Let Me Introduce You To The Future Claim Agent: Meet Alexa!
Home assistants will change the way we manage claims.
In this article I will mention Alexa, but you could replace it with Google Home or Siri (or any other voice controlled assistant). Here, I’m highlighting how Alexa could change the way we manage claims.
Simple Situations That Could Become Reality Much Faster Than We Think
1. Alexa could answer questions about the coverage of an insurance contract. The company I work for receives hundreds of calls from clients who want to make sure they’re adequately covered. “Am I insured in case my child does X… “, “If my friend drives my car and has an accident …”, “I’m getting married and I want to insure the ceremony, is it already covered …”. If programmed well, most of those questions could be answered by Alexa.
2. Alexa could collect information on a claim. One major step of a first notice of loss (FNOL) is the description of cause and circumstances. This is the moment when the claim agent takes all relevant information to identify how to process the claim and decides on the next steps. With a home assistant like Alexa, the client could do it from home. If Alexa possessed the right “skill” she could ask all the relevant questions like in this short example.
- Hi Alexa, I want to issue a claim. Can you help me?
- Well, it depends if I have the skill for the type of claim you need.
- Ok, I identified a water leakage problem in the house.
- Good news Fred, I have the relevant skill. We can talk about causes and circumstances. Tell me about it. First, did you identify the source of the problem?
- Yes, it’s a broken pipe between the bedroom and the kitchen.
- Ok, is this pipe underground or can you access it?
- I can access it, I saw the puncture.
- Did you stop the water?
- Of course Alexa! You should know me by now.
- Oh sorry Fred. Thank you for the information, I’ll send them to your insurer. They are closed right now, and since it is not an emergency, they will contact you tomorrow morning.
3. For simple claims, Alexa could go one step further
Here we imagine that the skill provided by the insurer allows Alexa to suggest actions/services to the customer.
- Fred, did you fix the problem ?
- Well Alexa, I’m proud of my plumbing skills, but what I did is only temporary.
- Do you want me to find a plumber who could fix this ?
- Yes Alexa, that would be of great help.
- Ok Fred. I just checked with your insurer, they do not cover these costs, but they recommend Ben the Plumber with whom you will benefit from negotiated prices.
- Ok, you know my schedule, I let you determine the best moment for Ben to come.
- Great, I’ll let you know when I’ll have exchanged information with his virtual assistant Jenny.
4. With IoT, one could even imagine that actions could be taken before the pipe breaks!
With IoT you will have sensors in your house (it already exists) that will alert you when something odd happens on your water pipes (loss of pression, too low temperatures, unusual water consumption, etc). If this technology is connected to your home assistant, Alexa could warn you before you actually suffer damages.
- Good morning Alexa.
- Good morning Fred. How did you sleep last night?
- Very well thank you. Anything you want to tell me? I see your orange button is on.
- Yes Fred, I wanted to warn you about possible water issues. The sensors in the house noticed a loss of pressure on the pipe under the kitchen. There might be a problem there. Do you know a reason for that?
- No, that seems odd to me.
- Should I find a plumber to check what’s going on? I let you know if he thinks he should repair it.
- Ok Alexa, that’s a relief.
- I’ll make an appointment with Ben the Plumber…
What would be the impact on insurers ? Where are the gains and losses?
1. First case: day to day questions.
This case is partly a win/win situation. The customer will have an instant answer to his questions without having to call the insurance company. On the other side, it’s a huge amount of calls that will disappear. It can be seen as a chance and/or a threat. A chance because with less calls the availability of insurance call centers will improve. The agents will then have more time to deliver quality on more complicated calls. A threat as it reduces the opportunity for the insurer to have a contact with the customers and thus opportunities for up selling. But the insurer will have time for outbound calls.
2. Second case: data collection on the claim.
- the FNOL or parts of it will arrive in a structured way in the insurers IT system. It is a challenge for IT systems and for the management of the claim itself but it’s a great help for the claim agent. He will have structured information available and will be able to focus on the client. Depending on the quality of information he will decide to launch the next steps automatically or to call the client for further questioning. The information gathered by Alexa will also allow a prioritization between claims (urgent or not, with possible impacts on other people, …). For the customer it’s more comfortable as it’s the insurer who will give the call and not the opposite.
- the challenge for the insurers is to develop skills that Alexa will be able to use. If insurers don’t move fast enough on this kind of skills someone will do it for them. That means they might not able to add special features they would like to have in order to differentiate from the competition. That’s key as the FNOL is the moment when the agent will use all his knowledge (legal, emotional, …). This moment will also structure the economic balance of the claim.
3. Third case: services Alexa could provide for the insurer
It’s important for insurers to offer some services that might sometimes go beyond the contract. In this example the cost of the reparation made by the plumber is not covered by insurers but the insurance company helps the client find a solution. It’s better for the customer and it’s good for the insurer since they offered a solution and they provide work for their repair network. The fact that assistants like Alexa can schedule appointments is also a real comfort for both the customer and the insurer.
4. Fourth case: Alexa and IoT
This one is tricky. Everything happens before there are any damages. The insurer is not needed or just to find someone to fix the problem. The frequency of water damage will reduce. The insurers will have to reduce the price of the coverage but the client could also decide that he doesn’t need coverage. The repair company can become a competitor and offer other types of contract
5. Overall impacts
In all those cases, on thing is common. The first contact is not made by the insurer but by a machine. The extend to which the home assistant will gather information is key. If the information is sufficient some parts of the process will start without any interaction with the insurer. The relation with the customer will change drastically as the insurer will be the one who will call the client in order to give information on the next steps or gather more info. The insurer will also need to think about new services to compensate a reduction of claims. The organisation of call centers will be different …
Will it happen ? How to react as an insurer ? How should we prepare ?
YES! I believe it really is coming. It’s already partly here. Some insurers already launched Alexa skills to answer everyday questions on insurance or get a quote for a contract as Liberty Mutual for example. How will it work? How long will it take before it reaches a satisfactory level. This I don’t know, but I’m sure we need to work on it now.
How should we prepare? I think the best way to get ready for this major shift is to work on chatbots. Before using voice recognition in a complex dialogue with the clients you need to work on designing and processing quality conversations. Building chatbots will help you learn how customers interact, what language they use, what traps to avoid, … Using chatbots in claim management will not be easy. I believe insurers will start with easy frequent claims and only focus on parts of the process as I mentioned earlier. Then it will be possible to evolve step by step towards more complicated cases. Renaud Million CEO and co-founder of Spixii says his startup will address simple claims.
This is huge and exciting and some actors already started to climb the hill. It’s time to move on those subjects !
Don’t hesitate to post a comment or contact me for further discussion