Claim in a pocket

Published On: November 2, 2018

How can insurers further utilise technologies that customers already possess in order to better assess, prevent and respond to risk?

What technology do you carry on you at nearly all times? I’ll give you a clue, if you have a teenager  it’s likely they don’t even look up from it when they speak to you.

The “Smartphone” has changed the way we interact with the world around us.  People use their phone to manage their banking, emails, internet browsing, shopping, travel tickets, home heating, social interation etc… What does this mean for the average person and their mobile phone?

It means in their possession they hold technology that 20 years ago would seem more Star Trek than reality. But what’s the benefit to insurers?

Put simply, people carry this technology around everywhere with them and it’s easy to see how it can be used for insurance purposes. From purchase to risk management to claims.

4G internet connection and easy access to WIFI, alongside better screens and browsing ability means that people can search and shop for their insurance whilst on the go. Better access to buying products via smartphone could be key in some areas. The phone knows where you are, “just before you plunge down that black run would you like some extra cover”!

Things keep developing and in 2018 new chips are to be found in smartphones that will be able to track your GPS to within 30cm of your actual position.  Can we be so precise and up-to-date on detailed local situations that you can warn people and reduce risk?

In a claims situation, we know who you are and where you are, let’s help recover you and your vehicle.  Add in the ability for smartphones to take photographs which a decade ago would have required an SLR camera and nearly everyone carries a tool which can tell insurers where a claim happened and build a picture of it in stunning detail.

How best to utilise this technology then?  “Insurance is old fashioned”, turn this stereotype on it’s head. Don’t just be receptive to new ideas, create them – the big question in technology is often not ‘if’ but ‘when’.

Today’s generation talk about chatting to someone when they Snapchat each other.  They aren’t interested in insurers building portals for them to key into, that’s insurer thinking, they will expect the insurer to enter into their world.