As a former claims adjuster, I’ve seen my fair share of claims. Yet there’s one claim in particular that I still remember as the most rewarding. The claim I was assigned to was in rural Alabama where a tornado had demolished the entire town. The policyholder was a retired elderly lady who lived alone with her dog. Not knowing how she’d be able to afford the repairs, she was understandably distraught.
Shortly after she filed her claim, I performed the inspection and wrote her a check for around $25,000. Before I could even hand her the check, she gave me a big hug, started crying, and said, “You saved my day!”
When I think about these types of experiences, I’m reminded of the industry we serve, the integral part that insurers play in the fabric of society, and the extraordinary ways they touch the lives of others.
Today is unlike any time we’ve seen before in the history of P&C claims. But it also presents us with a unique, opportunistic, and exciting time to reimagine the traditional claims process as one centered on the policyholder. As we continue to innovate at Guidewire, we see five key trends gaining considerable momentum in P&C claims.
Claims Prevention
Insurers want new ways to jump ahead of the curve and prevent losses before they happen — or at least recognize early on when small losses could potentially become large ones. Insights gathered from IoT devices can dramatically help insurers with loss prevention, fraud, safety for policyholders, and response times. We’ve already seen this impact with telematics-enabled vehicles and smart home devices.
Digital Self-Service Channels
It shouldn’t be a surprise that digital transformation is well under way. From filing a new claim to staying informed throughout the entire claim process and, ultimately, to getting paid, policyholders want the flexibility, ease, and seamless experience enabled by digital self-service channels. The message is clear. Customers expect an Amazon-like experience — even from their insurers.
Intelligent Claims Management
Insurers also need intelligent claims management to drive the claim process forward from FNOL to closure. Although straight-through-processing might be the desired result, we know it’s equally important to automate as many steps as possible along the way so that customer service representatives and adjusters can focus on complex issues that require their expertise and empathy. Insurers must consider AI and machine-learning capabilities to deliver this type of automation.
Connected Customer Experience
With intelligent claims management driving claims forward, insurers also need to make sure policyholders don’t feel forgotten along the way. It’s crucial that policyholders enjoy a transparent and frictionless experience if they’re to gain trust with insurance companies and vendors.
Explore our intelligent claims management software and learn how it can simplify your claim process and improve customer satisfaction.
Faster Claims Payments
For insurance companies, one of the biggest obstacles is moving to a fully digital and automated claims payment process. More than half of all claims payments are still issued manually with paper checks. Because an easy, efficient payment process has been shown to be critical in solidifying a positive customer experience, insurers need to move away from the traditional approach and adopt a completely digital process.
At Guidewire, we’re consistently keeping these essentials in mind as we reimagine the traditional claims process. For more information about how we’re achieving this, check out the "5 Essentials for Delivering a Modern Claims Experience" e-book and webinar, and read the Smart Approach blog post A Glimpse into the Future of Claims.