The LexisNexis 2021 “Way forward for Claims Report” released recently found customers less pleased with the noninjury auto claims experience overall compared to 2021 but nevertheless more supportive of virtual claims handling compared to what they were 2 yrs ago.
The results suggest that insurers virtual claims handling techniques such as photo estimating or perhaps completely touchless claims — fully automated, AI-driven processes — will probably continue following the end from the COVID-19 pandemic. But “insurance companies have some try to do in order to keep your industry on your journey to a future of touchless claims,” LexisNexis wrote in an a May 3 news release.
“While the past year has proven to become a great awakening for claims automation, we're now at a crossroad, and what will set insurers apart is a complete claims handling digital transformation and move from traditional to touchless,” LexisNexis U.S. auto claims strategy V . p . and study author Bill Brower said inside a statement. “As we look ahead to 2025, the industry should be optimistic that we will soon see a day once the vast majority of claims is going to be processed virtually. But it will require effort to obtain there.”
The study reiterated author Brower’s predictions out of this winter that 80 percent of claims is going to be virtual — handled remotely by minimal insurer staff — in 2025. Up to 50 percent could be “touchless” — potentially completely automated.
LexisNexis said the pandemic pushed an automobile insurance industry handling less than 15 % of auto claims handled virtually to become one handling nearly 100 % of them online, according to its conversations with insurers.
“Now, approximately annually later, virtual claims handling has settled to some level of just a little over 60%, illustrating that although individuals are getting confident with automated processes, insurance carriers have some work to do in order to keep your industry on your journey to a future of touchless claims,” LexisNexis wrote in the May 3 news release.
Brower told an A.M. Best webinar May 26 he didn’t know if it would even take four years to reach the 80 % figure again. “I think it’s coming just a little quicker,” Brower said.
Brower predicted that 50 % of noninjury claims would be reported using a customer self-service tool like an app. The research found consumers who had filed claims throughout the COVID-19 pandemic were not as likely to want more human interaction in future non-injury claims. Instead, they’d would rather use more self-service.
Brower said the proceed to virtual claims handling appeared to be something “consumers much appreciate.”
The “Future of Claims” study educates repairers on which kind of moods and attitudes they may find among customers as this virtual claims handling trend persists. The study also provides shops perspective on how to refine a shop’s own virtual offerings — such as a scheduling or in-house photo estimating app — to suit customer tastes.
LexisNexis surveyed 1,750 consumers between ages 25-65, 1,000 of which had filed claims previously 2 yrs. Out of those, 284 had filed a claim during the COVID-19 pandemic. The percentage of all these customers declaring themselves “very satisfied” with a noninjury auto claim fell from 67 percent to 54 percent between 2021 to 2021, based on the 2021 study.
“Survey results were down somewhat,” Brower said on the A.M. Best webinar. He known as the results “type of surprising.”
Brower attributed the decline to consumers being more familiar with digital products. The research predicted consumers have higher expectations that such tools will be easy to use.
“Many indicated dissatisfaction with some of the tools, designed for more complex claims,” LexisNexis wrote in a news release. “To enhance the customer experience with self-service claims, the study reports that timeliness, lowering the quantity of touchpoints, and making use of features like data prefill would be the regions of focus for carriers.”
Allstate claims director Sandee Lindorfer told the webinar that customers expect what they’ve seen from existing all-digital industries. “They’re craving and wish that same experience,” she said. Carriers must keep the customer the main thing on their actions, she said.
Brower told the webinar the “human touch” is important — but consumers don’t want to speak with many people when they don’t have to. The study said it found that customers “don't see any significant improvement within the number of ‘touches’ or people involved in their claims process in the last two years.”
Though the proportion of extremely satisfied customers fell by double digits compared to 2021, consumers were more likely to feel various benefits existed in automated claims handling than they did 2 yrs ago, based on the survey results.
“I believe I was most surprised that each metric improved,” Brower said, talking about a chart of consumers being asked when they agreed that various benefits existed.
The largest gains arrived the percentages of consumers feeling that automated claims yielded “ncreased transparency” and “ncreased accuracy.”
Brower highlighted his surprise at the thought of a precision benefit. He linked this to the perception of transparency — the client has a record of communications on factors such as the claim amount or timing. ”
He also suggested that one might view information as accuracy “because it’s digital.”
He observed that in situations where something’s texted to him or reported in an app, “I don’t question that it’s valid. … It feels more accurate in my experience as well.”
We asked Brower recently if he could speak more about the thought of accuracy, for repairers complain that the initial estimate written off photos tends to be less accurate than a single produced in-person.
“We did not ask customers any queries specific for their perception of accuracy with virtual claims,” Brower said in a statement. “However we did ask customers who used a ‘self-service claims option’ for submitting photos/documents the way they would rate their satisfaction with submitting photos/documents for their most recent claim? The response summary included 334 respondents across all age groups was 94% satisfied. Breaking this by generation all exceeded 90% and ranged from 92%-95%. .”
Customers also overwhelmingly expressed these were confident with an automatic claims process when they knew they could reach an active person when they needed it — as well as millennials preferred to obtain that option.
“Level of comfort increases much more substantially among those who've recently submitted claims,” LexisNexis wrote of three demographics.
It’s also interesting to note that the majority of two from the three demographics studied would still be comfortable with the process even when they had no accessibility “human touch.” As well as 45 percent of boomers said they too would be very or fairly comfortable going completely touchless.
The study also found the 3 demographics agreeing their claims process was fast. However, “younger generations in particular think too many questions are asked.”
53 percent of millennials and 39 percent of Generation X agreed strongly or somewhat that insurers asked a lot of questions. For boomers, the proportion was just 13 percent.
As the report observed, better data prefill might be helpful here. But however, LexisNexis also found consumers more worried about data privacy than in 2021.
“Our studies have shown that as consumer preference for self-service claims processing increases, so their concerns about security,” LexisNexis wrote. “More than 60% from the consumers we surveyed expressed concern around the security of the personal identifying information when submitting claims virtually. This really is consistent across generations. Concerns about hacking have raised an average of five percentage points since 2021.”
“I’m not suggesting anyone has a problem,” Brower said. But he said LexisNexis desired to encourage the insurance industry to consider data security.
