How heavy rains can ruin insurers’ reputation

Climate change is a reality, and its effects are impacting practically every country in the world. We’re experiencing droughts, colder winters, hotter summers, and of course, increasingly common torrential rains. This is something may have seemed fairly uncommon several years ago, but has now become relatively normal in some areas. 

All these events affect us more or less directly, depending on the area. However, in the case of Europe, there is something that we are experiencing more and more and that is torrential rains.  If we talk about them, we have to think about the material damage that these phenomena can cause. Basements full of mud, broken walls, and damp, lots and lots of damp. The damage is sometimes bigger, sometimes smaller, but there is no doubt that damp can be a real problem for homeowners and residents alike. This is not just an issue of aesthetics either, it can also cause unpleasant smells and even lead to health problems. 

Therefore, dealing with this quickly and efficiently has to be a real priority for insurers. Although, as we have already seen on more than one occasion, in the case of heavy rains this is not always possible because the main problem is that many people are affected within a very short period of time. This ends up affecting the reputation of the insurers since they are able to respond to the policyholder immediately. 

So, how can an insurer deal with water damage caused by heavy rain without negatively affecting its reputation? 

How torrential rains can ruin insurers’ reputation

1. The importance of a good caution plan 

These type of events are becoming more and more frequent and despite the fact that they are alerted to them, not all insurance companies are prepared to manage all the claims and incidents they receive. This means that having a defined contingency plan detailing how to proceed in such situations and which experts should intervene, is key to a good resolution process. For example, a call-center with agents capable of responding immediately to all calls that they may receive in a very short period of time. The goal? That every policyholder is able to contact the company and that they are not left unattended, enabling them to see that the insurer is there to help them.

2. Have expert agents.

In these situations, in which policyholders may be a little nervous, it is important to have agents who listen to them and reassure them that a quick solution to their claim will be found.

3. Rely on technology to manage high customer demand. 

As important as the human touch is providing solutions and tools that help these agents to process all claims in a much more agile way. For example, Visual Intelligence solutions such as Bdeo's help insurers to quickly send an SMS to the policyholder so that they are able to send evidence of water damage, while answering a few brief questions via a chatbot. This means that agents receive the images of the evidence directly and can process them in just a few minutes, identifying the severity of the damage, and enabling them to asses if a professional needs to go to the property repair the damage directly, without the need for unnecessary intermediaries. 

With these three key points in mind, it will be much easier for insurers to manage this type of meteorological phenomena and prevent their reputation from plummeting because they are not able to respond to their policyholders. Now it is your turn to answer, is your company prepared for these serious phenomena?