This month’s Modern Insurance Magazine featured our Director of Product, Pete Thompson as part of the editorial panel.

Pete was asked about digital solutions, and turned his attention to the benefits of our new damage assessment app – here’s the article in full:

From your experience, which digital solutions are currently having the biggest impact on your processes and operations?

 As an accident management specialist, we often look to technology to create a smooth, efficient claims journey. Getting things right first time is a key focus, as we know it makes a dramatic difference to the customer experience.

 Looking for ways to enhance our processes and operations is a core part of our technology strategy, and the development of our product road maps.

 A great example is our recently launched damage assessment app – Direct Deploy. It guides policyholders and third parties to take images of vehicle damage, and automatically uploads them to our claims management system, triggering the next stages of the process and identifying the appropriate repair method for the vehicle.

 It’s a web-app, so there’s nothing to download. The user simply follows a link and they’re taken to a fully branded app, tailored to fit the communication strategy of our partners. The app is very flexible, and we work with insurers to build it into the claims journey at the appropriate time for their policyholders.

 We’d previously asked customers to send images by email, yet this wasn’t always possible, or we may have had to go back to a customer to request additional pictures. However, our findings show that the web app gives customers a greater feeling of control over the process, increasing their confidence in the overall repair journey.

 By providing consistent, usable images, the app is really helping to streamline our processes. For example, images combined with damage descriptions provides much richer information, and this is having a positive impact on ‘right first time’ decision making at triage. The images also support repairers in creating an estimate, and enable the opportunity for early parts ordering to avoid the costly impact of parts delays. It also helps us to identify total loss vehicles earlier, improving the customer journey and preventing these vehicles from being sent to a body shop unnecessarily, where they would take up valuable repair capacity.

 We can also identify more vehicles with minor damage suitable for mobile repair. This is a great benefit, as policyholders love the flexibility of one-day repairs at a time and place to suit them. Plus, mobile repair can knock days off the claims journey, removing the need for a courtesy car and saving plenty of time and cost.

 The introduction of this digital tool is certainly enabling us to update and improve processes across our operation, driving a smoother, more efficient claims journey for our customers and their policyholders.

 Head to https://moderninsurancemagazine.co.uk/the-magazine/ for comment and insight from across the insurance industry.