabout, also a great customer
service benefit, right. So beingable to communicate quickly and
not having delays in informationtransferring back and forth. So
super easy to use a platform,very user friendly, intuitive.
(20:44):
We've had great response time totext being sent. So the back and
forth is almost just like if youwere using your phone, or people
are responding promptly,information is getting
transferred. It's beenwonderful. We've had situations
this is probably one of thehighlights that we've seen was
we actually got a claim settled,because we were able to tax the
(21:06):
adjuster had injured workershe'd been trying to reach by
phone and by email with noresponse. So she had sent me Iam
and said, Hey, is it okay? If Idiscuss settlement via text? And
it's like, well, let's try tocall which is not responding to
voicemail. So it's we just don'tput any personal information in
the text. So all she did wassend a tax pay your claim is
(21:30):
ready to resolve. Are youinterested in talking about
settlement, injured workerresponds right away suggests I
actually said great, I'm givingyou a call right now, we got the
claim settled visit that sameafternoon, had we not had that
texting capability, who knows,we probably would have still
been chasing after the injuredworker. So things like that
there's a wonderful translationservice feature in Hi, Marley,
(21:52):
that is fantastic. You don'thave to sit on the phone with a
language line, the ability toschedule PACs out into the
future has been a huge timesaver for the clean
professionals in this, again,you know claimed as a tough job,
anybody who's done it knows it'sbusy time management is key
organization's key. And this isa wonderful tool to help with
(22:14):
those necessary skills in theclaim adjusting world. From the
supervisory supervisorystandpoint, management
standpoint, the reportingcapabilities on primarily is
great, we can see who's usingit, how it's being used, the
ability for a supervisor oranother co worker to jump in on
attacks in the event, somebody'sout of the office. So there's no
(22:38):
delay in communication. Ifsomebody is in need of
something, whether it's, youknow, clarification on whether
or not somebody's check is thensent? Or what time can you
confirm what time my appointmentis? It's just a it's been a
wonderful benefit to to ourinjured workers as well as our
clients and the adjusters. Haveyou
Greg Hamlin (22:59):
got me excited Suzanne, because we're working
on a workout.
Suzanne McAuliffe (23:03):
I'm telling you, the feedback has been
fantastic. I mean, it's justit's been people are pretty
excited about
Greg Hamlin (23:08):
it. You know, our operating unit, our big push
over the last couple of yearshas been to create an empathetic
resolution model. And part ofthat is gaining cooperation with
our injured workers. So we'velooked at every avenue and this
is one of the missing pieces weknew we needed to work on. So
I'm definitely excited aboutthat.
Suzanne McAuliffe (23:26):
And I guess I would probably be remiss if I
didn't mention, you know,there's some cost savings
potential with this, one of thebiggest examples is probably the
ability for us because media canbe transferred back and forth.
So getting a prescription cardto an injured worker. So we
ensure they get into network. Soanybody in the claims world
knows how important it is to tokeep injured workers in that
(23:48):
work this way they have it, it'son their phone, and they're able
to get to the pharmacy and getscripts filled within that work.
Greg Hamlin (23:56):
That's fantastic.
I'm at the point, I don't evenhave a wallet anymore. I just
carry my phone and it has like alittle compartment for a couple
credit cards. So all of thosehealth insurance things, their
pictures, I don't have I'm notcarrying that around anymore. So
that's great. That's great news.
Stephanie. So as you think aboutobviously in high Marley, you're
working in technology. So yougot your I would assume your
(24:16):
company's thinking about thenext challenges that you want to
tackle or some of the areas thatyou're still working at to make
even better. What are some ofthose challenges your companies
working to solve throughtechnology today?
Stephanie Behnke (24:27):
So we have a lot of years 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 the commonquestions that people have and
(24:50):
give those answers to customersand injured workers before they
ask them so you know, theadjusters are so busy answering
phone calls and picking upvoicemails have questions Very
few of those questions are thefirst time and adjuster has ever
heard that question, right? Theyget disabled all time. So how
can technology again comealongside both the adjuster and
the injured worker and give theinjured worker the information
(25:13):
that he or she needs at thetime? They need it? Right? An AI
will help us do that, you know,even in the in the existing
sentiment models that we havetoday that I mentioned, you
know, we we first wanted tounderstand what was frustrating
injured workers. And as weobserve that data, what we
learned was that a lot of times,it's a question that's asked
(25:33):
that doesn't get answered in atimely fashion. And that creates
frustration. And that can leadto litigation and all kinds of
additional expenses as well. Andso the very next model we rolled
out was, oh, there's a questionwaiting for you. So now in the
platform, if an injured workerasks you a question, and it
doesn't get answered within 30minutes, just a little innocuous
(25:53):
blue bar pops up and just letyou know that there's a question
waiting for you. So again,imagine you an adjuster today
would have to go through alltheir voicemails listen to all
the voicemail. And and now I cansee online, a little blue line
just tells me that there's aquestion that needs to be
answered. So even if I'm justwrapping up my day, before I go
to lunch, or Friday, before Itake off for the weekend, I can
(26:15):
quickly scan. Is anybodyfrustrated? Does anybody have a
question I need to answer at thelast minute before we all shut
down kind of for the weekend.
Again, just coming along andsupporting both the adjuster and
the injured worker and the moredata that we have, the better
that those AI models are goingto get. Right? And the more
accurate they're going to get.
(26:35):
And instead of giving an injuredworker, a 10 page document on
kind of what to expect in theclaim process, we can actually
feed them real time information.
Well, they just went to thedoctor and got this message,
then here's kind of a likelynext question. They're going to
ask me anticipate that andanswer it. So that the adjuster
is really doing that deep,meaningful work that we all know
(26:56):
that they do and not worryingabout sort of picking up
messages.
Greg Hamlin (27:01):
Yeah, I think that's really big. You know,
there's so many, like you saidof those questions, like,
where's my check, or very simplequestions that come up all the
time? I mean, we we joke aboutthat one, because that's one of
the more frequent ones thatpeople want. But, you know,
there are very simple answersthat really, I think a good AI
system could learn toanticipate. I'm not an expert on
(27:22):
chat GBT. And I don't know a tonabout it. But I've heard enough,
because it's all over the mediaright now. So you know, I know
that we're kind of thinkingforward here, probably. But do
you see any, any places wherethis may enter the insurance
industry? And to the space? Ithink you kind of talked a
little bit about it by bytalking about AI?
Stephanie Behnke (27:42):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So. So we are
already using chat GPD. Andmodels like that right? To and
again, anticipate needs to askjust the right question. So one
of the products that primarilyhas is a conversational SQL. So
if you can imagine, instead of achatbot, that doesn't feel very
(28:04):
human, right? having aconversation with AI that steals
empathetic feels soundsempathetic. And I don't have to
ask all the questions, because Iasked a customer or an injured
worker, just explain whathappened. And once I know what
happened, I'm pulling all ofthat unstructured data into
(28:25):
structured fields. And now thatjust eliminated for additional
questions. So the way thatSuzanne answered my, you know,
what happened? Explain to mewhat happened? Well, that just
happen to answer, location andtime a day and a description.
And so now I no longer have toask those questions. So just
getting smarter, you know, AIcontinuing to feed that. And
then also taking all of the datathat we all sit on, and putting
(28:49):
that back into the model so thatthey're constantly learning,
right. And so the nature ofclaims and always evolves over
time, but making sure that westay on top of that evolution by
pumping the data that we receiveback into the models to just
keep making them smarter andsmarter.
Suzanne McAuliffe (29:03):
That's fantastic. And it's it's so
important to where we are inthis day and age because we are
so reliant on technology and allthat comes along with it. Is
there anything currently isthere an issue or solution out
there that your company iscurrently looking into to solve
and you're excited about tobring you into the future?
Stephanie Behnke (29:25):
But you know, what I really do get probably
most excited about that. AboutAI is good. I feel like it is
it's talked about a lot when weget really specific again, it
can do things like I don't haveto ask you five questions. Maybe
I asked you again, one and I getall those answers that I needed,
but the ability to anticipate,you know, claims are incredibly
(29:46):
stressful and when you have losttime at work, and you can't do
your job, the fear, the anxiety,the frustration, it comes out in
these claims and it comes outsometimes at the adjuster and it
can be very frustrating. So anytechnology that we can leverage
to make the experience easierfor that injured worker to make
(30:07):
them feel safe to make them feelconfident that we have their
best interest in mind, and weare going to do everything we
can to get them back to work ontime. However, AI can get us in
front of the customer, again, ina meaningful, empathetic way, I
think is is what drives me everyday. It's like, how do we make
these experiences more lovable?
It's Yohai, Marley's kind oftagline is making insurance more
(30:30):
lovable, which seems like a verylofty 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. That's,
Greg Hamlin (30:49):
that's fantastic.
Stephanie, you know, I talkedabout this a lot. And I'm sure
Suzanne remembers this early onin the insurance, I think there
was a lot of, and we're probablystill have some of this, that
use that. I call it the claimshammer technique. When they want
to get something done, it'swell, if you don't go do this,
then I'm going to stop yourcheck, or I'm going to cut you
off or I'm going you know anynumber of different things. And
(31:11):
having six children, I can tellyou like if you use the hammer
on your kids every time, itdoesn't work very well, like a
lot of times, Pat's on the back,they're important to you, you
have to do all the differentthings. And if you want to, if
you want to gain cooperation,and get where you want ahead, a
lot of how you talk about makinginsurance more lovable, because
(31:31):
there's definitely work to bedone on that. And it shouldn't
be a terrible experience. We'rereally there to help people have
better lives, and be able torecover from something awful
that happened. That's the wholepoint of it. So I love your
message. One of the things thatwe're doing this year to wrap up
the year, I always try to putgood vibes in the universe,
(31:52):
because I figure out what comeback to me someday. So there's
so much negativity out there.
One of the things that I wantedto do this season is have each
person share something they'regrateful for as we wrap up the
season, the episode and soStephanie, I wanted you to share
something you're grateful fortoday as we wrap things up,
anything you want.
Stephanie Behnke (32:10):
Goodness, such such a such a list. Thank you
for the question. By the way,what a great question. I'm gonna
say I am most thankful for theculture at Hi, Marley. So I have
worked in the industry. As Imentioned, for 35 years, I have
never encountered a group ofpeople that were more driven and
more focused on a goal, right.
And our goal is, is to makeentrance level. But just the way
(32:32):
that we listen to each other,the way that we raise concerns
the way that we use candor tokind of cut to the chase and
really get to any challengesthat we encounter. I love that
I'm so grateful for the companyand for our leadership, because
they promote this culture allthe time. And I will tell you,
after being in the industry,where we can be a little salty,
(32:54):
salty claims adjuster or saltyunderwriter, like, we can be a
little salty. And so I come fromthat that carrier background,
and to come into a company wherepeople like, so tell me what's
bothering you about what I'mdoing. It's like, are you
serious? You're serious, aren'tyou? Well, let me tell you what
(33:15):
I think we could do differently.
Right? And, and what it made forwhat it meant for me was, I
didn't want to come into acorporate culture and be that
guy that's negative or that guythat's, and so it actually
changed the way I approach mywork every day and the way I
interact with my colleagues.
And, yeah, it was a really longanswer, Greg, but I really
(33:35):
couldn't be more grateful forthe culture.
Greg Hamlin (33:40):
That's huge. And I've worked with a number of
different employers, I'm sureSuzanne has to and working, we
spent way too much time at workto be at a place that we're
miserable, or that people aren'ttaking those extra 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
(34:01):
else will, will take that personand be excited to have them on
their teams. And then you'll beleft with a bunch of yours that
complain. So got it got to dothe right stuff. So I love that.
Well, I've really enjoyed havingthis discussion with you,
Stephanie. I would justencourage any of our listeners,
if you're interested in textingor how to get texting
(34:22):
implemented into your platform,to reach out to hi Marley's
team. I know that you guys domore than workers comp you're
involved in all the differentlines of insurance are quite a
few anyway. So if you'relistening to us thinking this is
something that could work forme, I'm sure they can go over
that with you. And we definitelyappreciate you taking time out
of your busy schedule to chatwith us this afternoon.
Stephanie Behnke (34:44):
Thank you so much. It's been an absolute
pleasure. So thank you forhaving me.
Greg Hamlin (34:47):
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.
Hello everybody and welcome to adjusted. I'm your
host Greg Hanlon coming at youfrom beautiful Birmingham,
Alabama and Berkeley industrialcomp. And with me as co host for
the day and first time co hostis Suzanne McAuliffe vice
president of claims with keyrisk. Susanna want you to
(00:32):
introduce yourself a little bit?
Where are you from Suzanne?
Suzanne McAuliffe (00:35):
Well, I'm currently in Fort Mill, South
Carolina, originally fromSyracuse, New York. So you'll
probably notice the accent thatis not southern. But I'm lucky
rest for 12 years now. And lovedoing workers comp. I'm excited
to be here for my very first cohost experience.
Greg Hamlin (00:52):
I'm excited to have Suzanne here. She's awesome. So
if you haven't met her, now'syour chance. But Suzanne was
real interesting. We bumped intoeach other as we worked for
fellow Berkeley companies awhile back. And one of the
things that was funny in that asI told a few people like Suzanne
really thinks the way I thinklike she's definitely my kind of
(01:12):
person. And then later on, themanager who train me who works
for another carrier hadn'treached some kind of milestone,
and I saw Suzanne posted onLinkedIn. Hey, congratulations.
And I was like, How in theworld? Do you know her? And
she's like, well, I trained her.
And then I was like, Oh, it allcame together. I only think the
way do you because Suzanne,because of Suzanne, I just
didn't know it. So
Suzanne McAuliffe (01:34):
we have a long history and didn't even
know. That's right.
Greg Hamlin (01:37):
So we have a special guest today with us.
Stephanie Behnke. They say yourlast name correctly? You did.
Thank you. All right. She is theDirector of solution Consulting
at high Marley. And we'reexcited to have you with us,
Stephanie.
Stephanie Behnke (01:53):
Thank you. I'm happy to be here.
Greg Hamlin (01:56):
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 amgoing to do insurance. That's
what that's what it was right?
Stephanie Behnke (02:13):
Oh my gosh, it's like you were in my life at
the time. You must miss Jacobskindergarten class with me
though. It's so funny, because Ifeel like I know one gentleman
actually, who grew up wanting tobe an insurance. I think the
rest of us just sort ofstumbled, right stumbled our
way. And so I was actually inthe Army. I was a diesel
mechanic, and I was stationed atFort Hood. And I called a
(02:34):
girlfriend. I'm like, gettingout of the army and a week
trying to figure out what thatnext chapter looks like. Do you
know anyone who's hiring and shewas working for Mercury
Insurance in California at thetime, just like great company,
you got to come here. So here Iam. 35 years later, right?
Looking back and going No, Inever I didn't sign up for it.
But I always tell people and nowwith you know, kind of college
(02:55):
graduations on on the mind. Ialways tell people, if you're
getting out of school, if youdon't know what you want to do,
take a look at me insurancecompany. Because I feel like in
my career, I have had the luxuryof being in underwriting in it.
I've been a CIO, I've been inclaims, innovation and strategy
and an operations and there's somuch in the industry to keep you
(03:18):
engaged and excited. That's kindof a great place to just get
started, get some experienceunder your belt, you're going to
learn a lot. But I also feellike it helps route us and
ground us and helps us find whatwe really want to do when we
grow up.
Greg Hamlin (03:32):
That's awesome. I have a daughter that just
graduated from high school andgetting ready to go to college.
So we're doing that whole thingof what do I want to do now? And
she said, You know, I thinkshe's been nervous, because
she's like, Oh, I think I wantto do nursing. And I said, You
know what, start there, and thenjust see where it goes and be
open. Because as you start totry new things, you'll never
know what you might like. So Ithought that was good advice.
(03:54):
Stephanie.
Suzanne McAuliffe (03:56):
So Stephanie, how long have you been with high
Marley?
Stephanie Behnke (03:59):
So bear with high Marley for just a little
over a year. And I am in thesolutions that I run the
solutions consultingorganization. And so we really
introduced the product tocustomer so I work with the the
growth in the sales teams justintroduced the product and then
my team also manages any pilots.
So Suzanne, I know that yourteam piloted with Hi Marilee.
And so it would be myorganization that helped you do
(04:22):
that. Can you tell us a littlebit about home early and what it
offers? Absolutely. So hi barleyis a collaboration platform
powered by SMS and and what thatreally means is that it's a
communication platform thatallows adjusters to communicate
directly to customers,prospects, injured workers, and
also collaborate with otherfolks in their organization. So
(04:44):
the way that this works is sayI'm an adjuster working on a
worker's comp claim, and I needto bring in a nurse case manager
so I can invite one of the nursecase managers in and win now
when they're talking to thecustomer. It's all in one state
single text thread. So thecustomer has just one
conversation from the verybeginning of their claim to the
(05:04):
very end of the claim superseamless for them. A lot of
times our customers strugglewith it. I have a question. I
don't know who to ask my nursepractitioner this way, ask
somebody else that they justasked the question in that text
thread, and then they can getthe answer from anybody who's on
that threat. So really helpfulway of just bringing adjusters
and injured workers
Suzanne McAuliffe (05:24):
together.
That's awesome. Yeah,absolutely. I know that we
definitely experienced thebenefits of that through the
pilot. And now through the actof integration into our claims
department. It's been, it's beena wonderful transition for us
for communications.
Stephanie Behnke (05:40):
Yeah, I don't think I realized how close
adjusters and injured workerscould get until I came to, you
know, work here i Marley and Iwas looking at some of the data.
And just the ability to, to bondwith somebody to gain their
trust. And that goes both ways,right. And then I see folks
pouring out their, their heartsin how much they appreciated the
(06:02):
support an adjuster gave them orhow much they appreciate them
coming alongside them and, andalways, you know, believing that
they were going to get back towork and they were going to get
better. And it's just, it's justa wonderful thing to see and to
listen to.
Greg Hamlin (06:15):
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
oldest is 18. And my youngest isone. So I'm experiencing all the
forms, you can like baby signlanguage to adult children now.
But one of the things that I canremember, you know, when I
(06:38):
wanted to go to my friend'shouse, I picked up my phone and
I called him I didn't have acell phone. In junior high, I
felt like it was pretty coolbecause I had a pager. And you
know, people could page me andthen I could go to a payphone
and put a quarter and then callthem back. And that that was
pretty awesome. And it wasn'tlater until cell phones started
taking off. Probably when I wasin college, they were starting
(06:59):
to become more mainstream. But Inoticed with my kids, they
don't, they haven't really donesome of those same things,
they're more likely to text eachother. Like my daughter has a
boyfriend right now. And I don'tknow if she's called him once.
Like they taxed all the time,right. But they don't actually,
like have phone conversations.
You know, my wife, and I jokewhen she was a teenager, she
used to call the WeatherChannel. And then her friend
(07:21):
would call the Weather Channel,like call it like, she'd be
like, call the weather, I'mgoing to call the Weather
Channel at 10 o'clock, then callme and I'll bring you into the
phone doesn't ring. And we canhave like a late night
conversation anymore. Like, it'snot that way, obviously with
texting. So as you think aboutsome of the ways technology is
changing communication, what aresome of the things you're seeing
(07:43):
in industry that that areprobably different than what
we're used to?
Stephanie Behnke (07:47):
Yeah, I just I think the speed at which
everything happens has beensurprising. And I think for a
lot of folks, you know, weagain, I mentioned the
relationship that you can reallybuild over text. And I'm not
sure that folks expected that tohappen, right? That, that you
could get close to somebody justby texting, and yet you can
right you can build this, again,you build relationship build
(08:09):
trust, which is so critical toour success, right in what we do
every day. And you know, thatmoving very quickly. So so we
know that from home wirelessdata, on average, customers are
responding in two to threeminutes to text messages. So
when you think about a claim andmoving a claim along think about
how quickly you can get aresponse from an injured worker
(08:30):
and then keep that claim moving.
Right. So I think that was Thatis surprising for people. And
then we know, you know, we'vedone a lot of studies, we have a
lot of data around customerexpectations and customer
satisfaction. And the number onedriver of customer satisfaction
is actually the adjustersattitude, which is probably not
terribly surprising for those ofus who are in the industry. But
(08:52):
the reality is again, you know,kind of personality come through
in texting. And the answer isabsolutely. Right. And again, I
think those are those are alittle bit surprising for folks
sometimes.
Greg Hamlin (09:04):
I love that. And I think you know what you're
hitting on, I think so importantin that. Technology is like a
tool that lets us do what weneed to do and get where we want
to go. But ultimately what youare hitting on it's the attitude
of the person who's using thetechnology. So they really go
together instead of being likeseparate concepts.
Stephanie Behnke (09:23):
Yeah, exactly.
Right. It's just facilitatingthat human to human contact, but
in our industry, like it alwayscomes back down to the human
connection.
Suzanne McAuliffe (09:32):
I love that.
So I wouldn't just from myperspective, I just probably
want to just add to that. It'sjust that's probably one of the
best things that we've noticedwith high Marley, the biggest
pluses just that enhanced inprompt or more frequent
communication. Because as youalluded to Stephanie is just the
ability to have communication onan easy basis. And really, the
(09:53):
texting is almost like a it'stable stakes this day and age is
hard. As how people arecommunicating, the high Marley
has really eliminated that phonetag situation or the situation
where an adjuster is trying toreach an injured worker and the
voicemail messages fall or it'snot set up yet this way, we can
just send a text and say, Hey, Ineed to talk to you. And it's
(10:14):
just helps us to move a claimforward faster, and ultimately
resolve it at a quicker pace aswell.
Stephanie Behnke (10:24):
Yeah, and you think about our workforce, we're
all texting, right? We're alltexting all day, every day in
our personal lives. So even aswe talk about the injured
worker, even the adjusters aremore comfortable and very
comfortable in texting, right.
And so, you know, again, it'sjust the technology is just
facilitating that
Greg Hamlin (10:41):
you're spot on. And just as you were talking,
Suzanne, I was thinking about mywife's parents now that we live
further away, they'll come staywith us for a few weeks. And
when they say, if somebody callstheir cell phone, they like race
across the room and answer it.
Because that's like they grew upin a time when landlines for
you, if you didn't answer it,there might not have even been
an answering message. And so forme, if I see a phone number, and
(11:03):
it comes up on myself, and it'snot attached to somebody's name,
I know, I'm not answering it.
And, and I think we have thatsame problem with our injured
workers is they see that phonenumber come across, and they're
like, oh, I don't recognize thatarea code or don't recognize
that person. So I'm not going toanswer it. And meanwhile, we're
missing an opportunity toconnect. And if they knew that,
(11:25):
we want to talk to him about howwe could get them their
benefits, or how we could getthem to the right doctor, they
probably pick up the phone, butthey don't know that. And so
texting kind of gives us anotherway to reach out and connect in
a way that people arecommunicating. Now, I think
you've talked about this alittle bit, Stephanie, but I
wanted you to talk a little bitmore. I think when we think
about technology, a lot of timeswe think of it as as cold
(11:48):
computer without emotions, andthen that makes people nervous.
Sometimes when they think aboutcustomer focused industries like
insurance, how does technologyhow can empathy coexist with
technology? And I think you'vehit on that a little bit. I
would love for you to talk alittle bit more about that.
Stephanie Behnke (12:06):
Yes, let me because I think that we, we used
to assume those were two veryseparate entities, right? The
current technologies ishardcore. And we're finding that
even automated messages can beempathetic. So the very
beginning if you start aconversation right after an IT
worker has been injured at work,you can say I'm so sorry to hear
about your accident, right? I'mso sorry to hear about your
(12:28):
claim, I hope you're doing wellor you know, and you do enter
into the conversation. So evenwhen we're creating templates,
one of the things that thehyperlink product allows us we
know that adjusters have similarconversations kind of over and
over. So we can create templatesaround that, when we're doing
that we're making sure thoseconversations are still a point
of connection. So theconversation is still again,
(12:49):
empathetic, I'm sorry that youexperienced that. If I'm doing a
follow up for an appointment.
Hi, how did your appointment go?
today? I hope it went well, youknow, was the doctor able to
clear it and return back towork, it can be just that
friendly, and and really meantand heartfelt, and genuinely
heartfelt, really sincere. Andyet automated, because I would
have asked you that same thingif I had reached out to you,
(13:11):
personally manually, right. ButI can do that through
technology. And it makes my daya little bit faster and easier.
And you get a great message thatmakes you feel good. Right? And
that, again, it tears down thatborder between the human and the
technology.
Greg Hamlin (13:26):
That's great. Yeah, it's
Suzanne McAuliffe (13:27):
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 hi,
Marley also offers the abilityfor supervisors to run various
reports. And one of thosefeatures that are highlighted in
the texting communications isthe sentiment of the tax. And I
(13:51):
believe that Hi, Marley has theability to kind of flag if
something maybe somebody seemsfrustrated 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. Yeah, absolutely.
Stephanie Behnke (14:09):
So So when I think about the evolution of the
technology, I think we're justgetting better at anticipating
we're getting better atlistening. And so one of the
things that Hi, Marley offers inour platform is you're
absolutely right, this sentimentanalysis, this idea of how is it
How's an injured worker feelingright now. And if they're
getting frustrated, what we dois we put a little badge on that
(14:31):
particular conversation, we popit to the top of the adjusters
inbox, also kind of helping themprioritize their day, you know,
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 seethe conversation quickly. And
then again, we have thisartificial intelligence running
in the background, prioritize itfor them helps them understand
that again, in this example,customers getting frustrated or
(14:52):
maybe they're threatening alitigation attorney. We also
have an AI model Oh, thatidentifies delays, unusual
delays. And so to AI that soundsa little bit like, my doctor is
rescheduled this appointmentfour times, or I've left three
messages, you know, I can't geta response to my return to work
question, I've left threemessages. And if the AI detects
(15:14):
any of that, again, it alertsthe adjuster pops up to the top
of their inbox forprioritization. And then you're
right, Suzanne, anybody can goin a supervisor can go in and
see you is Stephanie havingmaybe more of these difficult
conversations in somebody elseon the team? And is that the
nature of those claims thatshe's been assigned? Really
importantly, I think, you know,we knew adjusters were doing
(15:36):
this on a daily basis, we knewthey were overcoming this
adversity every day on thephone, but we couldn't always,
you know, hear how they wererecovering 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, so just a lot of greatinformation on when injured
workers upset, how am I comingalongside them and making them
(15:58):
feel better, and getting themback on track on that treatment
plan or whatever. And that's allvisible in in texting. And so
it's a great opportunity forsupervisors to be able to call
out just, you know, tremendousperformance by adjusters again,
and how they come alongside thisinjured workers and support
them.
Greg Hamlin (16:16):
That's, that's huge Stephanie. And I think as we
move forward into what I thinkwe're, I mean, maybe this will
change, but it seems like moreand more, we're seeing people
work from their homes, andthey're not in the office. And
so like when I became when I wasan adjuster, I sat around
people, and I learned so much bylistening to their phone
conversations. But that'shappening less than less. So the
(16:38):
opportunity to maybe even earlyidentify some opportunities of
you know, here's a coachingsituation on when somebody's
upset, maybe try this instead,next time 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
pretty bad mood right now, youmight want to try that again. So
(17:01):
I think we're missing that. Andthis is a neat opportunity to be
able to see those and have otherpeople help.
Stephanie Behnke (17:06):
Yep, I love it. So So one of the things when
I'm showing folks, the platform,it's one of my favorite things
to talk about is once you haveinsight into the kinds of
conversations that are happeningon the platform, then you can go
in and again, you can highlightthose and say, you know, here's
the way that that Greg respondedin a really empathetic, great
way, and you still managed tothe claim along so at a team
(17:27):
meeting could bring up some ofthose examples, right? You're
not often in somebody'svoicemail or or recording those
phone calls and going back andlistening to them for training
purposes. But you can do that ona really regular basis in the in
the high Marley platform. Andalso, there's an ability within
the platform, you can leavenotes for each other. So let's
say I'm a supervisor, and I'mtaking a look at a conversation
that's in flight, I can leave anote for the adjuster and say,
(17:48):
hey, just a quickrecommendation, or I have an
observation I'd like to sharewith you. And they can do that
all in the high Marley platform.
And it just never has to leavethe platform. So a lot of great
tools available for supportingadjusters. And I think that that
is what makes me the happiest intechnology right now is that
when I came into the industry,so many years ago, the
technology that I generallybuilt was around how do I
(18:10):
process the policy faster? Howdo I get the clay? You know, how
do I get details around a claimand it was very functional base.
And I feel like now technologyis getting us into a place where
it really is back about thepeople? How am I supporting the
adjuster? How am I supportingthe injured worker. And there
was a time when I came into theindustry that often the software
(18:32):
that I was designing, served oneof those audiences, but it
didn't serve the other. And so Imaybe was making things easier
for an adjuster at the cost ofcustomer experience, or this was
all about the customer. And youknow, it kind of cyclical and so
we were focusing maybe a lot onthe customer at the time. But
the adjuster had four or fivehoops they had to jump through
(18:53):
to make that happen. And I feellike technology today is serving
both of those audiences. Well,so we're beginning we're getting
faster, we're getting moreaccurate. But we're not doing
that at the cost of people.
Greg Hamlin (19:09):
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 more customerfriendly, and it becomes not
very employee friendly, or youcreate something to to reduce
the process time. But now thecustomer has to press three
press nine polled say the rightword, you know, to get
transferred to the right place.
So like the idea is great, butthen the customer experience is
(19:30):
bad. So I think you hit the nailon the head there. Suzanne, I'd
like to kind of shift over toyou. So my operating unit hasn't
yet gone on this platform yet.
We're in the next wave to goonline and start to have this
but your operating unit alreadyhas had some experience in this
platform. And I wanted you justto talk a little bit about what
(19:54):
your experience has been frommaybe both at the adjuster
level, and then maybe at themanager level and And what your
what your experience is
Suzanne McAuliffe (20:01):
back? Yeah, so it's been a very positive
experience the team, we had apilot team of five adjusters to
start, we had three operatingunits actually, that had
participants in the pilot, thepilot participants loved it,
they immediately found theadvantages of faster
communication, and some of thereally great features in high
(20:23):
Marley that just make their lifeeasier. But again, getting to
what we were just speakingabout, also a great customer
service benefit, right. So beingable to communicate quickly and
not having delays in informationtransferring back and forth. So
super easy to use a platform,very user friendly, intuitive.
(20:44):
We've had great response time totext being sent. So the back and
forth is almost just like if youwere using your phone, or people
are responding promptly,information is getting
transferred. It's beenwonderful. We've had situations
this is probably one of thehighlights that we've seen was
we actually got a claim settled,because we were able to tax the
(21:06):
adjuster had injured workershe'd been trying to reach by
phone and by email with noresponse. So she had sent me Iam
and said, Hey, is it okay? If Idiscuss settlement via text? And
it's like, well, let's try tocall which is not responding to
voicemail. So it's we just don'tput any personal information in
the text. So all she did wassend a tax pay your claim is
(21:30):
ready to resolve. Are youinterested in talking about
settlement, injured workerresponds right away suggests I
actually said great, I'm givingyou a call right now, we got the
claim settled visit that sameafternoon, had we not had that
texting capability, who knows,we probably would have still
been chasing after the injuredworker. So things like that
there's a wonderful translationservice feature in Hi, Marley,
(21:52):
that is fantastic. You don'thave to sit on the phone with a
language line, the ability toschedule PACs out into the
future has been a huge timesaver for the clean
professionals in this, again,you know claimed as a tough job,
anybody who's done it knows it'sbusy time management is key
organization's key. And this isa wonderful tool to help with
(22:14):
those necessary skills in theclaim adjusting world. From the
supervisory supervisorystandpoint, management
standpoint, the reportingcapabilities on primarily is
great, we can see who's usingit, how it's being used, the
ability for a supervisor oranother co worker to jump in on
attacks in the event, somebody'sout of the office. So there's no
(22:38):
delay in communication. Ifsomebody is in need of
something, whether it's, youknow, clarification on whether
or not somebody's check is thensent? Or what time can you
confirm what time my appointmentis? It's just a it's been a
wonderful benefit to to ourinjured workers as well as our
clients and the adjusters. Haveyou
Greg Hamlin (22:59):
got me excited Suzanne, because we're working
on a workout.
Suzanne McAuliffe (23:03):
I'm telling you, the feedback has been
fantastic. I mean, it's justit's been people are pretty
excited about
Greg Hamlin (23:08):
it. You know, our operating unit, our big push
over the last couple of yearshas been to create an empathetic
resolution model. And part ofthat is gaining cooperation with
our injured workers. So we'velooked at every avenue and this
is one of the missing pieces weknew we needed to work on. So
I'm definitely excited aboutthat.
Suzanne McAuliffe (23:26):
And I guess I would probably be remiss if I
didn't mention, you know,there's some cost savings
potential with this, one of thebiggest examples is probably the
ability for us because media canbe transferred back and forth.
So getting a prescription cardto an injured worker. So we
ensure they get into network. Soanybody in the claims world
knows how important it is to tokeep injured workers in that
(23:48):
work this way they have it, it'son their phone, and they're able
to get to the pharmacy and getscripts filled within that work.
Greg Hamlin (23:56):
That's fantastic.
I'm at the point, I don't evenhave a wallet anymore. I just
carry my phone and it has like alittle compartment for a couple
credit cards. So all of thosehealth insurance things, their
pictures, I don't have I'm notcarrying that around anymore. So
that's great. That's great news.
Stephanie. So as you think aboutobviously in high Marley, you're
working in technology. So yougot your I would assume your
(24:16):
company's thinking about thenext challenges that you want to
tackle or some of the areas thatyou're still working at to make
even better. What are some ofthose challenges your companies
working to solve throughtechnology today?
Stephanie Behnke (24:27):
So we have a lot of years 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 the commonquestions that people have and
(24:50):
give those answers to customersand injured workers before they
ask them so you know, theadjusters are so busy answering
phone calls and picking upvoicemails have questions Very
few of those questions are thefirst time and adjuster has ever
heard that question, right? Theyget disabled all time. So how
can technology again comealongside both the adjuster and
the injured worker and give theinjured worker the information
(25:13):
that he or she needs at thetime? They need it? Right? An AI
will help us do that, you know,even in the in the existing
sentiment models that we havetoday that I mentioned, you
know, we we first wanted tounderstand what was frustrating
injured workers. And as weobserve that data, what we
learned was that a lot of times,it's a question that's asked
(25:33):
that doesn't get answered in atimely fashion. And that creates
frustration. And that can leadto litigation and all kinds of
additional expenses as well. Andso the very next model we rolled
out was, oh, there's a questionwaiting for you. So now in the
platform, if an injured workerasks you a question, and it
doesn't get answered within 30minutes, just a little innocuous
(25:53):
blue bar pops up and just letyou know that there's a question
waiting for you. So again,imagine you an adjuster today
would have to go through alltheir voicemails listen to all
the voicemail. And and now I cansee online, a little blue line
just tells me that there's aquestion that needs to be
answered. So even if I'm justwrapping up my day, before I go
to lunch, or Friday, before Itake off for the weekend, I can
(26:15):
quickly scan. Is anybodyfrustrated? Does anybody have a
question I need to answer at thelast minute before we all shut
down kind of for the weekend.
Again, just coming along andsupporting both the adjuster and
the injured worker and the moredata that we have, the better
that those AI models are goingto get. Right? And the more
accurate they're going to get.
(26:35):
And instead of giving an injuredworker, a 10 page document on
kind of what to expect in theclaim process, we can actually
feed them real time information.
Well, they just went to thedoctor and got this message,
then here's kind of a likelynext question. They're going to
ask me anticipate that andanswer it. So that the adjuster
is really doing that deep,meaningful work that we all know
(26:56):
that they do and not worryingabout sort of picking up
messages.
Greg Hamlin (27:01):
Yeah, I think that's really big. You know,
there's so many, like you saidof those questions, like,
where's my check, or very simplequestions that come up all the
time? I mean, we we joke aboutthat one, because that's one of
the more frequent ones thatpeople want. But, you know,
there are very simple answersthat really, I think a good AI
system could learn toanticipate. I'm not an expert on
(27:22):
chat GBT. And I don't know a tonabout it. But I've heard enough,
because it's all over the mediaright now. So you know, I know
that we're kind of thinkingforward here, probably. But do
you see any, any places wherethis may enter the insurance
industry? And to the space? Ithink you kind of talked a
little bit about it by bytalking about AI?
Stephanie Behnke (27:42):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So. So we are
already using chat GPD. Andmodels like that right? To and
again, anticipate needs to askjust the right question. So one
of the products that primarilyhas is a conversational SQL. So
if you can imagine, instead of achatbot, that doesn't feel very
(28:04):
human, right? having aconversation with AI that steals
empathetic feels soundsempathetic. And I don't have to
ask all the questions, because Iasked a customer or an injured
worker, just explain whathappened. And once I know what
happened, I'm pulling all ofthat unstructured data into
(28:25):
structured fields. And now thatjust eliminated for additional
questions. So the way thatSuzanne answered my, you know,
what happened? Explain to mewhat happened? Well, that just
happen to answer, location andtime a day and a description.
And so now I no longer have toask those questions. So just
getting smarter, you know, AIcontinuing to feed that. And
then also taking all of the datathat we all sit on, and putting
(28:49):
that back into the model so thatthey're constantly learning,
right. And so the nature ofclaims and always evolves over
time, but making sure that westay on top of that evolution by
pumping the data that we receiveback into the models to just
keep making them smarter andsmarter.
Suzanne McAuliffe (29:03):
That's fantastic. And it's it's so
important to where we are inthis day and age because we are
so reliant on technology and allthat comes along with it. Is
there anything currently isthere an issue or solution out
there that your company iscurrently looking into to solve
and you're excited about tobring you into the future?
Stephanie Behnke (29:25):
But you know, what I really do get probably
most excited about that. AboutAI is good. I feel like it is
it's talked about a lot when weget really specific again, it
can do things like I don't haveto ask you five questions. Maybe
I asked you again, one and I getall those answers that I needed,
but the ability to anticipate,you know, claims are incredibly
(29:46):
stressful and when you have losttime at work, and you can't do
your job, the fear, the anxiety,the frustration, it comes out in
these claims and it comes outsometimes at the adjuster and it
can be very frustrating. So anytechnology that we can leverage
to make the experience easierfor that injured worker to make
(30:07):
them feel safe to make them feelconfident that we have their
best interest in mind, and weare going to do everything we
can to get them back to work ontime. However, AI can get us in
front of the customer, again, ina meaningful, empathetic way, I
think is is what drives me everyday. It's like, how do we make
these experiences more lovable?
It's Yohai, Marley's kind oftagline is making insurance more
(30:30):
lovable, which seems like a verylofty 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. That's,
Greg Hamlin (30:49):
that's fantastic.
Stephanie, you know, I talkedabout this a lot. And I'm sure
Suzanne remembers this early onin the insurance, I think there
was a lot of, and we're probablystill have some of this, that
use that. I call it the claimshammer technique. When they want
to get something done, it'swell, if you don't go do this,
then I'm going to stop yourcheck, or I'm going to cut you
off or I'm going you know anynumber of different things. And
(31:11):
having six children, I can tellyou like if you use the hammer
on your kids every time, itdoesn't work very well, like a
lot of times, Pat's on the back,they're important to you, you
have to do all the differentthings. And if you want to, if
you want to gain cooperation,and get where you want ahead, a
lot of how you talk about makinginsurance more lovable, because
(31:31):
there's definitely work to bedone on that. And it shouldn't
be a terrible experience. We'rereally there to help people have
better lives, and be able torecover from something awful
that happened. That's the wholepoint of it. So I love your
message. One of the things thatwe're doing this year to wrap up
the year, I always try to putgood vibes in the universe,
(31:52):
because I figure out what comeback to me someday. So there's
so much negativity out there.
One of the things that I wantedto do this season is have each
person share something they'regrateful for as we wrap up the
season, the episode and soStephanie, I wanted you to share
something you're grateful fortoday as we wrap things up,
anything you want.
Stephanie Behnke (32:10):
Goodness, such such a such a list. Thank you
for the question. By the way,what a great question. I'm gonna
say I am most thankful for theculture at Hi, Marley. So I have
worked in the industry. As Imentioned, for 35 years, I have
never encountered a group ofpeople that were more driven and
more focused on a goal, right.
And our goal is, is to makeentrance level. But just the way
(32:32):
that we listen to each other,the way that we raise concerns
the way that we use candor tokind of cut to the chase and
really get to any challengesthat we encounter. I love that
I'm so grateful for the companyand for our leadership, because
they promote this culture allthe time. And I will tell you,
after being in the industry,where we can be a little salty,
(32:54):
salty claims adjuster or saltyunderwriter, like, we can be a
little salty. And so I come fromthat that carrier background,
and to come into a company wherepeople like, so tell me what's
bothering you about what I'mdoing. It's like, are you
serious? You're serious, aren'tyou? Well, let me tell you what
(33:15):
I think we could do differently.
Right? And, and what it made forwhat it meant for me was, I
didn't want to come into acorporate culture and be that
guy that's negative or that guythat's, and so it actually
changed the way I approach mywork every day and the way I
interact with my colleagues.
And, yeah, it was a really longanswer, Greg, but I really
(33:35):
couldn't be more grateful forthe culture.
Greg Hamlin (33:40):
That's huge. And I've worked with a number of
different employers, I'm sureSuzanne has to and working, we
spent way too much time at workto be at a place that we're
miserable, or that people aren'ttaking those extra 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
(34:01):
else will, will take that personand be excited to have them on
their teams. And then you'll beleft with a bunch of yours that
complain. So got it got to dothe right stuff. So I love that.
Well, I've really enjoyed havingthis discussion with you,
Stephanie. I would justencourage any of our listeners,
if you're interested in textingor how to get texting
(34:22):
implemented into your platform,to reach out to hi Marley's
team. I know that you guys domore than workers comp you're
involved in all the differentlines of insurance are quite a
few anyway. So if you'relistening to us thinking this is
something that could work forme, I'm sure they can go over
that with you. And we definitelyappreciate you taking time out
of your busy schedule to chatwith us this afternoon.
Stephanie Behnke (34:44):
Thank you so much. It's been an absolute
pleasure. So thank you forhaving me.
Greg Hamlin (34:47):
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.
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