"The possibilities are endless" - Barry Street discusses the impact of the digital revolution on claims function

Barry Street, Head of Engineers at Covéa Insurance joined a panel debate on 5th March at The Insurance Network Strategic Claims Conference in London to talk about how the digital revolution might transform the role of the claims function.

Having won an Insurance Times Technology Award for “Best Use of Technology to Improve End-client Experience” last October for the integration of ActiveWeb and Customer Self Service technology, Barry is well-placed to discuss the impact of the digital revolution on the claims function and how insurers could be harnessing the power of technology to drive significant improvements in customer service and the claims experience.

Barry sets out the three key areas in which he believes technology will have the greatest impact on the claims function:

“Over the next ten years we will continue to see an increasing use of technology being integrated into areas of everyday life, most people own a smartphone and the possibilities are endless, we have the power to design customer service and claims experience around available technologies.

Covéa Insurance has already found that by seamlessly integrating digital technology into the claims process we can significantly increase customer satisfaction and reduce costs as well as claims cycle times, this can only improve if we can continue to stay ahead of the technology curve.

Three key areas in which I can see digital technologies having a significant impact on the claims experience are; obtaining a quote, validation and the claim process.

The ability to obtain fast, tailored insurance quotes on the go could possibly be greatly enhanced through integration with smartphones. Your phone contains a wealth of data about your lifestyle and habits and this information could be used to supplement other sources of data and be processed almost instantaneously to retrieve tailored quotes which could be purchased at the click of a button.

Validation could be made simpler with the use of voice, facial and fingerprint recognition technologies, all of these could be linked to your policy for instant verification when making a claim via your smartphone.

Digital technologies could have the most significant impact when it comes to making a claim. Your smartphone could be connected to your vehicle’s computer which could instantly detect when an accident happens and send an automatic message to your insurer notifying them of a serious incident. The insurer could immediately arrange a recovery vehicle and replacement car to be despatched to the scene and provide you with real-time updates on how long you will have to wait –and could even advise you on where you might wait for help, like a local coffee house!

Insurers must continue to keep up to date with changing technologies – the digital revolution could allow us to design some truly innovative features that will enable us to provide ever higher standards of customer service.”

-Ends-

About Covéa Insurance

Covéa Insurance Plc is the UK underwriting business of leading French mutual insurance group Covéa (which includes the global reinsurer PartnerRe since July 2022). 

Covéa Insurance looks after the insurance needs of UK customers, across a range of product lines; delivering financial reassurance through its Standard & Poor’s ‘AA- stable’ rating, as a guaranteed subsidiary of Covéa.  

Covéa Insurance has a strong people and service ethos and holds ServiceMark accreditation with Distinction for its Personal Lines operation and its Commercial & HNW Claims teams, as well as Chartered Insurer status for its Commercial business. Covéa Insurance is signatory to the HM Treasury Women in Finance Charter and the insurance Inclusivity Pledge and has been named one of the top 75 employers in West Yorkshire & the Humber. In 2022 Covéa Insurance was named Insurer of the Year at the British Claims Awards and Personal Lines Insurer of the Year at the Insurance Times Awards.