Over 150,000 accidents occur every year on construction sites. Choosing the right Contractor Insurance Company to cushion your risk is a priority. Protection comes from having the best insurance coverage for your business and project.

 In the construction industry, millions of dollars are lost because of workplace accidents. Being underinsured is only one problem. It leaves your business open to major financial loss. Contractor Insurance and General Liability for Contractors are crucial in helping you lessen your financial risk.

Table of Contents

• 7 Point Checklist
• 1. Free No Obligation Quotes
• 2. A Quick Quote Turnaround
• 3. Affordability
• 4. Licensed In All 50 States
• 5. Speaking Your Language
• 6. Good Customer Service
• 7. A Good Reputation
• A Contractor Insurance Company You Can Trust

Point Checklist for Insurance Company

Finding a suitable insurance agent is a lot easier than you think. In this article, let’s look at 7 points to consider when choosing your Contractor Insurance Company.

1. Free No Obligation Quotes

Your insurance agent should provide free, no-obligation quotes. Ideally, at least 3 different quotes for you to compare.

2. A Quick Quote Turnaround

It’s essential your insurance agent offers a quick turnaround time for your quotes. After all, no quote, no cover, and no chance of starting your project. Remember, delays cost you money.

3. Affordability

Cost-effective or affordable insurance is something a good insurance provider will offer. Otherwise you could pay twice as much for Contractor’s Insurance than necessary. That puts a dent on your overhead expenses and ultimately impacts your profits. You can’t afford to miss out on affordable Contractor’s Insurance. The right Contractor Insurance Company will offer affordable yet adequate cover.

4. Licensed In All 50 States

Your insurance provider needs to be licensed in all 50 states. No matter where you are, you can contact them. For example, you’re primarily based in New York but occasionally work in New Jersey. When an accident occurs across state lines, you can claim with no state boundaries to worry about.

5. Speaking Your Language

If English isn’t your first language, its vital your insurance company offers bilingual speakers. For instance, you understand English but prefer to speak in Spanish. It might be difficult to have your claim processed if there is a language barrier. The right Contractor Insurance Company will have bilingual agents ready to talk to you.

6. Good Customer Service

Customer support keeps policyholders feeling cared for. For example, an incident has occurred and before you make a claim you want to speak to someone to clarify things. You make a call to customer support.  They clear the matter up and initiate the claims process.

7. A Good Reputation

You can put your trust in a Contractor Insurance Company if their reputation is exceptional. For instance, an insurer has a reputation for increasing premiums without proper notification. While it’s not fair, it has been known to happen.  Choosing a good and reputable insurance agent will take this headache away.

8. Online Reviews

The thing to note about any given online insurance company review is that it comes from a single person. Any rating or number of stars it has could be based on a single factor, among so many aspects that matter. As you sort through consumer reviews, keep the source in mind, and learn how to assess them better with these tips:

• Know what they refer to. A poor review can be about the writer’s trouble with payments, claims, or customer service (from a single agent among many), or it might just be their overall view. The same can be said of praise. You should always look closely at what the writer is referring to. This will help you decide whether it applies to you or not.
• Is it about a person or the product? It’s important to get a feel for how much of the commentary is based on the writer’s experience with a single person (an agent or claims adjuster, for example) versus the product, coverage, or company as a whole.
• Discuss the review with a company rep. If a review is strong enough to push you toward a given company, discuss what you read online with the person who is selling you the insurance. They will often be able to give you feedback that can help reveal how accurate the reviews are, just by the way they address the questions you ask.
• Be aware of the company model. Before you start reading reviews for a company, get a sense of its size and business model. This can help you focus your research. For example, if an insurer operates across the whole nation through local offices, you might not get a good picture of the service you can expect to receive by reading reviews from people in a state on the other side of the country. You’re much better off reading local Google or Yelp Reviews of the agent or firm you’d be working with.

9. Financial Strength

The financial stability of an insurance company should factor into your decision, because it shows how well the company performs in the larger market, and whether you can depend on it in the future. Insurance companies need to have the assets in order to be able to pay out claims. AM Best is a good source for this type of research, because it often gives companies a financial strength rating of superior (A+), excellent (A), good (B+), or worse.³

10. Agent vs. Firm

Local offices, agents, and brokers each have their own methods of service and sales. Your experience will vary, based on how you seek out insurance. It’s just like when you ask friends to refer a good doctor. The reason one friend may refer a certain professional to you could be because they have good bedside manner or give good advice. A second friend may refer you to a doctor based on the fact that they are the top expert in their field. Yet a third friend may refer you to a doctor who offers the best deal, or whom they know from college.

The same thing can happen with insurance if your point of contact is new on the job, if they don’t have great service skills, or if they simply don’t know what you value. Be sure to conduct your own research on the firm you plan to buy insurance from. It can’t hurt to learn a little about the person who is selling or making a referral, either. If you can build a good relationship with this agent or broker, they may be more helpful in the future when you need it, such as when it comes time to file a claim.

11. Through an Insurance Aggregator

Working with insurance aggregators can confuse some people, because their job is not to sell you a product, but to offer quotes. They are not agents or brokers, they are outside parties who only work with insurance companies. They provide quotes by looking at your data and giving quotes, which in turn could assist in sales. You may get great service from the aggregator, but after you make a purchase, they will hand off your new policy to an agent at the actual insurance company, so you would want to know how that works before it happens.

A Contractor Insurance Company You Can Trust

Contractors Insurance protects you and your business against financial loss due to incidents at work. Let Contractors Liability find you the right insurance coverage by calling us at 888-676-0923 for a FREE no-obligation quote.