Consumers enjoy the shopping experience and the chance to reduce costs, but not all features are replaced.
Self-serve homeowners insurance apps can help consumers and insurers alike to cut costs, and can create a shopping experience people enjoy, but while they are shaking up the industry, they haven’t yet reached the point that they can do everything.
The manual claims process continues to exist even as applications increase available features.
According to a recent LexisNexis Risk Solutions study, 93 percent – the vast majority – of homeowners insurance companies feel that self-service apps are having a substantial impact on the way they do business. Today’s consumer is able to use mobile devices to conduct inspections and take measurements.
The most common way the self-service apps are used by policyholders, according to the study’s findings, is as a tool in assessing damage to make a claim. Insurers have reported that while these digital tools don’t completely eliminate the manual claims filing process, they can help to speed up the process while reducing costs. Moreover, it can make the experience more appealing to the consumer, as people will often choose to do things themselves in order to achieve a faster outcome.
Among the homeowners insurance digital tools used are new home measurements and virtual inspections.
New customers can use self-service apps to conduct the inspections and obtain the measurements necessary to complete the process of applying for coverage. These are also highly used features, according to insurers.
Moreover, 89 percent of carriers are currently seeking to make policy buying experience improvements. Among them 70 percent are investing in the buying process in order to achieve that goal. Beyond enhancing the experience, insurers also want to use these investments for boosting their profitability while slashing the expenses associated with underwriting.
“While digital disruption to the home insurance buying process was already on the horizon, the pandemic accelerated carriers’ needs and consumers’ demand for virtual interaction,” said LexisNexis Risk Solutions Senior Director of Home Insurance George Hosfield in a recent report discussing the impact of homeowners insurance apps. “Carriers that have not already implemented investments in automation need to act now to catch up to market leaders. We see from this study and our 
conversations; it’s just the tip of the iceberg. Carriers have the opportunity to improve the customer experience by using the intelligence at their fingertips to reduce time and expenses, maximize efficiencies, and better know their customers, the risks, and the return opportunities.”
