Already familiar with EagleView Technologies' aerial roof measurement reports, a large, national insurance carrier learned about the company's wall report and was eager to try it out for claims that involve damage to siding or windows.
The carrier's field claims manager explained that often they would receive claims that not only were for roof damage but also included damage to the siding or windows. "We were using the EagleView roof reports for the roof measurement, but the claim would be slowed down by having to send a person out to the house to manually measure the siding or windows," he explained. When he learned about the ClaimsReady™ wall measurement report that is produced using EagleView's patented 3D technologies, he wanted to learn more and determine how implementing this technology would impact his company in terms of time, efficiency and from a financial perspective.
EagleView agreed to work closely with the carrier to study a sample of 1,200 closed claims and evaluate the results. EagleView wall measurement reports were generated for each of the properties. The carrier also decided to re-measure the properties by hand to double check the original accuracy. To accomplish this, they engaged their own national CAT and re-inspection teams.
In evaluating the results of the original adjusters' hand measurements, the EagleView measurements, and the new, double-checked hand measurements performed by the CAT and re-inspection teams, the carrier was able to determine that the adjusters were more likely to over measure 79 percent of the time with an average overage of 10.87% or 239 square feet per claim.
For a typical claim, it can take a few days for an adjuster to visit the property to collect measurements, meet with the owner and begin the estimating process. The use of EagleView wall reports, when ordered at first notice of loss, produced process improvements that resulted in a shortened claims cycle and better experience for the property owner.
The numbers from the study show a definite positive financial impact for the carrier. With an average over measurement of 239 square feet, 79 percent of the time, 948 of the 1,200 properties in the study were measured inaccurately. For purposes of this study, the cost of two dollars per square foot will be used to calculate costs. If 948 properties were over by 239 square feet each, this represents 226,572 square feet over. Multiply that by the estimated cost of two dollars per square and the overpayment equals $453,144, or $377 per claim.
There is some cost savings associated with not having to pay the adjusters for time spent measuring but that is going to be transferred into the cost of purchasing the EagleView report. For this study the average time spent measuring was 37 minutes per structure with a cost of $15.54 for time, based on a $25 per hour rate. Using these numbers, the total cost for adjusters to hand measure the 1,200 properties in the study was $18,648. After calculating in the EagleView report costs compared to the time savings it was found that the true ROI comes from the savings realized by paying claims based on accurate measurements. By subtracting the $18,648 adjuster payment cost from the $66,000 report cost, the carrier had a net increase of $47,352.
For this study, had the carrier made the additional $47,352 investment to purchase EagleView reports on every property, they would have saved $405,792 that was overpaid on these claims. This equates to $338 saved on each claim — a significant return on investment that convinced the carrier of the value of using EagleView wall reports for every exterior damage claim.
Needless to say, the carrier is now using EagleView roof and wall reports on every claim. In addition, they are now able to complete a few more claims per day but for them it's more about the safety, customer satisfaction, reduced inspection time, quality of the measurements and the accuracy.
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