What does a servicing request need before it counts as tracked work?
By the Rayon research desk · Last reviewed
Nine things: who asked, which account, what type of request it is, one owner, a due date, a status, what is missing, the source document and who approved the result. An email holds some of these by accident. A ticket holds all of them on purpose, so anyone in the agency can see what is open, who has it and what it is waiting for.
What fields does a servicing ticket need?
| Field | What it records | What goes wrong without it |
|---|---|---|
| Requester | Who asked and how to reply: the insured, a certificate holder, a lender, a carrier | The answer goes to the wrong person, or to nobody |
| Account | The named insured and the policy or policies affected | Work is done on the wrong policy or the wrong term |
| Request type | Certificate, endorsement, loss run, billing, other | A request that needs the insurer is treated as a same-day item |
| Owner | One named person | Everyone on a shared inbox assumes someone else has it |
| Due date | When the requester needs it, and any deadline set by a contract or a rule | Urgent and routine requests look the same |
| Status | New, waiting on client, waiting on carrier, ready for review, sent | Nobody can tell stalled from finished |
| What is missing | The specific item needed to continue, and who has to supply it | Follow-ups are vague, and the request sits |
| Source document | The email, contract clause or form the request came from, attached | The work is checked against memory instead of the request |
| Approval | Who reviewed the result before it left, and when | No record that a licensed person saw it |
How is a ticket different from an activity note?
An activity note records something that happened on an account: a call, an email, a certificate issued. Agency management systems are built to keep that history. Vertafore, a vendor of these systems, lists among the reasons to have one the need to keep “a record of all policies, notes, policy changes and other documentation for E&O and servicing needs”.
A ticket describes something that has not finished. It has a state, an owner and a date by which it is due, and it stays open until a defined result exists. A note that says “client emailed asking for a certificate for the Elm Street job” is accurate, and it tells nobody whether the certificate went out.
Many agency management systems let you add an owner and a follow-up date to an activity. If your agency does that for every request, and closes each one, you already have tickets under another name. The test is simple: can you list every open request, by owner and due date, without reading anyone’s inbox?
What does “what is missing” look like for each request type?
- Certificate: the holder’s exact name and address, the contract’s insurance clause, and an endorsement on the policy behind every coverage statement the holder wants shown.
- Endorsement or policy change: the effective date, the exact change, and the insured’s signature where coverage is being deleted or reduced. The ACORD 175 says such changes require it.
- Loss run: the insured’s written request, and the insurers, policy numbers and policy terms needed.
- Billing: the invoice or statement in question, the amount in dispute, and whether the policy is billed by the agency or directly by the insurer.
- Any type: the name of the person who can supply the missing item, and the date they were last asked.
When is a ticket done?
When the result exists and has been delivered, not when the request has been passed on. An endorsement request is done when the insurer’s endorsement has been received and read, not when the change request was emailed.
An errors and omissions bulletin from Utica National makes the same points as instructions to agents: “Do confirm that the carrier received your coverage request. Follow up as needed.” “Do handle mid-term requests to change coverage quickly, and follow-up frequently until the request is completed.” For certificates it adds: “Do have a second person review the COI for accuracy prior to release.” Those three instructions are the status, due date and approval fields.
None of this needs new software. A shared spreadsheet with these nine columns is a ticket system. What matters is that every request gets a row, every row has one owner, and nothing is closed without the result attached.
Sources
- Utica National Insurance Group, Common Causes of Agents’ E&O Claims, Part IV: Certificates of Insurance and Failure to Place or Renew Coverage
- Vertafore, Insurance CRMs vs agency management systems: The ultimate guide
- ACORD 175 (2016/03), Commercial Policy Change Request (demonstration copy with sample data, hosted by Anvil)
General information, not legal advice or an interpretation of your policy. Policy forms and endorsements control. Form numbers are © Insurance Services Office, Inc. and are cited for reference.