The world of claims management is facing a major transformation, dictated by the need for Companies to adapt to the needs of an increasingly demanding clientele and to reduce operational time and costs. In particular, Insurance Companies are offering hybrid experiences in order to offer highly personalized services to a diverse customer base. Investments have focused on the claims handling process in order to reduce time and improve the service offered to customers. In the future, new investments are expected aimed at more accurate loss estimation as well as a higher level of prevention.
Specifically, to date, Insurance Companies are increasingly seeking to manage claims through the adoption of sophisticated new technologies in order to create high-level Customer Experiences. Therefore, customer data (whether master data or claims data) collected through the use of tools of Advanced Analytics, IoT and Machine Learning play a key role in the processes of the claims management purpose of offering quick and easy services to its customers. In addition, tools such as the claims orchestrator have made it possible to facilitate the internal processes of claims management relieving insurers of time-consuming and low-value-added activities.
Analyzing the type of claims, it emerges that 80 percent of these represent property damage, with an average value of about 2,000€ and an average resolution time of 41 days. On the contrary, there are fewer claims with microinjuries (within 9 p.i.) (19%) characterized by larger amounts (10,000€) and longer timeframes (104 days); only 1% represent macroinjuries (over 9 p.i.). These have amounts of about €120,000 and resolution timelines of about 145 days (see chart).
Focusing on the customers, it is observed that 82 percent of the policyholders who have reported claims to their insurance company are over 41 years old, while the remaining 18 percent are young adults and the very young. In all likelihood, the latter appear in a smaller percentage because policies are not infrequently taken out in the name of their family members, who are de facto the actual policyholders.
This last fact takes on considerable relevance when analyzing the different stages of claims management. In fact, the physical channel is mainly used for the reporting and claim opening stages, demonstrating that most customers still prefer the traditional channel where both human interaction and the one-to-one relationship with their insurer are crucial, recognizing the importance of the human-first context in such a sensitive circumstance as a claim. The omnichannel approach is still limited.
However, the use of digital tools has helped speed up processes, especially in the motor line of business compared to the P&C and life lines of business. Average recorded times were calculated for the three insurance lines, and in order to avoid variability of cases affecting the final result, the average time weighted on the number of files for all stages of the claims management (complaint, opening, damage assessment and settlement). With reference to the latter index and considering the complaint stage, there are 7 days for the P&C branch and one day for the life branch. While the average times recorded are shorter in the life and motor lines of business. In the latter sector, an insurer handles an average of 990 files, in contrast to the life branch, which has an average of 130 files.
At the claim opening stage, the P&C branch takes an average of one day to carry out this activity, while 21 days are allocated to the life branch, which counts the same amount of time if the average timeframes recorded were taken into account. However, the lowest number of files (133) is handled in this branch compared to 663 in the P&C branch.
Regarding the analysis of the damage assessment phase, both indices for the timeframe are 37 days in the life line of business, which decreases in the motor line of business to 13 days. In the last mentioned sector, an operator handles an average of 246 files, while in the P&C branch an average of 90 files are handled.
With regard to the last stage of claims management, i.e., claim settlement, the P&C branch has the shortest timeframes, both in terms of average recorded timings (3 days) and at the level of average time weighted on the number of files (6 days). In contrast, the motor branch has 5 days for the average recorded timings and 12 days for the average time weighted on the number of files.
In general terms, therefore, it can be said that the support of technology is increasingly a crucial factor for Companies, as it ensures a decrease in the time taken to manage the various stages and promotes greater customer service.
Investments in the area of Digital Claim s are aimed at reducing the number of claim handling days and improving the level of service offered to customers. However, a new wave of investment is expected in the area of technology that will improve the damage estimation stage and the level of prevention offered to customers.
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