Dana Whitfield on Scaling Claims Without Scaling Headcount
The SVP of Claims Operations at a top-25 regional carrier explains how her team absorbed a 40 percent jump in claim volume after two catastrophe seasons without adding adjusters.
Dana Whitfield has spent 22 years in claims, the last six running claims operations for a regional property and casualty carrier writing across eleven states. After back-to-back severe convective storm seasons, her team faced a 40 percent jump in first notice of loss volume, with no budget for new adjusters.
We sat down with Dana to talk about what changed.
What did the problem look like before Clarix? "Our adjusters were spending the first hour of every claim just setting it up. Pulling the policy, confirming coverage, typing the loss details from a call recording or an email into Guidewire, requesting photos. The carriers that win the next cycle won't be the ones with the most adjusters. They'll be the ones whose adjusters never key the same claim twice."
How did you roll it out? "We started with property FNOL on our personal lines book, where the work is most repetitive. Within six weeks the agent was setting up every new claim, and adjusters were starting their day with a queue of complete files rather than a pile of voicemails. We expanded to commercial property the following quarter."
What has the impact been? "Cycle time on simple property claims is down by a third. Our adjusters are handling more claims each, but they tell us the work feels lighter, because they are doing the part of the job that needs them. And our customer satisfaction scores are the highest they have been in five years."
