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For Insurers, Ad Hoc Doesn’t Have to Be Difficult

Published Date
Author Mary Featherstone

Cell phones and claims correspondence

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

By: Ruth Fisk, VP of Industry Marketing, Insurance at Smart Communications

Today, most of us carry more computing power in the palm of our hands than all of NASA had back in 1969 when it sent two astronauts to the moon, and yet despite this, most insurers are still saddled with labor-intensive, manual processes to create ad hoc claims correspondence experiences.

The number of smartphone users in the world today is 3.8 billion

Modernization in insurance is slow and difficult, with many systems that must be updated in order to truly deliver on the experiences that we as always-on, real-time consumers expect in every interaction.  While many insurers have done their best to build digital façades in order to appear to be a digital-first organization for their claimants, behind the scenes, many of their processes – including the creation of claims correspondence – is still riddled with age-old structured and methodologies.

Years ago, to describe claims communications the industry coined the term “ad hoc correspondence.” By definition, ad hoc loosely describes the significant number of one-off pieces of correspondence that may be created in claims operations on any given day.

However, claims professionals would likely agree that the synonyms that explicitly describe ad hoc are even more fitting:

impromptu · improvised · rough and ready · makeshift · make-do · cobbled together · thrown together · jury-rigged · quick and dirty · as the need arises · when necessary · when needed

Still prevalent today are legacy communication tools that leverage manually created, word-based or other outdated word processing tool templates, stored in individual files or on network shares to accomplish their “ad hoc correspondence” needs.  Claims professionals have become so accustomed to – and quite frankly don’t even think twice – about using this approach because it gives them the freedom to “roll their own” ad hoc letters.  However, these outdated tools expose a claims organization to higher operational costs and increased liability exposure for noncompliance:

  • Content control within templates is critical as the wrong message can create significant risks to the insured.
  • Redundancy in template content often makes the selection of proper templates overwhelming and increases the costs of maintenance and control.
  • Claims correspondence is always created because of some adjudication activity that occurs in the claims administration system, yet legacy solutions have limited integration capabilities available.
  • Claims administration systems lack the interactive correspondence capability which most carriers require.
  • Coordinating communication across all interested/active parties is arduous. Adjusters must prepare correspondence with the claimant, agent, third-party service providers, investigators, witnesses, medical providers and contractors.
  • Legacy communication tools do not provide the customer-centric approach required in today’s insurance environments, leaving claims professionals that create impersonal experiences for their customers.

 

The insurance industry is focused on delivering personalized digital experiences to improve its customer-centric approach.  However, archaic processes still exist in claims operations which make it difficult to manage the creation of real-time two-way conversational communications without the proper solutions. The ultimate interactive claims correspondence solutions, like our Conversation Cloud, achieve the perfect balance between a business user’s flexibility and critical organizational control and auditability.  Claims professionals will be asking why they didn’t make this change years ago!

With the proper tools – ad hoc doesn’t have to be difficult.

Modern conversation platforms provide interactive, real-time, two-way conversational capabilities that enrich the customer experience, enable faster claims resolution and ensure compliance – all while increasing the claim adjuster’s productivity and improving their job satisfaction. Migration tools are accessible to reduce the time required so you can retire those antiquated tools quickly.

What are you waiting for?  Start having SMARTER conversations today.

Smart Communications can help you with your digital journey.  We’ve long been recognized by all major analysts (Gartner, Forrester , Aspire and IDC ) as a Leader & Innovator in enterprise-scale Workflow & Content Automation (WCA) & Customer Communications Management (CCM) – including Aspire’s 2021 assessment which rates Smart Communications the #1 leader in the industry.

Contact us to learn more!