Okay, a LOT of interest among work comp service providers in rating/reviewing workers’ comp payers…so let’s find out what service providers want to know/share.

I’ve got a few thoughts about key considerations…perhaps assessing payers based on:

• does the buyer really know what they want?
• rating payers on how they work with service providers on a continuum from pure vendor (commodity provider) to true partner (collaborator).
• rating payers on the fairness of the process (with sub categories)
• rating payers on the depth of their understanding of what they need to accomplish their goals
• rating payers on the usefulness of their RFPs – are they asking the right questions, looking for creativity, and not just doing the basics so they can say they “went to market?”
• decision making
  • involvement of procurement/purchasing (which can be helpful, but most often is not)
  • clarity of criteria and ranking priorities, and consistency throughout the process (start in one place and evolve to something(s) else). (again not necessarily a bad thing if they move towards smarter decision criteria)
  • do they stick to the schedule, and if not, are they clear on changes and do the changes make sense?
• their interest in learning how you are different from your competitors
• what they say about price vs how important price is in the actual decision process
• are they frequently market-checkers or are they serious about their interest in getting better?
• does Payer X keep your response confidential?
• if you don’t win the business, does Payer X provide you with information as to why and what you could have done better?

• do they actually know what they want/need?
• do they respond to questions in a helpful way?
• will the requested “solution” actually solve the problem they are trying to fix?
• are they transparent about the process?
• are the SLAs (service level agreements) reasonable, onerous, sensible (feel free to add other adjectives)?

Other thoughts

• are there RFPs you won’t respond to because you don’t trust the payers?
• what are the five things any RFP should contain?
• what are the five things RFPs should NOT contain?

Any ideas are welcome and confidential – just drop me a note in the comment section – it will NOT be published but used to build the questionnaire.

Oh, and realize this can’t take an hour – so prioritize what you think is most important.

And thanks.

Customers and prospects rate vendors all the time – yet vendors never rate/review customers or prospects.

I’m as guilty as anyone else for not seeing the obvious; sellers’ views of buyers are just as important as buyers’ views of sellers.  Sure, I wrote about problematic purchasers and their arrogant behavior – but that was 14 (!) whole years ago.

This came to light recently when I was thinking about conversations I had with a couple of buyers over the last few months. Buyers’ perceptions of how they dealt with vendors was quite different from vendors’ views. As in pretty much opposite; the buyers saw themselves as collaborative, collegial, and open to new ideas and perspectives. They opined that their buying criteria prioritizes forward thinking, innovation, and aligned incentives.

That was NOT how they were perceived by vendors. Far from it.

The buyers in question were perceived as dictatorial, dogmatic, and difficult to work with. The buyers always squeezed vendors on price and forced concessions while requiring detailed Service Level Agreements with financial penalties.

The Golden Rule applied – She Who Has the Gold Rules.

Of course all buyers are not like that – some are collaborative and thoughtful and really looking for partnerships that benefit all parties. (Thank you HSA clients!)

It goes beyond the purchasing process; some buyers don’t get the “partner” thing. They don’t realize their success is driven by collaboration and teamwork, that this requires the customer’s cooperation and an investment of time, energy, and often IT resources. Instead they require/demand/mandate the vendor deliver on SLAs while making it darn near impossible for them to do so.

So…I’m thinking of surveying workers’ comp vendors about their views, opinions, and experience with WC payers.  Of course as with all our surveys, responses would be completely confidential. If we do this, we’ll require respondents to identify themselves so we can verify they are who they say they are. Once that’s done, identifying information will be erased.

If you’re interested in participating, shoot me a comment in the box below. All comments are held for approval, so I won’t publish yours if you ask me not to.

What does this mean for you?

This will be fun.

Hundreds of billions of dollars will be spent on heavy construction and everything that goes into that – steel, aluminum and concrete; wire and cable; glass and pipes; rail cars, track, and signaling equipment;  heavy equipment; electric vehicle charging stations; and of course labor.

It will fix huge infrastructure problems – including the Brent Spence Bridge which spans the Ohio River between Cincinnati and Kentucky and desperately needs an overhaul. (the Bridge carries 3 percent of our GDP every year, has no shoulders, is used by tens of thousands of commuters each day, and has frequent accidents that snarl traffic and screw everything up.)

Texas’ electrical grid is also targeted for a major – and critically needed – upgrade. Rail, highways, tunnels and port facilities around New York City are in desperate need of major repairs. Rural America’s access to broadband – essential for agriculture and education – is pathetically sparse. (think DSL…remember that?)

Here in upstate New York, the City of Syracuse still relies on water pipes that can be 180 years old and, wait for it, some are wood. Albany just discovered some of their pipes are even older – and yes, made of wood.

The infrastructure bill will likely pass and be signed into law, but that’s just part of President Biden’s economic plan, the rest of which will be addressed in a massive bill that won’t have to garner any Republican Senators’ votes due to reconciliation.

The budget proposal will include additional investments in human capital that will expand child care, increase protections for workers, ramp up spending on community colleges and education and add funding for clean energy projects. This last will likely have the biggest impact on work comp, but the rest will add tens of thousands of workers to the child care and education sectors.

So what does all this mean for workers’ comp?

Two things – the improvements/upgrades/fixes will generate more premium dollars, more injuries, and more claims; expect this to start ramping up in a year or so, and continue for a decade plus.

As our amazingly crappy infrastructure gets better, those improvements should make us more competitive, remove bottlenecks (here’s looking at you, Brent Spence Bridge) and spur growth – which will add jobs and increase work comp premiums.

What does this mean for you?

More and better infrastructure = more dollars flowing into the work comp industry.

After re-reading my last rant about the lack of real innovation in workers’ comp, I decided to stop complaining and instead lay out a few recommendations.

Think impact, not features and benefits.

The “solution” and vendor selection process starts out way too detailed, down in the weeds instead of up in the strategic clouds. Instead of diving into the minutiae, both buyers and sellers should take a giant step back and focus on the buyer’s strategic goals.

What is the C-Suite focused on? What are the top execs worried about? What are their long term goals?

Only after the vendor really understands those strategic objectives, how they were developed, why they are so important, and what the buyer is doing to reach them should the vendor say anything that isn’t a question.

That’s the easy part.

Next, the vendor must build a story around how it will help the buyer meet those strategic objectives.  DO NOT discuss anything that is not directly tied into those strategic objectives. DO NOT about talk about your features and benefits – the buyer DOES NOT CARE.

Things buyers care about may include…

• reducing the combined ratio
• reducing reserves
• reducing administrative burden on staff

but you won’t KNOW what is important unless you do the really hard work to find out.

What does this mean for you?

To get a buyer to care, you need to know what they care about – and why.