When a prospect tells you that their previous third-party administrator was terrible, it’s tempting to agree immediately. After all, you want the business. The prospect wants someone who understands their frustration, and blaming the outgoing provider is an easy way to establish a connection.
Sometimes the criticism is deserved. Files are missing, questions went unanswered, and work wasn’t completed properly. There are providers who deliver poor service. However, there are also clients who describe every request for information as harassment and every invoice for additional work as an outrageous surprise.
You won’t know which situation you have until you review the records. That census delivered in September might explain why the testing wasn’t finished in March. The unanswered email may have been the provider’s fifth attempt to obtain the same information. Context has a way of complicating a good villain story.
Listen to the prospect without adopting every accusation as fact. Ask for correspondence, plan documents, testing reports, and a clear list of unresolved items. Give the outgoing provider a professional opportunity to explain what remains outstanding. You can advocate for your new client while still treating another provider fairly.
Pay attention to how the prospect discusses responsibility. Someone who acknowledges that their payroll department supplied incorrect data is different from someone who insists that every problem belongs to somebody else. A change in providers won’t necessarily change that attitude.
Your engagement should explain the scope of your review and how inherited problems will be addressed and priced. Taking over annual administration shouldn’t silently become an agreement to reconstruct years of missing records for free.
The previous TPA may have been the problem. Just make sure you understand the facts before volunteering to become the next provider in the client’s story about everyone who let them down. Your firm deserves that much.