Why Claims and Customer Success have to work hand in hand

In insurance, what happens after a claim is filed is just as important as the filing itself. Speed, clarity, and fairness all matter but in the end, the people behind the process are what make the difference.

At grape, we’ve built our model on a simple but powerful belief: Claims and Customer Success are two sides of the same promise. When they work together—knowing each other, supporting each other, and showing up together—the experience becomes something far better than “just insurance.”

This concept comes to life in our work with very different companies: From CWS Workwear to Fisba—both faced challenges before switching to grape. But it wasn’t just the platform or the policies that changed the game, it was the people and the way we work as a connected team.

What happens when Claims and support are disconnected

Before switching to grape, many of our customers were used to fragmented insurance systems.

At CWS Workwear, claims were handled by unknown individuals from a call center who introduced themselves briefly, completed a task and disappeared again. There was no relationship and no continuity. Because of that, HR had no visibility into what was happening behind the scenes.

At Fisba, processes were largely manual. Excel spreadsheets tracked employee absences and the lack of automation made even simple cases time-consuming and error-prone. HR spent more time chasing paperwork than supporting people, losing out on valuable care work.

At another customer, the biggest pain point was the case registration itself. The old web-based form was so unstable that if you made a mistake, you’d lose all progress.
“If you noticed a missing detail from the employee at the second-to-last question,” they recalled, “the whole form would crash. You’d have to start from scratch.”

This is frustrating for anyone having to work with this system and takes up an unreasonable amount of time and effort which could be used in more impactful tasks.

What if Claims and support were actually aligned?

What changed with grape was a mindset shift: Claims and Customer Success shouldn’t operate in silos. They should work together from onboarding to ongoing support.

At grape, every customer gets a dedicated Customer Success Manager who co-owns the relationship from day one. They help set things up and make sure to stay involved after onboarding. They act as the customer’s right hand, especially from a technical and operational perspective.

But most importantly, they don’t work alone. Customer Success and Claims share the responsibility for outcomes, communication, and smooth collaboration.

The role of a Customer Success team is new to the insurance world and not the norm for other providers. With us, the Customer Success team is accountable for the entire customer experience—including what happens when something goes wrong.

They step in when the Claims team hits a wall. If a customer gets stuck, if communication with an employee stalls, if collaboration struggles, Customer Success takes the lead. They solve these issues and implement long-term collaboration processes that keep things running from then on.

The advantages of this structured collaboration is strongly felt, with customers describing the team as having fast response times and great technical know-how.

More than just efficiency

Efficiency matters—in how quickly a claim is paid, how smoothly the tools work, and how little time HR has to spend chasing updates.

But it’s the people behind the process that shape whether a partnership works or fails.

As one customer put it: “The way you act as a team is extremely positive. You can copy any product, but what makes a difference are the people behind it.”

That’s why grape’s model isn’t just faster. It’s more personal.

We hear it in the loyalty our customers express, as Sebastian from CWS Workwear said: “Even if a competitor came with a better offer—I wouldn’t switch.”

Because ultimately, this isn’t just about what we offer. It’s about how we work together.