This post is part of a series sponsored by CoreLogic.
The property insurance industry’s first event of the year, CoreLogic’s second annual INTRConnect, was held in Austin, Texas, bringing together more than 1,200 passionate professionals from across the property insurance and restoration industries. The event was a hub of excitement where underwriters, claims experts, InsurTech providers, property restorers and many others gathered to explore the latest advances in the field. Expert speakers, educational sessions, insightful exhibitions, collaborative role-based breakout sessions and must-see networking opportunities were just some of the highlights of this truly unforgettable event!
We have compiled the five best insights from this year’s INTRConnect. From inspiring talks on the main stage to insightful discussions in the breakout sessions, read on to discover the takeaways from the event.
1. Focus primarily on life outside the buildings.
Customer focus is the best way to future-proof your business – regardless of your role in property insurance. Ultimately, your business is about helping people—whether you’re managing the claims process on the carrier side or involved in project restoration projects that enable individuals to settle back into their homes after a disaster. When you focus on customer satisfaction and deliver empathetic, personalized experiences, you keep people—and their business—trusting you.
When you focus on life outside the buildings and not on the processes, everything else falls into place. For example, providing an excellent customer experience requires the use of sophisticated technologies to get the job done faster and more accurately. Additionally, companies must prioritize employee retention and internal growth opportunities to ensure customers are always working with their best, most experienced and compassionate professionals.
Customer focus is especially important today as people pay higher premiums for their insurance policies than ever before. They expect to be able to carry out certain measures digitally and expect quick processing times for questions and requests. This requires insurance carriers and recovery providers to approach customers with empathy and do as much as possible virtually. Integrating innovative technologies into workflows is now a must to run a customer-centric business.
When you get to the heart of the functions in the property insurance and restoration industry, one of the themes of INTRConnect 2024 is “People Helping People.” If companies take this to heart, they will be the best companies they can be.
2. Collaboration is key to advancing your company – and the industry.
The overarching theme of INTRConnect 2024 was “Building Tomorrow Together.” As Garret Gray, President of CoreLogic Insurance Solutions, said in his opening remarks, “It takes all of us to advance our industry. Industry-wide collaboration enables the exchange of ideas and sparks innovation in how to help people.”
Collaborating with people outside your company, including competitors, can help spread your good ideas and have a positive impact on your customer base. This can create a domino effect that ultimately benefits a larger number of policyholders. Additionally, seeking advice and adopting best practices from others in your industry can also help your own business succeed.
Collaboration is also crucial in the day-to-day logistics of your business. Working in a connected, collaborative ecosystem allows customers to come first. In such an ecosystem, everyone who touches a claim – underwriters, claims experts, property restoration companies and everyone else involved – all work with the same data set and have the tools to communicate consistently throughout the lifecycle of a claim. This allows everyone involved to keep their customers informed with consistent and accurate information, even during times of greatest need.
Different stakeholders must act as partners and view each business case as a joint investment that delivers shared benefits. Partnerships rely on regular communication to establish these goals.
Instead of trying to do everything, it’s important for companies to know what they’re good at and when to rely on partners to provide it. For example, a great insurance company typically won’t also be a great technology company. Service providers must work with technology provider partners to implement sophisticated technologies so they can better serve their customers.
As phenomena such as climate change and new levels of digital transformation continue to transform the world, collaboration is required at both macro and micro levels.
3. Use AI; It is here to stay – and grow.
Last year, AI – artificial intelligence – exploded into public awareness. As Garret said in his keynote, AI is “two little letters with a big impact.” And it doesn’t go anywhere. Its presence will continue to grow and have a greater impact on the way we live, work and play. Don’t be afraid of AI. Instead, accept it. Discover how it can transform your business.
There are many benefits that AI can bring to the property insurance industry – from underwriters to claims experts to property restorers and everyone else in between. As AI algorithms process massive amounts of data, AI enables insurance and recovery professionals to efficiently make accurate, objective and data-driven decisions and develop strategies taking all relevant factors into account.
AI is central to CoreLogic’s product vision. In the coming years, AI will transform processes across the entire industry. This will lead to more accurate risk assessments and therefore better pricing for insurers. AI technologies will streamline claims processing and enable repair costs to be determined by analyzing photos of property damage. AI can also analyze data to predict specific weather risks so insurers can better prepare their policyholders. With AI-driven insights from customer data analysis, insurers can develop personalized products. Companies will also be able to use AI capabilities to understand the emotional context of customer conversations to help employees better tailor their responses to policyholders.
Throughout the event, speakers emphasized that AI will create opportunities for people. Rather than displacing employees, it will transform their jobs – enabling them to do more of what makes them uniquely human. This allows employees to focus more on the human side of the company.
4. For good AI you need good data.
There is no question that AI will transform the property insurance industry. And you need high-quality data for AI to work as intended.
It is data that trains the AI models to perform certain tasks for us. Therefore, it is critical that these models learn from a complete set of high-quality data. Data is only objective when it is part of a complete and accurate set. Therefore, you must have good data sources and a good data footprint for AI to be successful in your business.
If you’re working with a technology solutions provider to implement AI into your workflows, make sure you’re working with a company that has access to great real estate data. For example, CoreLogic’s AI solutions are trained on the industry’s most comprehensive set of real estate data. On average, CoreLogic has approximately 3,700 data points for every single residential property in the United States.
5. When implementing new technologies, you need an organizational change management strategy.
From the Great Resignation to inflation, in addition to the increasing frequency and severity of natural disasters, each year brings new phenomena that force shippers and contractors to do more with fewer resources. Integrating data and technology solutions to streamline workflows is becoming essential for organizations that need to meet growing demands amid workforce challenges and increased work volumes.
To be successful with new technologies, companies must have a plan for comprehensive implementation and successful use of new solutions. In other words, they must have an organizational change management strategy, which is “the process of leading organizational change to a successful solution…” [typically involving] three main phases: preparation, implementation and follow-up.”[1]
An important part of organizational change management is achieving company-wide buy-in. For example, a new technology will not produce the expected results if employees across the company do not use it appropriately. Speakers at INTRConnect talked about different ways they are inspiring their employees to embrace change with new platforms and solutions.
Organizational change management is becoming increasingly important as companies increasingly have the need to leverage advanced technologies, including artificial intelligence. Technology won’t magically change your business; To be successful with new platforms and applications, you need to plan and get everyone involved comfortable with the changes.
Focusing on the future
INTRConnect 2024 focused on the future – what lies ahead for the property insurance ecosphere and how all industry players can position themselves for success alongside their peers and colleagues.
We hope that our findings have shed some more light on the extremely successful event. Also, be sure to register for next year’s INTRConnect, taking place January 13-16, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. To register and receive more information about sponsorship, click here.
[1] https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/organizational-change-management
© 2024 CoreLogic, Inc. All rights reserved. CoreLogic® and INTRConnect® are registered trademarks of CoreLogic, Inc. and/or its affiliates or subsidiaries.
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2024-02-20 20:43:31
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