Quality Recorded Statements: How-To Guide

Without a recorded statement, the whole claims process grinds to a halt. Unfortunately, it’s only too common that recorded statements are unclear, or missing information. In this article, we look at how to ensure that your statements are effective, techniques for recording, and how technology can help.

What are recorded statements?

Insurance companies commonly take a recorded statement to gather information from the victim soon after an accident or issue that has led them to put in a claim to their insurance adjuster. 

Best Practices to Ensure Effective Recorded Statements

When taking a recorded statement you need to be effective to get all the necessary information to process the claim. Here we go through six steps and best practices to take the most useful recorded statement possible.

1 - Preparing for the Recorded Statement

Before beginning the recorded statement, you should become familiar with the case. You need to read any supporting documentation you already have so that you understand the facts. You should find out if the interviewee is a native English speaker, if they’re not, you can offer them a translator.

Next, you need to prepare your environment to make your interviewee feel comfortable. If you’re recording over the phone, make sure you’re in a quiet space. If you’re recording in person, try to choose somewhere calm without too many distractions. 

Finally, prepare your questions beforehand. You should follow your insurance company's standard questions for statements and include any extra ones that you think could be helpful.

2 - Building Rapport

People are often nervous before giving a recorded statement, so begin with a friendly, open, empathetic tone. Listen to what they’re saying, and be sympathetic so that they begin to trust you. You don’t need to apologize for what happened or take responsibility for it, but being kind goes a long way.

You should also explain to them how the process will go so that they are prepared. You can tell them the importance of the statement and how it will be used.

3 - Crafting Effective Questions

Rather than asking leading questions, take a simple example “Was the car silver or black?” that pushes someone to say either black or silver, when the car could have been dark blue. Or asking closed questions “Did the car drive off?”, to which the answer is yes or no. Ask open-ended questions, such as “Can you describe what happened after the car drove off?” This way your interviewee will describe exactly what they remember, rather than being led or not giving enough details.

You can dive deeper into what happened with follow-up questions from these open-ended questions.

4 - Active Listening and Documentation

Practice active listening to ensure that you are fully present and give your interviewee your full attention. Active listening tips:

• Make eye contact to show your interest
• Notice the person’s non-verbal cues
• Pay attention to your facial expressions so you don’t show any negative emotions
• Paraphrase and reflect back what your interviewee said: “In other words, you’re saying the car drove off and didn’t off to help?”
• Listen to understand what your interviewee is saying, not to answer them
• Don’t judge or give advice

You should also be recording the whole conversation. Using n2uitive you can record via a conference call or on our iOS app, this frees you up to focus on the interviewee. You’ll be able to check for any tells that they’re not being entirely truthful. However, if you find it helpful you can still take notes to add to your recorded statement. If you do that, make sure you avoid opinions or assumptions and take notes on facts, inconsistencies, or gaps.

5 - Identifying Inconsistencies

Keep an eye out for any tells that someone may not be telling the truth, these include:

• Vague answers
• Only telling their story in strict chronological order
• Not giving a straight answer to a yes/no question
• Playing with their hair
• Physical changes such as sweating, speaking fast when they were talking slowly, or fidgeting.

When you notice these signs, try to dig into details to see what they say. You can also repeat their phrases back to them to gauge their reactions.

6  - Overcoming Common Challenges

If you have a nervous or uncooperative interviewee, try to give them space. Ask a question and wait for them to respond rather than pressing them. If they go off-topic, reframe the conversation back to the incident so that it doesn’t become unproductive. You can also explain why you’re doing the recorded statement and how it can help them so that they don’t feel scared that it will be used against them. 

Leveraging Technology for Enhanced Statements

Using technology to record, review, analyze, store, and transcribe recorded statements saves your employees time, and improves productivity, and accessibility. It also makes your documents safer and the whole claims process smoother.

n2uitive: Streamlining Your Insurance Claims with Advanced Recorded Statement Solutions

n2uitive supports all insurance companies to improve productivity, reduce the total cost of ownership, and increase high-quality recorded statements, including:

• Easy to integrate into your existing workflows,
• Secure, cloud-based storage for easy access and review,
• Advanced tools for capturing, managing, and analyzing statements,
• Integrations with Guidewire and Allegis to increase your efficiency,
• Compliance with legal standards and privacy regulations,
• Full training and support.

Deploying n2uitive across your full organization takes less than a week and training your adjusters takes less than 30 minutes. 75% of our adjusters take a statement using n2uitive within 48 hours. Click here to book a demo with our team.

A high quality, clear, complete recorded statements can speed up your claims processing. By including technology to help you record and store your statements, you streamline your process and make it more efficient.