Frank Heaps
Director, P&C Product Marketing
StoneRiver
This is a continuation of our three-part look at ways to retain your customers and attract new customers through innovation. Part one was about policy processing and ways to help attract new customers. Part two examined billing and ways to provide innovative service in electronic form. In this part we look at how to excel in the eyes of your customers and prove the value of being a customer of your company. Claims are the single most important touch point and the place where you show your value as an insurance company. I specialize in the claims domain and often refer to claims as the reason we have insurance to begin with: things get damaged or people are injured and therefore you need to replace, fix, or heal.
Many carriers offer the ability to report a loss through a self-guided process. But, at some point various parties within the claim department need to contact the insured to get statements, estimates, inspections, police reports, etc. The days of outsourcing the claims process to the consumer are over. Consumers – regardless of demographics – are less tolerant of filling out forms, gathering estimates, and taking time from work to have a car inspected. Consumers today demand the ability to inquire on their claim, see their car being fixed in the body shop, and more.
Carriers need to look for better methods to be a leader in customer service. It is a key differentiation for you and is a means to retain customers through rate increases and tough economic conditions. Claims cannot entirely be adjudicated online but the means to facilitate a seamless claims process exists today.
What can you do to innovate?
- E-FNOL: Provide the ability to capture new loss information to consumers to get the claim started. You should provide the adjuster name, contact information, and claim number to the customer. You should also allow customers to submit scanned documents to you.
- My Claims webpage for the customer: This could include details about the claim, status, policy coverage information, and adjuster contact information. You can also add jurisdictional information that answers many of the questions consumers have regarding laws, limits, coverage questions, etc. This is a great way to reduce the support you have to provide for customer calls.
- Provide forms online: You can have the required paperwork posted as a web form or an enterable PDF document. This saves you and the consumer postage. You will probably also see a faster response time when the forms flow through your firewall rather than the mail room.
- Socialize your claims department: You can enable updates to flow through many social tools available today. Alerts can be distributed through email, Facebook, or Twitter for example. This can be managed through a simple preference configuration on the My Claim page and notify the consumer when something needs to be done and when their property is repaired.
- Show the consumer what is going on: For auto claims, you can open a webcam view of their car through your DRP facility or preferred body shops. You may also want to show images of estimates, bills, and more that are being sent to the adjuster. Consumers derive a better sense of progress by seeing the instruments involved in the claim.
Are you using any of the innovative techniques above or others? Do you allow your customers to submit claims directly or inquire on claims information? Are there any other ways you distinguish yourself compared to your competitors?