Solving poor claims journeys in the Netherlands
In the Netherlands, customers needing to repair a car after an accident are sent by insurers to body shops based on a postcode listing and asked to send in the invoice at the end of the process.
“There is little to no attention paid to the remaining parts of the customer experience. This often leads to claims journeys that are impersonal, ineffective and very expensive,” explained Stephan Stergiou, co-founder of OpenClaims.
Stergiou is one of more than 20 startup founders discussing the insurance market at the annual Intelligent InsurTECH conference on October 3 in London. Click here to find out more.
He added that while insurers are great at covering risks, there are numerous opportunities to improve personal attention during the repair process.
OpenClaims provides customers with an easy online estimate of their damage, to save them a trip to a body shop.
The startup then finds the best suited body shop for the customer’s damage based on capacity, expertise, estimated time of repair, price, distance, quality of repair, and quality of service.
“We assist insurers, brokers, and intermediaries to offer their clients an easy, intuitive, and distinctive claims journey while digitising the workflow and optimising procurement at the same time,” said Stergiou.
According to Stergiou, the startup was founded because of his passion for great customer experiences.
“In insurance, especially in the field of claims and repair management, there are opportunities to improve. In addition, I felt that we could challenge and assist insurers to lower out-of-pocket claims costs by changing their repair procurement model,” he said.
The co-founder hopes that OpenClaims will help insurers, brokers and intermediaries worldwide with digitising and optimising their claims and repair journeys.
Insurers have begun to take advantage of new technology, but it’s still not up to the level that Stergiou believes is required.
“Insurance companies are big entities that are slowly changing themselves towards the future,” he added.
Stergiou is optimistic, however—he stated that some insurers have “empowered” themselves with new technologies to make them “future-proof” and to provide customers with personal attention and a high level of service, while lowering out-of-pocket claims costs.
OpenClaims is one of more than 20 insurtech startups attending Intelligent Insurer’s Intelligent InsurTECH conference on October 3 in London. Click here to find out more.
