Deepening Member Engagement: How Risk Pools Can Drive Value, Reduce Friction, and Ultimately Reduce Risk

Hello, everyone. Welcome to our webinar on deepening member engagement, how risk pools can drive value, reduce friction, and ultimately reduce risk. My name is Aubrey Eyer, and I’m thrilled to be your host today. Today’s program is a conversation between origami risk experts, Sarah Savarese, Brian Trzesniak, and Mindi Zissman from Zissman Media. We’ll have a live q and a at the end. If you’d like to ask our speakers anything, please submit those questions through the q and a function on the Zoom toolbar, and we’ll address those after the presentation. So we’ll start that conversation now. Welcome to the Origami Risk webinar. I’m Mindi Zissman, and I’m excited to be here moderating today’s session on member engagement within risk pools. We’ll explore how risk pools can deliver more value to members before, during, and after key events, whether that’s a major weather event, an insurance renewal cycle, or everyday safety training. We’ll examine strategic considerations and look at real world examples from peer pools to help spark ideas you can bring back to your team. Welcome today to Sarah Savarese. Sarah. Hi, Mindi. How are you? I’m good. How are you? Doing great. Thanks. Happy to be here. I’m Sarah Savarese. I am the senior PMM for policy and billing here at Origami Risk and, happy to be on the chat. Awesome. We’re glad you’re here. And Brian Trzesniak. Thanks, Mindi. I’m Brian Trzesniak. I’m the, market lead for our insurance pool space, here at Origami, and looking forward to the conversation. Awesome. Me too. Thanks guys for being here. Well, let’s dive in right away, I guess. What’s changed in recent years when it comes to member engagement, and why is member engagement a strategic priority today versus a nice to have for our pools? Sarah, do you wanna kick us off? Yeah. Sure. I can I can get us started? So I think it’s important to ground this in member expectations. The ex expectations of the members have really shifted, and they’re looking for things like portal self-service or dashboards to be self serving some of the information that they’re looking for and and insights into into all of that. Also, time communications, whereas maybe you would have had a little bit longer before somebody was saying, you know, I haven’t heard on that or or what have you. They’re really looking for a quicker turnaround with that. And and overall, greater and more timely engagement. Right? So and with engagement, of course, that would drive retention. So, retention, improved, loss control, improved underwriting quality. Basically, if your members are feeling like they’re less involved, more passive participants, they’re less likely to be involved proactively with, managing risk or, if there’s training that they have to be taking, adopting that training, or even just providing the quality of data that you’re looking for. So being able to meet members where their expectations are and and improve on that experience would really drive the engagement and help you in return as well. Ryan, I think probably have, experience with some some clients that would speak to that. Right? I would say most of our pools do. I mean, you know, one example, would be the Montana Schools Group, Insurance Authority. Speak to their director, Sean Bub, over there quite a bit. And, you know, he he once told us that, you know, in the last ten years, like, moving to a more modern modernized platform was probably the most important thing they’ve done as a as a pooling organization. And that greatly has to do with the member engagement aspect of things. Right? And when you think about it, it’s it’s it’s twofold. It’s from the perspective of of the pool administrators themselves. They’re going to be able to provide that clear and informative information to their members, through scheduled reports, through dashboards. And, you know, to Sarah’s point, it’s real time. It’s not something that is antiquated out of date. They’re able to actually provide that, either automatically or at at the, at the ask by the actual member by logging into the system. And the key is that because they they’re able to automate that, the pool administrators are able to focus on actual interactions with their members, providing value to their members and not the administrative overhead of trying to pull all that information together and communicate that in a way that may or may not be received well. And then, you know, from a a pool member perspective, the members are able to get that information without asking. But then they’re also able to, like, do their own analytics and be able to get insight into why their premiums are the way they are, what info what information is driving their costs, and what are the things that the that actually the pool is doing for them as well? Pool administrators are providing value to its members. And if you don’t have good member engagement, that’s not gonna be communicated or relayed or even appreciated, really. Right. So whereas, like, member engagement probably used to be sending out a newsletter, right, in previous years or something like check the box. And today, it’s about access and transparency and giving people the tools to, like, actually do the work that they need to do in the analysis. That’s great. Okay. When it comes to a cat event, like a wildfire, hurricane, major storm, depending on where the municipality or organization is in the world or in in the country, how can a pool engage its members, like, proactively ahead of time, right, so that they’re prepared for something like that? Brian, do you wanna, yeah, take it? Yeah. I I I, yeah, I think, you know, I think the proactive aspect of things is is key there. Right? I mean, as a pool, you have the responsibility, and and there’s an opportunity to not only help the members respond when catastrophic events occur, but the they’re preparing for those. And then they’re gonna happen, so you have to help mitigate the risk when they do occur. Then there’s no avoiding them. And and, you know, some examples that we see, in in our system usage is, you know, risk mitigation programs. So hurricane roof inspections, wind mitigation retrofitting. Maybe we’re evaluating the storm storm water drainage, for a particular, set of properties. Wildfire defense, big topic these days, unfortunately Right. And and assessing that, that exposure. And then from a you know, from there, you’re gonna be wanting to prepare a playbook. So when these things do happen, you wanna have access to a digital and mobile friendly, version of this this playbook because it’s from a pure accessibility perspective. What are the response and communication protocols when these things occur? What’s the business continuity plan? You have to keep things going. And then, you know, obviously, there’s gonna, unfortunately, be claims that result from these events. And what does that claim process look like? So we’re seeing pools proactively communicate those things in advance of them actually occurring. And then the monitoring and alerts is a key thing too. We’re seeing a uptick in things like weather alerts where you’re showing the storm pass, hurricane pass, flood zones, and and the use of GIS overlays from a mapping perspective. So you could actually see what parts of my, organization are gonna be potentially impacted by this oncoming event. Right. And real quick about that playbook, is that something that the pool does at their level, or they provide, like, a template and then each organization should do that themselves because they may have, I don’t know, different different ways or protocols that they wanna execute on that? I would say in my experience, it’s it’s a collaborative effort. Right? It there’s Going to be a consultative, side of things from the pool aspect, but you also have to incorporate each each member’s own processes and business does acumen in into it as well. So, but, yeah, I do see the pools providing that ultimately in an electronic format, to their members. Okay. That’s awesome. Sarah, do you have any examples of that? For sure. Yeah. So one that comes to mind is the that I I think be relevant to to this part of our conversation would be the Washington School’s risk management pool. They came to us with a a few different needs. They are a pool that represents ninety two schools in Washington State, which, of course, is you know, there’s a lot of schools, right, which would come with a lot of data and a lot of things to, to be managing and, orchestrating together. And and so they were, you know, initially, course, looking for just, faster and more accurate data collection, improved workflows, and reporting off of all of that. But one of the things that we were just talking about, that was key for them too was that proactive, prevention, support as well as, you know, when things do happen, how to react more efficient efficiently, because, you know, people need a response right away. Right? Like, it’s it’s just critical. You you can’t, be, beholden to old technology or inefficient systems when it’s such a a critical moment. So so yeah. So they they were interested in that proactive prevention support and response. And, you know, I think that that’s just very indicative of the way things are are are going right now. There is a huge shift in our industry, not just with pools, but with insurance overall, looking at how to be not as reactive in waiting for the claim to happen, but at being more of a partner in helping to prevent the claim from happening to begin with. Unfortunately, with cat events, there’s no avoiding that. So it’s more of the how do you respond to it quickly, efficiently, and meet your members where they are. Alright. That’s great. That’s a great sum up even of the industry that, like, a pool doesn’t have to just be someone that you know, an organization that’s working on your claims. Like, it’s possible to be, you know, proactive and kind of try to reduce claims in the first place and attack it, you know, from the beginning. That’s great. Thank you so much. Okay. So let’s shift shift gears to talk about safety a little bit as well. And, you know, obviously, claims and safety programs are often seen as, like, internal operational tasks, things that, you know, the organization has to to take on internally. I’m sure, of course, polls wanna help with that too. Like, how can a poll use those moments, like, either a claim, obviously, which they’re which they’re dealing with anyway, but even safety programs as, like, a meaningful engagement touch point with an organization, with a member. Yeah. If I can hop in on this one. Awesome. Just get us started, then I’ll hand it over to Brian. Yeah. Like, I think it’s so important as we’re thinking about and evaluating technology today that it’s a tool that’s going to help us to actually provide that human touch and engage in more meaningful ways and take care of some of that that operational, tasks that aren’t, aren’t aren’t you don’t need to be as hands on with anymore. So when it comes to engagement for pools, that might mean, making it easier for members to access the training that they need, to report an incident more, quickly and and fully with the data points that you need. Right? Like, you you wanna know, excuse me, about that in as efficient of a way as possible. Tracking return to work programs or transitional duty workflows. All of these things when it’s easier for the members to access the right materials or perform those tasks, they’re going to feel more supported, which, you know, improves that member experience, which I know we’re all we’re all very concerned about and and value as a high priority. And, ultimately, improve the, the data that you’re collecting around all of these things, which, of course, leads to better outcomes. Yeah. I you know, if I may piggyback on that, I think it all revolves around, you know, again, the theme being communication and being able to do that en masse and being able to do it in a way that’s applicable to individual roles. So what know, you’re not just gonna blast out information to everyone. You’re gonna have specialization within your organization. So safety managers, work comp claim managers, procurement even, those are all different areas they’re gonna wanna know information in different in different facets. And, you know, being able to provide that, in a meaningful way is key. So, you know, in general, if you don’t know something’s broke, you can’t fix it. Right? So from a safety perspective, we’re seeing a lot of safety assessments being done, whether that’s a property evaluation, ergonomic evaluations, things like that, that you’re going to proactively reduce your likelihood of a claim, and then also ultimately lower your premium because you have taking that you’re gonna be able to take actions through this communication saying, hey. There’s some deficiencies here. If you make these corrective actions, you’re gonna be exposed to less risk. Your premiums are gonna go down. And I think, you know, we see examples of that all over the place. I mean, one, the Perma out of, New York, they they manage, like, six hundred different municipalities. And what they, like a lot of pools, were facing is is a multisiloed disparate systems that you’re trying to get information to a lot of different people, but you have to go down so many different avenues to do that. And being able to pull all this information into a single point of communication and then tailor that through login security, etcetera, what actually they’re able to see and what they wanna digest is key. And, you know, I think with Perma, they they had that safety program, and they’ve really reduced the claim severity, but they’ve had adoption as well. So they’ve seen efficiencies within it. Like, they’ve seen a forty percent uptick in how many of their members are using their portal to, report FNOLs. And and that’s an efficiency gain too, but it’s also giving them engagement and being able to feel like they can report things in a timely fashion and things are being addressed in a timely fashion versus old school emails waiting for things to be, you know, entered in manually, phone calls, things like that. You can kinda automate that aspect of it too. And I think, you know, coverage verification, there’s been studies around it. Like, if you are able to communicate with a claimant in a timely fashion, the likelihood of that going to litigation reduces drastically Right. Gonna reduce your cost too. But along that communication lines, there’s a couple other examples I can think of too. I’ve seen organizations, I think, Permo is doing it, where they they had a client member satisfaction survey that they used to throw out and do quarterly. And that would take somewhere around, you know, ninety minutes. They’ve reduced that process to about ten minutes. They’re able to to get get that feedback from their members. They’re able to say, here’s the things we’re interested in hearing from you and here, what can we what can we make better? So that’s another example of communication. And then one I one pool was actually doing something that was procurement related, I thought, was really interesting. They as part of the hiring process, they were doing strength evaluations for potential employees. And depending on Job role they were applying to, they were able the the pool administrators were actually able administer a strength and and and test, if you will, rank them, and then that ranking would be, would silo them into what different job titles or roles or tasks they would be fit fit for a good fit for. So we even see it going into the procurement level where you’re gonna put somebody in a role that they’re not gonna potentially hurt themselves based on their physical limitations, if you will. Right. Wow. Okay. You said a lot, but I wanna just, like, double click real quick on that on that questionnaire piece that, like, that’s something that you can get in the Origami platform. Right? That isn’t something that you have to create on a Google Doc or something. It actually exists and is is available to pools. Yeah. In our platform, basically, you can create a form. If if if if it’s something you wanna track or an event that occurs that that is meaningful, you can create a form, and it doesn’t have to be policy or claim related directly. It can be really anything. Right. So you can you can turn kind of, like, challenging moments into, like, engagement opportunities with people to, like, get their opinion and, you know, hear feedback and stuff. Okay. That’s very cool. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And moving more towards, like, something that I guess is coming up, sometimes, renewals, annual, you know, annual renewals with with insurance also. How can pools engage members around underwriting and annual audits in a way that doesn’t feel burdensome to them internally, but could still, like, drive real cost savings and member value. Brian, do you wanna take a stab at this? Sure. I mean, I think I think some of the examples we provided, on the previous topic will apply here too is, historically, what you’ve seen in renewal processes, especially when you’re in legacy systems or spreadsheets, is fill out this spreadsheet, send it back to me, and then I’ll give you your premium invoice, and you can pay me. Not really an engaging interaction between you and your members. Transactional. I think by by having a more modern, interaction with them and having these electronic forms that show them their options that can provide things like quotes and proposals in real time based on different deductible levels, limit choices, things like that. That’s an interactive way to show that we’re providing options to you. But then in addition to that, there is risk mitigation such as those audits that we see pool administrators going out conducting, again, things like, property assessments, safety assessments, where you may find corrective actions saying, you know what? There’s a slip, trip, and fall hazard here. If you put some oil, you know, trip proof mats or oil resistant mats down, you’re gonna reduce your likelihood of a slip, trip, and fall. That’s an actionable item that you can find and communicate through a modern system. The member can take action. And then once they fix that, then they can provide you with a more, competitive premium, if you will, because you’re less likely to have a claim. You know? So those those are all examples of how you can kinda use the the audit in, process, communicate that from a safety perspective, and then ultimately flows into the underwriting process as well. Right. And what’s nice about that is you have all that data. Right? That data is being collected. So, like, to not be able to engage it and use it, number one is a liability for organizations, right, that they have it and aren’t using it to improve their risk management. But even more so, what a shame to have data that could improve, you know, your actions and reduce claims and not use it. So that’s great. That’s a great example. Yeah. We we’ve seen that as well. You know, we had another client, another full client, MSGIA. They before they came to us, they were working each of their functional areas were working in kind of separate silos, if you will. So, like, claims, member management, underwriting. But in in transforming their their digital platform, they were able to bring all that together. So just like you’re talking about with the data and being able to leverage it more holistically and and gain insights that cross all of those those different units, they were able to build exposure and member demographic screens, aggregate the data, even accessibility improved. So there’s a lot to be said for for bringing that together. I mean, that’s just tip of the iceberg, you know, for one example, but lots of opportunities. Right. So taking data and making it actually valuable and usable. Yeah. Yes. Okay. Well, we’re we’re getting we’re getting close to time, so let’s try a quick lightning round with you guys. If Pools had to pick one member engagement focus for twenty twenty six, what would your advice be? Brian, go. I’ll give the it depends answer. Right? It’s, but you have look you have to look at your operations, really. Right? What is most meaningful to you as a pool administrator? What’s most meaningful to your members? And what do you have access to today? Where is the gap? And, you know, as a pool administrator, I would encourage people to to remind themselves you’re providing value to your members. And if they can’t see it, if they can’t visualize it, consume it, they may not realize the extent that Realize it exists. Amazing. Sarah? I would say that you would wanna pick one high impact, really visible initiative that you can then also measure. Because you’re going to get a lot of eyeballs on it. Everyone will feel involved in the success of that, and it’ll be easier to continue that momentum and roll out other things. So things like rolling out a member portal renewal app. We’re just talking about renewals and that data gathering. That’s one where you could see a lot of gains, and it would impact your whole team. Right? Launching targeted severe weather communication workflows we were talking about before is another great one. Or even maybe running a a member audit engagement campaign. But key being to remember to measure it. Remember to benchmark at the beginning and and measure it in in the the outcome. Okay. Great. Thank you so much, Sarah and Trez. Thank you everybody for joining the Origami Pools team today for this webinar, and, go get out there and choose one initiative from our discussion today to really commit and make actionable before the next renewal cycle. Thank you, everybody, for being here. Thank you. Thanks, Brian. Thanks, Cindy. Thanks, Herb. Okay. Well, thank you all. That was a really great conversation. So we’re gonna open up the program to q and a now. You can type those questions in the q and a section at the bottom of the Zoom toolbar. And we’re gonna start with our first question now. And that one is, can you talk a little bit more about the ways you’ve seen pools streamline renewal cycles? I could use some ideas. I could take, yeah, I could take a stab at this. We mentioned it briefly, in the session, but, you know, we’ve seen these renewal processes go from months to weeks, and we’re talking two, three months down to, you know, in in some cases, two or three weeks. And the key being having a consistent format, from an intake perspective, whether that’s a new new member application or a renewal application, being able to, digitize that, have some standards around, what the review process looks like, being able to route that automatically when data comes in so that as a pool administrator, you can review what’s been submitted before you finalize it, and then communicate in real time back to your members with any follow-up questions, additional details that you might have. And then being able to take that reviewed and finalized data directly into an underwriting process and be able to provide real time quotes and acceptance of those quotes and then ultimately issuance and binding of the of the insurance policies. So by by eliminating the amount of things that are changing hands, especially via email and digitizing that process, we’re seeing great efficiencies in the in the policy underwriting and, issuance perspective. Okay. Alright. Well, it looks like, there are no further questions. So I would just wanna say oh, I spoke too soon. We have one question that came through. And that is, as a risk pool, we promote loss prevention training, hazard surveys, on demand losses reports, etcetera, value adds. But our members are busy, and they don’t always have time to take advantage of those services. Do you have suggestions for how to get members to leverage the benefits of membership beyond fair pricing and efficient claims handling? I think, you know, just con continuous communication. And, you know, beyond the pricing, I have seen, incentives being built in if you complete particular trainings, things like that. So I know you said beyond that, but, that’s a key one too is, like, you can get a little bit of a price break if you’ve completed x, y, and z trainings or you’re in compliance with certain, audits, things like that. But the key being, you know, communicating through a portal, via announcements, through automated email, messages, the the benefits of those things, and reminding folks that that those services are available to you. But that’s a great question. Okay. Thanks. We had another question come through. Can you provide insight on whether a service team concept would drive member engagement? We’re looking at creating teams regionally to provide better member service. Yeah. I mean, I’ve seen it you know, I think I still see a lot of face to face as well too. Right? You can leverage a a platform when you’re in face to face, but having regionalized, teams that can go out and meet and go on-site and look at things together, consult, etcetera. I could see benefits of that just from a geographic perspective. But yeah. I mean, I’ve also seen success where you don’t necessarily have to be geographically centralized. You know, a lot of our, own service organization may be, you know, not located close to our our clients, but we’re still able to service them. So while I don’t think it’s a requirement, I certainly see where there could be a benefit, especially when you’re talking about face to face interaction. Yeah. To, add on to that, I spoke earlier a little bit about meeting your members where they are, and, that doesn’t necessarily need to meet physically. Right? It’s people like to engage in so many different ways. So I think having options, is is excellent. I’d love to hear how how that goes for you too. Be very curious. Yep. Okay. Thanks. Well, it looks like that was our last question. So I am gonna just wrap us up and say thank you to everyone for joining us today. I wanna extend a special thank you to our speakers, Brian, Sarah, and Mindi. And thank you all again for your participation, and have a wonderful day. Thanks, everyone. Appreciate it. Everyone. Bye now.