The claims stage is critical in the insurance customer lifecycle, acting as a moment of truth in the provider’s ability to serve the client as promised. Because it can often be an emotional experience for customers, insurers that value a seamless experience need to prioritize efficient and effective first notice of loss (FNOL) intake.
If your insurance technology stack is outdated and siloed, this is easier said than done. Simple, easy-to-manage FNOL operations must have collaboration among teams, digital availability for customers, smooth transition between human and digital interactions, and readily available documentation all while facilitating faster settlement, positive customer experience, low risk of fraud, and reliable SLAs. Getting past internal roadblocks built up over years of acquiring new technology and possible M&A activity can be challenging and hinders the potential for efficient FNOL operations.
To overcome these challenges, insurers should look to embrace digitized FNOL processes. Here are three tips to get you started.
1. Unify systems.
One of the biggest culprits of fragmented FNOL workflows is disjointed, outdated technology that wasn’t built to work with other systems. Closed off solutions leave data siloed and employees lacking critical information to make informed decisions at the start of the FNOL process.
To better equip staff with the customer data they need, unify systems with an FNOL solution that seamlessly integrates systems without data migration. Having all relevant information at their fingertips will allow your staff to act more quickly to process FNOL. This kicks off the claims process more efficiently while still minimizing the risk of fraud by keeping staff informed and giving them a comprehensive picture of the customer in an easy-to-digest view.
2. Simplify workflows.
Simplified workflows start with a digital foundation. Identify where your current FNOL process is stifled. Does the intake process take far too long or is it only available in a single channel? Offering digital channels for your customers makes it easier on them and provides a more accessible experience. It also opens the window for simplified triaging with new technologies to ease the work needed from staff at first intake so the claim can be routed quickly.
3. Automate processes.
Make it easier for your customers to report FNOL through digital channels such as web forms or chat bots in a customer portal and analyze their loss reports with artificial intelligence (AI), intelligent document processing (IDP), and robotic process automation (RPA). Increase touchless processing capabilities for low-value, low-risk claims while automatically routing high-risk ones to the appropriate staff.
This powerful combination of automation technologies increases efficiency throughout the claims process, improves compliance efforts, boosts both employee and customer satisfaction, and ultimately, increases revenue.
What to expect from your claims FNOL process solution.
Not all claims and FNOL solutions can provide insurers the flexibility they need to optimize processes. Look for a solution that offers these features and benefits:
- Omni-channel capabilities: Your FNOL solution should enable customers to report claims anytime, anywhere, including SMS/text, WhatsApp, email, chatbots, and more.
- Built-in automation: Native intelligent document processing (IDP), robotic process automation (RPA), and artificial intelligence (AI) are a must to extract both structured and unstructured data from claims documents and emails, which accelerate intake, duplicate checks, coverage verification, correspondence generation, and appointments scheduling.
- Claims intake and setup: Real-time, 24/7 monitoring and processing of incoming losses from various channels. Data prefill enables quick claim setup in the claims system for investigation and settlement.
- Accessibility: Easy access to services based on loss type, including reserving rental cars, arranging a tow, scheduling an estimate, providing repair options, notifying the repair facility, and more is key to customer satisfaction.
- Plays well with others: Your solution should be open with integrations and APIs to easily connect with existing legacy systems and third-party data sources, no data migration needed.
- Fraud detection: Generate claim scores for early fraud detection.
- Ease of use: Touchless processing capabilities for low-dollar-value claims increase straight-through processing and improves employee satisfaction.
- Document storage: Store and file all documents in a document management system and make them available on demand.
- Workflow queues: Have customized queues for different claim types, regions, and complexities.
To learn more about the benefits of an FNOL solution and how it can help you level up your claims experience for your customers, take a look at my full perspective in Facilitate Faster Time to Close with Accelerated FNOL Operations.
