InsurTalk: The future of claims with Bill Brower, Vice President Industry Relations at Solera, Inc.
Recent statistics from Price Waterhouse Coopers say that 41% of insurance customers are likely to switch insurance providers due to dissatisfaction with their carrier’s digital capabilities. It has posed a challenge to the insurance sector on how to make customers loyal and how to improve their digital experience with claims.
Our guest offers a new approach to that problem and believes that the processes insurers use haven’t adapted to the capabilities of the new technology implemented by the carriers.
Ewa Banaś: IT Insights InsurTalk: interviews with insurance leaders about what matters to the industry. Hi, my name is Ewa Banaś, and I’d like to welcome you to the first episode of the IT Insights InsurTalk series by Future Processing, straight from London.
Recent statistics indicate that 41% of insurance customers are likely to switch providers due to dissatisfaction with their provider’s technical capabilities. This poses a challenge for insurers regarding customer loyalty and maintaining a high-level experience.
Today, my guest is Bill Brower from Solera Inc., Vice President of Industry Relations, control loss expert, and claim consultant. Great to have you here, Bill.
Bill Brower: Very good to be with you. Thank you for having me today.
Ewa Banaś: What brings you to London today?
Bill Brower: I’m here for the InsurTech Europe event. I look forward to participating in a couple of panels, and my company, Solera, has a number of activities scheduled. It sounds like a plan, and by the way, my brother is in town, so we’re going to get a chance to get together this week while we’re both in London.
Ewa Banaś: Those kinds of opportunities don’t come by often. In terms of your insurance experience, what’s your story? How did it all start?
Bill Brower: My story is a bit interesting in that my father owned an auto collision repair shop. Growing up as a teenager, I was learning to repair cars, bang out fenders, and paint. From there, I learned about estimating damages and became an appraiser.
I then spent about 28 years between two insurance companies, Nationwide and Liberty Mutual, leading claims through a number of different roles. More recently, I joined LexisNexis Risk Solutions, leading the claims group there, and then most recently joined Solera.
Ewa Banaś: And what is Solera, actually?
Bill Brower: Solera operates in four key areas. First is vehicle insurance claims; we are the largest provider of estimating solutions globally. Secondly, we are in the repair space, providing software for body and mechanical shops for damage assessment. Third is Vehicle Solutions, servicing auto dealerships with end-to-end software and providing underwriting data for risk assessment.
Finally, we have a Fleet Group handling end-to-end solutions for the trucking and heavy equipment industry. We are operating in over 100 countries today.
Ewa Banaś: It seems like you have a mission to complete. I also heard that recently you yourself were involved in the claim process as a customer. Could you tell us more?
Bill Brower: Yes, my daughter, a college student, got into her first accident recently. Fortunately, she was fine, but I took care of the claim for her. My experience in 2022 was no different than it would have been in 1995.
There were many handoffs, no AI used for the damage estimate, multiple trips to the shop, and multiple conversations. It was surprising to see that the process hasn’t changed in all those years.
Ewa Banaś: That’s saddening, considering the acceleration we’ve seen, especially recently with COVID-19.
Bill Brower: Exactly. During COVID-19, we were forced to move to digital. Virtual estimating went from maybe 10% of claims to almost 100% overnight. Customers loved it because they got estimates and repairs faster.
That will go down in history as the tipping point for digital claims and automation because consumers decided they wanted that self-service experience.
Ewa Banaś: Where are we with it now?
Bill Brower: We’ve made great progress. Consumers are comparing the insurance industry with their Amazon experience or other digital platforms. They are asking why they can’t get that same type of service.
I’ve noticed at Home Depot that most customers prefer the self-service registers over the personal ones. Customers don’t necessarily want to lose the human touch, but they have become conditioned to expect digital capabilities.
Ewa Banaś: You mentioned self-service and customers inputting data. How do you mitigate the risk of “input fatigue”? The more info I have to put in, the less happy I am.
Bill Brower: The key is to avoid typing. Think of it like an Amazon experience where you pick choices rather than typing. I envision a future claim where a person has a QR code on their insurance card. You hover over the QR code, and it identifies you. Then the customer is prompted to take a picture of the license plates involved.
Data from those plates can identify the owner and insurance information, pre-filling the administrative questions. The customer only needs to answer key questions, like selecting a repair shop or a rental car.
Ewa Banaś: Where are we with the current state of AI in claims?
Bill Brower: AI provides more capability for the claims professional; we will always need them. AI eliminates the friction of handoffs. It takes away the task work so the customer doesn’t have to tell their story again and again to different people. It streamlines the process and allows us to handle complex claims faster.
Ewa Banaś: Customers want automation, but they also need to feel there is a human being.
Bill Brower: Absolutely. Surveys show that customer experience scores are extremely high when there is a hybrid solution – a digital application with a person available if you get stuck. Young people might want to do everything digitally, but others might want to speak with someone about the impact on their premiums.
Ewa Banaś: The pandemic proved we still need contact with other human beings.
Bill Brower: Exactly. My recommendation to insurance leaders is to “test and learn.” Instead of changing the entire company at once, carve off a small area or market and try digital solutions with real, actual claims rather than fictitious lab claims. This helps get employee buy-in and dials in the right combination of digital and human interaction.
Ewa Banaś: You mentioned technology is only one component of a successful touchless claim implementation.
Bill Brower: Yes. We have a tendency to bolt technology onto legacy processes, which creates more problems. You need to start with the customer at the center and redesign the process around them using automation.
A recent JD Power study showed some backlash against digital, and I believe that is because technology was “bolted on” rather than used to redesign the experience.
Ewa Banaś: Regarding touchless claims, are there legislation or regulatory issues when scaling to other regions like Poland?
Bill Brower: That’s something we research. Some markets have requirements, such as a vehicle needing a personal inspection if damages exceed a certain amount. In the US, we have 50 states with different insurance departments.
Many states had 30-year-old laws requiring personal inspections, but most are now updating regulations to adopt AI capabilities. As long as the industry shows these solutions benefit the consumer, countries and states are generally adopting them.
Ewa Banaś: Thank you, Bill, for this interview. One final question: what will you be eating today in London?
Bill Brower: I think I’ll need to try a local dish! I’m looking forward to that and seeing my brother.
Ewa Banaś: Enjoy your evening. And thank you to our audience for listening. Visit us at it-insights.tech to dive into our podcasts, webinars, and events.