How insurance firms can harness the video revolution

According to YouTube, every day people watch more than a billion hours of video, generating billions of views. Cameras are everywhere, including our cars.

With more and more people submitting videos as part of their claims investigation, insurance carriers are in a unique position to work with tech companies to harness the video revolution in service of their customers.

For example, CSAA Insurance Group has partnered with technology startup Owlcam, makers of a security and safety dash cam designed for cars and trucks. Owlcam features include:

• Always-on dual cameras: forward-facing and in-cabin;
• 4G/LTE connectivity for real-time updates delivered to via mobile phone; and
• Easy installation.

CSAA Insurance Group is the first major U.S. property & casualty insurer to leverage Owlcam’s Video First Notice of Loss (vFNOL) feature, which gives customers the option to utilize Owlcam’s Crash Report feature to open an insurance claim directly from the Owlcam mobile app.

Our customers love video. It gives them the opportunity to show us their side of the story in unbiased, vivid color. Adjusters love it as well. They become the witness at a loss event.

From the claim agent’s perspective, video is a source of truth: seeing what actually occurred is invaluable. It also reduces anxiety for insureds, and it helps adjusters make speedy decisions, which ultimately leads to reduced overall cycle time and a better overall customer experience.

And there’s a wealth of data-rich information that we’re now getting upfront. This creates opportunities for providing exceptional customer service.

But, it also represents a huge shift in the way insurance carriers need to think about doing business. We need to tackle some hot topics before the industry can successfully take on the video revolution. We need to re-imagine processes, thinking more holistically to make it easier for customers to submit video. We have to better enable adjusters to view video and communicate with customers. We need to make sure we have secure and compliant ways of storing and accessing video.

Working together, Owlcam and CSAA Insurance Group learned how to receive video and how to communicate back and forth with this digital information. We’ve not only figured out how to house and organize video, but we’ve figured out how to make it compliant with industry standards.

In the past, after an accident, the claims process began with a phone call to an insurance customer service agent. We have already seen a significant shift in claims reporting to digital channels, and we are just starting to see assisted and automated claims reporting led by the rich context of in-vehicle video.

The faster we get the information from an accident scene, the faster we can get the customer on the road, and the faster we can get the vehicle into pre-loss condition. All of that leads to greater customer satisfaction.

And isn’t that something we all want?

Cal Hankins is vice president of Claims at CSAA Insurance Group. Gary Clayton is CEO of Owlcam. These opinions are the authors’ own.

See also:

• Using analytics to drive claim outcomes
• Leveraging AI provides a road map for claims executives
• Claims automation: The generational divide