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Advantages of Digitizing the Claims Process

Team AckoJan 17, 2024

InsurTech is playing a vital role in changing people’s perception of the insurance industry. Insurance is a serious business, however, the customers don’t necessarily need to feel like they are dealing with an archaic process that involves a lot of documentation and takes a lot of time.

Contents

Untangling Complicated Knots In Time
Building The Trust Factor
Cutting Costs But Making An Investment
Proactive Approach
Achieving The Vital Balance

Today’s tech-savvy insurance customers have the attention span of a toddler. They are constantly attracted to low prices, coupon codes, offers, and cashback. But such short-term strategies won’t be long-lasting unless insurance companies have a customer-first approach and a superior product backed by prompt service, especially when it matters the most, which is during claim settlement.

Untangling Complicated Knots In Time

New insurance companies have come up with new-age insurance products. For instance, apart from the elaborate traditional vehicle insurance model, there is a swift-moving mobile insurance market as well.

Simpler claims are addressed directly by InsurTech. Example, fixed payment for damage to the laptop’s screen. However, digitization has also helped to coordinate between multiple parties for more complex claims such as a third-party liability vehicle insurance case involving own damage and car accessory theft. Traditionally, a case involving such complicated knots would’ve taken an eternity to untangle, but digitization does it rapidly by leveraging technology to facilitate coordination and fasten the car insurance claim process.

Building The Trust Factor

Insurance is a promise. And if the customer doesn’t believe that the insurance company will fulfill that promise, things are always going to be gloomy. Policyholders are often skeptical while raising claims. Will my claim be accepted and settled or will the insurance company try to use the clauses mentioned in the policy document to deny the claim by citing certain terms and conditions?

Such questions cloud their thinking and digitization aims to blow such thoughts away by building trust to convince the policyholder that the claims team is there to support them by solving their queries. Customer care executives even hand-hold policyholders if necessary.

Cutting Costs But Making An Investment

Digitization has enabled insurance companies to look at claims as an investment and not just an avenue to cut costs. Cutting costs shouldn’t be at the expense of customer service. This thought is reflected in a new-age insurance company’s approach where they cut costs by adopting technology and invest in building relationships with existing customers to strengthen loyalty.

Digitization helps to increase customer retention and aids customer acquisition based on referrals and word of mouth publicity. Social media is used as a rewarding platform to build trustworthy relationships with existing and prospective customers.

Proactive Approach

Modern insurance customers have been exposed to a lot of e-commerce transactions. They are used to a service that is cashless, paperless, and instant. They expect the same level of customer service on digital platforms irrespective of the domain. Thus, whether you are selling t-shirts or insurance, the company needs to adopt a customer-friendly approach. Updating the customer about the process is a big part of it.

Following up on a claim used to be a tedious process. By being proactive and conveying the work done to the customers, insurance companies can assure them that their claim request is being looked into. This can be done by sending notifications or by giving real-time updates similar to the ones customers are used to while ordering food online or booking a cab.

Achieving The Vital Balance

Claims, where customers have a heightened emotional involvement need to be dealt with tactfully. Mechanical responses will do no good in such circumstances. While digitization speeds up the claim settlement process by generalizing things and giving bucketed solutions, certain cases need to be addressed with a sense of customization. Data analytics and artificial intelligence can come in handy to tackle such challenges. Technology can lead to achieving the vital balance between dealing with customers in a human way and not spending a lot of resources in doing so.