Prepare for the virtual home insurance revolution with a mobile claims app
Now is the right time for providers to make essential processes, like claim assessments and home inspections, contactless via a virtual app.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, home insurance claims apps had little to no traction. At Mobiquity, we saw insurance companies approach this concept in many different ways, but user adoption remained stubbornly low. On average, less than 5% of insured homeowners file a claim each year. And within that small percentage, we see less than 5% of policyholders use the app to file that claim.
Since the pandemic, however, many insurance companies have asked our team about revisiting their previously failed claims apps. As states reopen, many people still want to stay as safe as possible and limit their direct contact with others. So, now is the right time for providers to make essential processes, like claim assessments and home inspections, contactless via a virtual app.
There’s no better time to build an app
An app requires an investment of time and resources. But even so, now is the right time to develop a mobile claims app or revise an existing one. Why? Because insurance providers have a unique opportunity to test the efficacy of a claims app on a large base of eager users searching for contactless solutions.
And there are several other reasons why providers stand to benefit from app investment right now:
1. A mobile claims app improves your ability to fulfill your mission.
Technological benefits aside, a claims app perfectly aligns with the insurance industry’s mission: keeping customers safe. Giving policyholders every possible option to stay safe when they engage with your business shows you truly care about their well-being. The simple truth is that many policyholders won’t feel safe with an adjuster conducting an inspection in their home for some time due to the social interaction it requires.
It’s also important to recognize that a growing number of policyholders expect these service options. Between curbside pickup, contactless delivery and virtual doctor visits, policyholders know the technology exists to execute a virtual experience — and they’ll increasingly want it across all service providers.
2. Policyholders are more willing to try an app right now.
The need to socially distance and stay home has sparked an increase in app usage across many industries. Take banking apps, for example. Before the pandemic, our friction report — a report that highlights which mobile app features are important to users — showed that the typical customer installed a banking app primarily to pay bills. But since the pandemic, new users are primarily installing banking apps to deposit checks, reflecting a desire to deposit at home instead of at a branch. We also saw a substantial increase in first-time users for these types of apps — people that never installed a banking or financial app are trying them out for the first time.
These app usage trends reflect a consumer market that’s more willing to use app solutions outside of their typical needs and a readiness to try something new. Policyholders would be thrilled to use your app right now and could potentially become lifelong users the more they engage with it. Consistent traffic will also unearth valuable insights you can use to improve your app over time and optimize its capabilities.
3. Technology is improving at a rapid rate.
If you introduce an app now, you need to realize it probably won’t be perfect. However, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t lay the foundation now because technology improves quickly year over year.
For now, your app will probably still require some form of human interaction. The most viable setup for insurance-related apps parallels the telemedicine approach — policyholders could book an appointment with your adjuster to walk through a claims inspection remotely. However, there’s technology on the horizon that will ultimately enable a customer experience requiring no human interaction.
For example, many car insurance providers are already using photo technology to process virtual damage claims for minor accidents. Using an app, customers snap and submit pictures of the damage to their vehicles, reducing the amount of time required to process a claim. This technology, while currently limited to small car damage, is constantly improving and could be adapted to home claims in the near future.
Another promising development is Hover, an app that transforms photos of a residential home into a scaled, digital 3D model for home improvement projects. In the future, insurance adjusters could use this technology to accurately evaluate before and after images of outdoor damage to a home. Although this process would require the policyholder to submit a picture model of their home prior to the damage the technology could significantly improve the way home claims are filed over time.
Policyholders count on their insurance providers to keep them safe. A virtual claims app shows that you care about your policyholders’ safety during the COVID-19 pandemic. By meeting your policyholders’ need for safety now, you can take advantage of their openness to app technology and lay the foundation for your company’s participation in the upcoming revolution in virtual insurance claims.
Brian Levine serves as Mobiquity’s VP of strategy & analytics, in addition to running Mobiquity’s insurance vertical in the United States. At Mobiquity, he has developed digital strategies for multiple insurers, including Amica, Arbella, Mercury, and Travelers. In addition to his work in this vertical, Levine has pioneered research products at Mobiquity that look at clients through new lenses, including developing the Mobiquity Friction Report ™ which uses large sets of consumer sentiment data to prioritize digital development based on consumer interest. Prior to his role at Mobiquity, Levine founded a consumer research company acquired by Nielsen in 2015 and led the development of Audible on Alexa for Amazon. The opinions expressed here are the author’s own.
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