One year on: execute a winning post-pandemic claims strategy

The fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic was wide-reaching. It impacted customer habits, personal situations, economic conditions and more. It also created a sea-change in expectations. Many consumers who were already comfortable with digital saw just how far it could penetrate into their lives. For others, this was their first taste of a life lived significantly online.

For carriers, the pandemic was a similarly revelatory experience. While the flight to digital was largely essential to keep the wheels turning during lockdowns, some advantages were clear. Faster processing times from digital first notification of loss, the use of drone technology to access difficult areas and an increase in self-reporting and self-service online all revealed benefits post-pandemic.

To discover the learnings from a year under the pandemic and how it has impacted claims strategy, Intelligent Insurer caught up with Joseph Olmedo, Global Practice Leader at Guidewire. He reveals the changing customer trends and how the digital claims journey has had to evolve. This article is published ahead of the Intelligent Insurer webinar, “Transform Commercial Property Underwriting with AI and NLU” on June 3, 2021.

How has COVID accelerated the digital agenda?
Many claims organizations we have spoken with tell us they were already well on their way to set up for better customer experiences through digital channels, recognizing the trends and customer expectations. All of them agree COVID-19 accelerated those efforts. This included offering more options and channels to report claims, doing more with technology for remote inspections, as well as getting set up for their employees to work and handle claims from home.

What customer changes are most important for insurers?
Convenience, speed, and constant communication. These are minimum expectations today. We have heard from insurance carriers that they also need to be flexible, and learn from their different customer segments. Not everyone likes touchless digital processes where humans are not involved, for example, especially within the larger commercial space.

What we hear is that options and flexibility, with the technology that allows carriers to be nimble, are what claims executives need to meet the demands and expectations from customers.

Where are the current pain points in the digital journey?
Pain points may vary by line of business, or channel. If we take a personal auto line where the insurance organization has offered direct interaction through digital channels, some of the pain points may include maintaining and managing business rules, integration points with third parties, and quick turnaround or almost real-time responses.

We often see examples of organizations which are well on their way in their digital journey but continue to rely on older legacy core systems, which create bottlenecks or slow down the process.

What does an ‘exceptional’ claims strategy look like?
Striking a balance between technology and people will be key. Efficiency in combination with well-trained staff who have access to the right information when critical decisions need to be made is at its heart. This is not an easy balance to achieve. We have heard some companies struggle to hire the right people. They also struggle to make sure that reliance on technology doesn’t open the door for increased fraud.

An exceptional claims strategy should also differentiate service. Organizations that want to remain competitive will certainly need to plan and invest in longer-term projects. They may start today but could not bear fruit for some time. These decisions are not easy to make and they are usually unpopular with finance teams.

Claims organizations that work closely with product and underwriting teams are often more successful, and collaboration from product creation can be vital. Simply sharing an interest in delivering exceptional customer service is very important.

Are there any roadblocks, and how might they be overcome?
Hiring and training, consistent application and delivery of standard operating procedures, dealing with heavily regulated environments and external forces that demand change are all potential hurdles. Other examples may include going after quick returns without weighing the longer-term impact, such as modernizing the front-end digital experience without changing outdated legacy systems. Companies are starting to recognize that the flexibility and speed they need to compete requires more than just a modern digital layer.

How do carriers lower claims costs?
Fraud, litigation, inefficient processes, upgrading and maintaining technology, are the biggest costs to carriers, among others. Tools that make it easier to insert fraud detection, analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning can all help lessen the impact. Collaboration with product and underwriting so that organizations have a better measure of the risks they are taking on, and are properly set up to service those customers once claims come in, is also essential.

Where is the priority for automation?
We believe that certain claims are a great fit for full automation or touchless processing. The advantages of taking portions of a claim and being able to automate at the task level are also valuable. The priority is striking the best balance.

There are opportunities for efficiency gains with lower-value tasks, at the same time giving more scope to trained staff to focus on higher-value items. The technology can also provide flexibility to act and make changes when needed, without engaging in lengthy IT projects.

What do you hope attendees will take away from your webinar?
I believe audience members are constantly asking themselves and others in the industry questions such as: how do we meet and exceed customer expectations and compete with differentiating claims service in the future? What are other organizations doing today? How can we best set up for the future?

We hope the audience gets to hear different opinions, experiences, and learns from what we have to share. Most of us have a passion for this industry and want others to succeed, and are willing to collaborate and share lessons learned.

Join Guidewire, USAA, Sedgwick and Capgemini for the live webinar “One Year On: Execute A Winning Post-Pandemic Claims Strategy” (Thursday June 3, 2021 @ 4pm BST). Register here now to join the discussion.