Insurance policies provide great value to policyholders, but insurance companies fail when they communicate with their customers. Their failure is the result of insurance companies not engaging with their customers.

There are typically three events when insurance companies communicate with their customers:

Each of these events is critical to the relationship. Today there are many cost comparison websites claiming to find the best price for insurance. In this post, I will focus my comments on the second event. This is the event that we hope will not come but is the reason why we pay an ongoing fee for insurance, to help us recover from an accident or loss. Just consider that when you pay several hundred dollars periodically for insurance, it is similar in some ways to put that money into a piggy bank. And, the day of the emergency, I really just want to break the piggy bank and take out my money to replace the damage.

But, what actually happens with most insurance policies is that you have to explain, justify, and demonstrate that you really had a loss and need this money to cover the damage. The insurance corporations don’t just trust you. They require that an “expert” must come to your place or to see your car or home to perform an estimate.

The estimation is not friendly; the estimator doesn’t want to discuss the accident or the claim or hear about the value of a beloved car or carpet. He is the expert who will tell you its value.

Think about the last time you filed a claim for some damage to your car or home. You most likely had to call your agent, who was friendly and made some notes about the loss. Then, a day or two passed and you were contacted by the adjuster who needed some additional information. Of course, the missing information required you to repeat what you told your agent when you had filed the claim initially. No, you are not done yet; the adjuster then makes an appointment to see the damage. Of course, you will need to have someone available to open the door (or the car) and show him the damage. More time passes and you finally receive the estimate which is not the amount you had expected. After a week of pain (best case), you can now get a repair technician to start the repair!

So think about a variation on this scenario; instead of having to arrange a time to meet the adjuster to see the damage in person, what if you could show the damage live using your mobile phone, the same day? Just imagine that he could capture all of the information including pictures directly during your video session. This eliminates the need for an on-site appointment with an adjuster. The simplicity and time savings are amazing.

But, there was one interesting revelation from a SightCall customer last week. I was surprised when I heard that the biggest value from live video claims was not found in the time and money-saving. He told me “the main benefit of your solution is the customer engagement in the claim process. Now that our customers are part of the estimate, they can show what they believe is important. And, by being involved they are not surprised by the estimate, are much happier, and are significantly less likely to dispute the estimate.”