Where the rubber hits the road
How technology can put claims management efficiencies into practice.
According to figures from global accountancy firm EY, the UK motor insurance market achieved an underwriting profit in 2021. Post-pandemic factors - less commuting and the increase in working from home, resulted in fewer motor insurance claims. It recorded a Net Combined Ratio (NCR) of 96.6% which was a rise on an NCR of 90.3% in 2020.
In 2022/23 things look like they will be very different. The last couple of years of supply chain issues, the pandemic hangover and now rising inflation increasing the cost of materials, labour and energy prices has created a perfect storm of significant strategic and operational challenges. Motor insurers are looking for ways to reduce costs, be more efficient, win and retain more customers improving their customer journey, and to face down the rise in fraud due to the cost-of-living crisis.
Here we consider how best motor insurers can meet some of the macro challenges to help them remain competitive and deliver an excellent customer journey in challenging times.
Watertight information capture reduces fraud in claims management
History has proven that when our cost of living is squeezed, the UK sees a large increase in insurance fraud right across the board. According to the Association of British Insurers (ABI), the recession of 2008 witnessed 107,200 false insurance claims worth £730 million – a 17% increase on the previous year. But things have changed significantly since the recession of 2008, advances in technology are playing a much greater part in how we can reduce fraud in claims management.
Embedding media evidence into the claims ecosystem is one way insurers are reducing fraud. It's estimated the global population takes approximately 1.4 trillion digital images and video footage per annum – we’ve never been more equipped to do so on devices including dashcams, video doorbells, drones and smart devices. That’s a lot of digital imagery, and all of it can be easily ingested in any digital format (over 40 types of them) into the claims process. Moreover, saving the footage doesn’t have to be cost or storage hungry either with the ability to compress the data by 100 times, it’s possible to reduce storage costs and provide simple upload links for consumers.
Information capture provides claims managers with everything from photographic evidence of vehicle inspections to witness footage and accounts of a case. Media can be verified, provide metadata to geolocate where it’s been taken, on what device and when, as well as evidencing where and when footage or images have been altered via the technology of ‘hashing’. It can flag up anomalies as they happen so they can be proactively managed to reduce the chance of fraud. So strong is working with tamper-proof media evidence within the claims process that it has shown where claims are less than £2000, a shocking 40% of claimants have walked away from completing a claim at all. The chance of detection acts as the strongest form of prevention.
Establishing liability faster than ever with evidential data
It doesn’t stop there; media evidence also helps to establish liability much faster in any claim – to call it quickly and have the hard tamper-proof evidence to back it up. Establishing liability is a process that has often been measured in months, gathering evidence, inspection reports, third party input, witness statements etc. By capturing evidence fast within a claims management system, it can be reduced to days where all parties are able to provide data capture quickly via upload links, forms, live calls or via simple applications. The key to super-fast motor claims lies in making the most of the first contact. Insurers and claims professionals use video to establish the facts quickly to triage and route the claim at speed. By being the first to have the full picture, insurers take charge of the claim.
End to end evidential enterprise workflow irons out the friction within the process and delivers the data for decision making quickly and compliantly. It’s also possible to connect third parties – law firms for example – to the workflow to view or share information, and to see when that information was accessed. There is total clarity for all parties.
From a financial perspective, evidencing liability faster means that insurers’ financial reserves can be better managed and released faster to invest in other parts of the business too, delivering tighter financial management and control of costs, making the organisation more agile.
The customer journey
But let’s not forget about the customer – their journey through the claims process must be as simple as possible. Are your customers getting a good experience or could it be better? Can they easily provide you with the evidence they have without sharing it over email, WhatsApp or worse, a USB stick in the post? Long term, strategic data security and compliance can only be adhered to if it’s captured within the claims management system, rather than outside of it.
Customers want self-service. They want to share the information they have quickly and with ease, see progress in their claim and trust the process through to a successful conclusion. And they don’t want it to take months. It’s a tough market out there – attracting new customers is important, keeping existing ones is crucial.
If you’d like to know how Eviid can help you achieve a frictionless claims management process, Contact us today