With increasing customer demands, seasonal influences and evolving technology, the insurance industry is no stranger to change.
These challenges put pressure on insurers to provide an exceptional service to their customers during what is often a stressful time — the insurance claim process.
In this blog post, we'll explore how incident management companies can alleviate this pressure and provide a claims process to be proud of.
The typical insurance claim process
The insurance claim process can often be a complex and resource-intensive journey for insurers.
The typical insurance claim involves several key steps for companies to follow:
- Claim intake. This is the policyholder's initial notification of a claim and can be done through various channels, such as phone calls or mobile apps.
- Investigation. The claim's validity is then assessed, requiring detailed inspections, reports and interviews.
- Estimation. Damage caused by the incident is assessed and the estimated cost of repairs is calculated.
- Approval. When the claim is approved, the insurer must search for a reliable repair shop or service provider.
- Repairs. Next, the insurer coordinates the repairs with the policyholder or an external repair shop.
- Settlement. The correct payout amount is determined and the insurer facilitates the payment.
Consistent communication with the policyholder is required outside of these steps, an often time-consuming part of the claims journey.
Why outsource the insurance claim process?
Incident management providers can offer the expertise and resources to streamline the claims process by taking certain responsibilities and costs away from the insurer.
By outsourcing, insurers can concentrate on aspects such as underwriting and risk assessment while leaving the insurance claim process to their incident management provider.
Incident management providers can help reduce operational costs for the insurer and handle varying claim volumes annually.
Insurers can also benefit from other valuable services provided by incident management companies. These include:
- 24/7 contact centres. Around-the-clock contact centres ensure customers can report claims anytime, enhancing the service's convenience and responsiveness.
- Open API for agile data transfer. Open APIs make for seamless data integration, facilitating faster and more accurate data sharing between the insurer and its partners.
- Mobility solutions. In-house mobility solutions help to keep customers moving following an incident occurring.
- Fully managed repair network. Incident management providers often have an extensive network of trusted repair shops, making arranging repairs far more streamlined for insurers.
- Uninsured loss recovery. Outsourcing claims management and recovery to a provider that focuses and reports on expectation management will reduce inbound call volumes for your business.
Incident management providers can cover the claims process from FNOL all the way through to repair placement and uninsured loss recovery.
The benefits of outsourcing
The insurance claims outsourcing process can result in various benefits that positively impact an insurer's service offering.
Control costs
Reduced operational costs by outsourcing the insurance claim process can result in cost savings across several key business areas.
Processing claims requires significant investment in workforce capacity and unexpected peaks in insurance claims can result in sudden recruitment costs.
Outsourcing means your business is well-equipped to handle varying claims without adding extra hires to meet seasonal demands.
Improve customer service
Benefits such as in-house 24/7/365 contact centres supplied by incident management companies mean you can always be there for your customers.
Claims usually result from a stressful series of events for the customer, so ensuring you're responsive and present during the entire claims process is vital.
You can be there for your customers 24/7/365 and make the claims process far more streamlined and stress-free for the customer due to the resources at your disposal.
Fully managed repair networks and mobility solutions allow you to quickly organise repairs for your customers and ensure they can still be on the road during a stressful time.
Generate efficiencies
Dealing with claims requires your company's time and resources. By outsourcing, you can lighten the burden on your teams and allow them to focus on other valuable business areas.
Agile data transfer allows for a more streamlined and effective service, facilitating faster claims handling and fewer errors.
These efficiencies help insurers easily handle fluctuations in claim volumes without needing to adjust resources.
As well as this, extra efficiencies can contribute towards the scalability of your business, allowing insurers to grow over time.
How Motor Assist can help
The insurance industry is evolving and outsourcing the insurance claim process is a strategic move that can provide many benefits.
By focusing on core competencies and leaving the claims process to experts, insurers can streamline their operations, improve customer experience and scale up.
Motor Assist helps insurers reduce costs and maximise their income streams with in-house 24/7 contact centres, open API for agile data transfer, in-house mobility solutions and a fully managed repair network.
We can also handle FNOL via digital channels or more traditional means and provide a comprehensive service from third-party capture and repair placement to mobility and uninsured loss recovery.
Motor Assist has developed a modern claims platform in a low code environment, allowing changes to be made immediately and to tailor MI capability. This platform translates your data into effective and important intelligence for your business.
Want to see how we're looking to change the incident management industry for good? Click below.
