Smale, along with Jim Pittman, managing director of insurance agency Stream Claims Services and Steven Richford, managing director of cleaning service Richfords Fire & Flood, agreed that smart technology could be used to carry out early assessments of smaller claims in future – but that’s where the buck should stop.
Pittman said: “There is no doubt in my mind that the smart technology will enable more ‘self-serve’ and smaller claims. On larger claims, it is about the communication and the human element.”
Richford said: “Smart technology is going ahead at quite a pace, but the claims process is a human process and therefore what the technology may be able to do is to help with communication issues, but I do not think it is going to revolutionise the human interaction.”
And Smale said: “I think you have to be careful as an insurer not to imagine that the application of smart technology is going to cure a damaged or broken process.
“So, the first thing is to make sure you have optimised the process without smart technology and then see where the opportunities are to improve an already optimised process.”
The trio agreed that the service needs to be tailored to the customer rather than forcing them down a particular route.
Smale added: “It is very important to make sure that you are not driving customers down a particular route because you have invested in some particular kind of amazing technology. You still have to answer the phone or a written letter with the same efficiency and preciseness.”
“We have all seen, particularly when call-centre technology came into the industry, how we all suddenly decided that customer service would be so much better if customers could ring these great big call centres. But customers didn’t like it and frequently had to subvert the process to get the answer they wanted.”
