Why Businesses Shouldn’t Take an Adversarial Stance Towards Their Claimants

Businesses risk damaging their brand’s reputation if they take a confrontational approach to claimants, risk experts warned during a recent virtual conference.

In addition to paying out more for the claim, a company playing hardball may also wind up losing their client’s business (and the business of the claimant’s family and friends, too.)

For Tom Best, deputy general counsel at The Home Depot, his company’s approach is to avoid being confrontational and communicate in a way that is trying to solve the claimant’s problem instead of fighting them on it.

In his company’s eyes, each customer is valuable and losing even one isn’t an option.

‘Ideally, we want our customers to come back and continue to shop and engage with us,’ he said during RIMS Live 2021, a virtual conference for risk management professionals.