How Insurance Companies Can Support eClaims

The insurance industry is on the verge of massive growth, with a recent study projecting $600 billion in revenue growth by 2030. But that growth hinges on the industry keeping up with the times — and the times are demanding digitization. Even before the pandemic upended the way companies did business, consumers were already hungry for ways to interact with brands digitally, and the IDC was already predicting that, by 2022, 80% of an organization's revenue growth will depend on digital offerings and operations. But when the pandemic shuttered businesses and made paper-based and face-to-face interactions impossible, the trend toward digital went from a perk to a necessity.

The digital expectation for eClaims

Consumers can now conduct almost all of their business online, from booking a salon appointment to buying a car to purchasing a home. These consumers all interact with insurance at some level — whether personal or commercial — and they expect the same seamless, accessible, digital experience in this arena as in all the other arenas of their lives.

Unfortunately, the insurance industry has lagged behind other industries in the race to digitize. Part of this is understandable. As an industry, insurance requires a massive amount of documentation, which has historically required an equally hefty amount of paper and face-to-face interaction. But the pandemic proved that document-based does not have to equal paper-based, and that switching to a digital-first experience can not only improve customer customer satisfaction, but also improve employee experience and the company's bottom line. 

Why insurance companies need a fully-digital eClaim process

For companies looking to create a digital experience that improves the lives of their customers and employees, there is no better place to start than the claims process. For most people, insurance is a necessary but grudging purchase, something they'd not prefer to interact with at all. Filing a claim might be the only time a customer interacts with their insurance company, and the process is usually unpleasant, mired in endless back-and-forths with claims adjusters, filing and signing paper-based documents that wind their way slowly through the system. This can be resolved by turning claims into eClaims — digitizing, automating and streamlining a process to make it as easy on both the customer and the claims agent as possible. Claims can transform from a pain point to an opportunity, helping companies meet customer needs as never before.

Companies can use existing technologies to digitize all claims-related documents and create flows that sort them into categories that ensure the fastest resolution. Customers with fairly standard, straightforward claims can be sent straight to an automated system that allows them to submit documents through a central app or website and track the claim's progress through the system — all without having to talk to a single claims agent. For slightly more complicated tasks, a customer might get sent to a chatbot, which can answer their questions or send them along to a designated team of live agents who can help with a particular issue. Specialty claims can be sorted directly to a team selected to deal with difficult claims, thereby reducing workload and increasing efficiency all-around — making customers and employees happy and boosting revenue for the company.

But the eClaims process goes far beyond digitizing documents and workflows and can encompass the entire claims experience. A customer who gets into a car accident, for example, can use an insurance app to take pictures of the damage and send it to the claims adjuster, who can view it and assess the damage with the help of AI-based technology. And instead of customers having to notarize their claim documents in-person, insurance companies can use a platform like Notarize to give their customers a more convenient, digital process for submitting claims.

Creating a digital customer experience is no longer optional for insurance companies. It's do or die. Creating a seamless eClaims process is an opportunity to capitalize on a huge competitive advantage while giving customers an easy, convenient experience that they’ll appreciate — especially when dealing with the event that required them to submit a claim.