Spoiler alert: This is going to be one of those good news / bad news stories.
First, the good news: Our most recent research shows you and your employer clients likely have access to a wealth of online services from the voluntary carriers you do business with. A strong majority — more than 69% — of carriers surveyed for our "Online Services of Voluntary Carriers" SpotlightTM Report offer a website or portal for their brokers and producers. These sites allow you to accomplish a lot of tasks when and how you want: view and download commission statements, review account-level data, download forms and marketing materials, check pending business reports, view non-detailed claims status information or request a proposal.
Recommended For You
The report shows an even better scenario for your clients: 95% of carriers surveyed offer employers and plan administrators online services. List bills, bill reconciliation and adjustments, downloadable forms and online payment capabilities top the list. Most carriers also provide access to payment history, the ability to make employee adds/deletes, and access to policy documents, contracts or booklets. Less-common online services — but those still offered by quite a few carriers — include employee-level detail changes, change reports, evidence of insurability forms and status, non-detailed claim status, on-demand bill requests or ad-hoc reporting.
Now for the bad news … or maybe "murky" is a better word. It's not clear how much you and your clients are actually taking advantage of these online services. Carriers report a wide range of use, from less than 10% to 100% for both brokers and employers.
To be fair, many carriers either don't track this information or were unable to provide it for our survey: Nearly half (45%) for employer services and 80% for broker services came up blank. But the lack of intel (or transparency) on adoption rates is interesting in itself, especially considering the significant investments carriers make in developing and supporting these services.
Balancing high-tech and high-touch
Despite the data, carriers in our survey expect they'll need to invest in even more online service and administrative capabilities in the marketplace of the future, including self-enrollment, claims integration and automation with monitoring of medical claims, instant access to claim funds, and consolidated administration/billing.
But they also acknowledge high-tech solutions aren't the be-all end-all when it comes to meeting the customer service needs of you and your clients. It turns out some customers just want to talk to someone. Carriers in our recent "Administrative Practices of Voluntary Carriers" SpotlightTM Report say good old-fashioned call centers are still an important tool, especially for employers. In fact, carriers report employers generate more calls than brokers and even employees. Customers also want services such as concierge-level support and chat capabilities (read: personal service). According to our survey, only eight carriers currently include a contact center online chat function for employers and just five offer it for brokers.
There's no denying carriers must keep up with customer expectations for online capabilities and services to stay competitive. But it's also increasingly clear that high-tech can never replace high-touch service. Be sure the carriers you partner with are prepared to answer both calls.
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
